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Archives for January 2015

A Timeout from Busyness // Book Summary of Pico Iyer’s ‘The Art of Stillness’

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Escape from the Mayhem

Our everyday lives are so busy. Our days are so full. Our world is so noisy.

We fill our lives with activities. We are at the mercy of our commitments. We have an incessant need to be occupied. We hasten. We seek to do something—anything.

Often, our identities are defined by mere ‘doing,’ not ‘being.’ Many of us struggle to find a few minutes to just sit quietly and clear our heads. We cannot afford some space to think and just be. We hardly ever pause to contemplate our experiences or reflect on the life we’ve been missing in a world overwhelmed by distractions.

Distractions disrupt our peace. The French scientist and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in Pensees, “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries, and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries” and added that “the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”

To counter all of our exhilarating movement, we must balance it with an escape. We need space and stillness. When we remain still, we are struck by the realization that our noisy outer world is nothing but a reflection of our cluttered inner world.

Stillness: “Clarity and Sanity and the Joys that Endure”

Celebrated globetrotter and travel writer Pico Iyer’s “The Art of Stillness,” an expansion of his TED talk, is an inspiring analysis of the need to escape the persistent distractibility of the mundane. Iyer makes a persuasive argument for the startling pleasures of “sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it.”

Pico Iyer and his family lives in a modest home in the countryside near Kyoto without internet, television, mobile phones, or even cars.

The book’s promo includes excerpts from Iyer’s talk:

We all know that in our undermined lives, one of the things most undermined is ourselves. Many of us have the sensation that we are standing about two inches away from a huge canvass. It’s noisy. It’s crowded. And it’s changing every second. And that screen is our lives. It’s only by stepping back and holding still, that we can begin to see what the canvass means.

One of the first things you learn when you travel is that nowhere is magical unless you can bring the right eyes to it. I find that the best way I could develop more attentive and more appreciative eyes was, oddly to go nowhere … just by sitting still.

In the age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still.

The Importance of Taking a Timeout From Busyness

Subtitled “Adventures in Going Nowhere,” Iyer’s insightful 64-page book provides several examples of stillness in practice. Iyer gives us glimpses into the lives of a privileged few who have found peace.

For example, legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen discovered the supreme seduction of a monastic life. In 1994, after constant indulgence as an incessant traveler and international heartthrob, Cohen moved to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in California, embarked on five years of seclusion, served as an aide to the now-107-year-old Japanese Zen teacher Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, and got ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk.

Leonard Cohen had come to this Old World redoubt to make a life—an art—out of stillness. And he was working on simplifying himself as fiercely as he might on the verses of one of his songs, which he spends more than ten years polishing to perfection. The week I was visiting, he was essentially spending seven days and nights in a bare meditation hall, sitting stock-still. … Sitting still, he said with unexpected passion, was “the real deep entertainment” he had found in his sixty-one years on the planet. “Real profound and voluptuous and delicious entertainment. The real feast that is available within this activity.” … “This seems to me the most luxurious and sumptuous response to the emptiness of my own existence.”

Typically lofty and pitiless words; living on such close terms with silence clearly hadn’t diminished his gift for golden sentences. But the words carried weight when coming from one who seemed to have tasted all the pleasures that the world has to offer.

…

Sitting still with his aged Japanese friend, sipping Courvoisier, and listening to the crickets deep into the night, was the closest he’d come to finding lasting happiness, the kind that doesn’t change even when life throws up one of its regular challenges and disruptions.

…

Going nowhere, as Cohen described it, was the grand adventure that makes sense of everywhere else.

From the Mayhem of Thought & Action to The Stillness of Being

Iyer contends that the best place to visit in these frenzied, over-connected times is nowhere:

'The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere' by Pico Iyer (ISBN 1476784728) At some point, all the horizontal trips in the world stop compensating for the need to go deep, into somewhere challenging and unexpected; movement makes most sense when grounded in stillness. In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.

…

Going nowhere … isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.

…

It’s only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day. And it’s only by going nowhere—by sitting still or letting my mind relax—that I find that the thoughts that come to me unbidden are far fresher and more imaginative than the ones I consciously seek out.

Iyer’s “The Art of Stillness” isn’t a self-help manual and doesn’t give specific, actionable advice on how to achieve stillness. Quiet reflection and mindfulness meditation could move one’s mind in the direction of uplifting tranquility and natural stillness.

Idea for Impact: Occasionally, Try to Not Do Anything and Just Be

Take a break from your day to reflect, to recharge and to reassess. Take a vacation from your accelerated life. Just be with yourself, genuinely center, and quiet the mind.

You can achieve this centered state and contemplate when your exterior is noiseless. Then, during those still and silent moments you can come to terms with your experiences and struggles, your hopes and despairs, your ideas and judgments, your fears and fantasies.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. A Quick Way to De-stress: The “Four Corners Breathing” Exercise
  2. Co-Workation Defeats Work-Life Balance
  3. What Your Exhaustion May Be Telling You
  4. How Mindfulness Can Make You Better at Your Job // Book Summary of David Gelles’s ‘Mindful Work’
  5. Is Your Harried Mind Causing You to Underachieve?

Inspirational Quotations #564

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The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.
—John Quincy Adams (American Head of State)

Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.
—Frederick William Faber (British Hymn writer)

It must be hard to be a model, because you’d want to be like the photograph of you, and you can’t ever look that way.
—Andy Warhol (American Painter)

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.
—Madeleine Albright (Czech-born American Diplomat)

A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.
—Gian Carlo Menotti (Italian-born American Composer)

I wish I were either rich enough or poor enough to do a lot of things that are impossible in my present comfortable circumstances.
—Don Herold (American Humorist)

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one why it matters to read.
—Harold Bloom (American Literary Critic)

Every time you win, you’re reborn; when you lose, you die a little.
—George E. Allen (American Sportsperson)

The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.
—Carl Rogers (American Psychologist)

Obscurity in writing is commonly a proof of darkness in the mind; the greatest learning is to be seen in the greatest plainness.
—John Wilkins (English Anglican Clergyman)

If I had my hand full of truth, I would take good care how I opened it.
—Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (French Essayist)

True happiness must arise from well-regulated affections, and an affection includes a duty.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (British Children’s Books Writer)

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.
—Karl Barth (Swiss Reformed Theologian)

Bill Gates and the Browser Wars: A Case Study in Determination and Competitive Ferocity

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Competition Drives so much of our World Today

We live in a hypercompetitive age where winning is the outcome, often necessary for survival—in classrooms, sports, trade and commerce or at work. The archetypical successful person is determined, aggressive, and obsessed with winning at everything, sometimes at any cost. Of course, competition is healthy; but, winning may come at a hefty price—always striving to win or being overzealous can be both unnecessary and unproductive. Besides, collaborative or naturally uncompetitive individuals tend to find competitive people somewhat unpleasant.

History provides but a few vivid portraits of intense competition that compare to the mid-90s’ “browser wars,” a narrative characterized by the dogged determination and intense competitive spirit of some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs.

Bill Gates and Microsoft are legendary for using brute power: whenever a new competitor emerged, Microsoft would muster its financial resources and its smarts to storm into those markets with alternative products that would eventually dominate. Up until the dot-com bust, Microsoft not only out-competed Borland, Lotus Development, Corel, and other rivals that were previously in the lead, but also crushed upstarts such as Netscape.

“The Browser Wars”: Rise and Fall of Netscape

At the start of 1995, a new software called Netscape Navigator took the computing world by storm. Unlike primitive browsers, Netscape could display text and graphics on websites. Early web buffs eager to discover the marvel of the nascent internet were no longer restricted to downloading text alone. In addition, Netscape could render web pages on the fly while they were still being downloaded. Users did not need to stare at a blank screen until their dial-up connections loaded text and graphics.

Even more astounding was the fact that the upstart Netscape Communications, Netscape Navigator’s creator, had been co-founded by a 23-year-old programmer just a few months previously and seemed well-positioned to take advantage of the imminent consumer internet revolution. Netscape was on its way to an extraordinary 90% market share amongst internet browsers. What’s more: the company’s spectacular IPO was drawing near and was to start the dot-com boom.

Netscape’s meteoric rise could not escape the attention of the world’s dominant software company. Early in 1995, Microsoft was particularly occupied with finalizing Windows 95. Its launch, scheduled for August 1995, would prove to be the largest, most expensive consumer marketing endeavor in history. Moreover, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) had embarked on an intrusive investigation into claims of unfair business practices as alleged by Microsoft’s competitors.

While Netscape was capturing the Web browser market, Microsoft and Bill Gates had seemingly missed the paradigm shift created by the consumer internet. Financial and technology analysts wondered if Microsoft was destined to lose its supremacy over software. Microsoft could not wait on the sidelines and cede business opportunities in the upcoming consumer internet revolution.

Browser Wars: The Rise and Fall of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer

Bill Gates and Microsoft Jumped on the “Internet Tidal Wave”

Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and the Microsoft team were not to be trifled with. Microsoft simply could not afford to be the underdog. Its strategy was transformed entirely when, on 26-May-1995, Bill Gates wrote the groundbreaking internal memo, “The Internet Tidal Wave.”

Bill Gates deployed an extraordinary amount of capital and talent to battle for control over consumer internet. Just after the August-1995-release of Windows 95, Microsoft released an inferior Internet Explorer 1.0. In 1996, Version 3.0, matched the features of Netscape Navigator. Finally, in 1997, after bundling Internet Explorer 4.0 into Windows 95, Microsoft started to take a significant market share from Netscape.

In 1998, the DOJ and twenty US states alleged that Microsoft had illegally thwarted competition by abusing its monopoly in personal computers to bundle its Internet Explorer and Windows operating system.

By 1999, Netscape was an inferior web browser and quickly lost its dominance. The software’s market share dropped from 90% in 1996 to a meager 4% by 2002.

In subsequent installments of the browser wars, Netscape Navigator’s open-source successor, Firefox, regained market share from Internet Explorer. More recently, Firefox and Internet Explorer have had to contend with Google’s Chrome, which has grown to be the dominant web browser.

Microsoft Set Out to Destroy Competitor after Competitor

Historically, Microsoft has never been a substantial innovator. Instead, the company’s most famous strategy was to be a “fast follower.” The variety of rivals’ projects made no difference—competitors could pioneer anything from graphical user interfaces (GUI,) pointing devices, spreadsheets, word processors, browsers or gaming consoles and Microsoft would catch up in due course.

Consequently, the most important Microsoft products started essentially as copies of existing products made by competitors or upstarts that Microsoft was able to purchase early. MS-DOS evolved from QDOS, which itself derived from CP/M. Microsoft Windows was inspired by Apple’s Macintosh, which, in turn, had been inspired by a prototype mouse-driven graphical user interface that Steve Jobs had seen at Xerox PARC. Microsoft Excel borrowed from VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3. In addition to riding the coattails of bona fide innovators, Microsoft excelled in smart integration—it combined nifty functions and features into a single product or into a suite of easy-to-use tools such as its Office productivity software.

Microsoft’s Once-Invincible Strategy of Being a “Fast Follower” Wasn’t Sustainable

Alas, in the last 15 years, Microsoft’s “fast follower” competitive strategy has proven unsustainable. As its dominance in the enterprise world grew, Microsoft’s impressive financial performance relied mostly on its “old faithful” franchises. In fiscal 2014, the Windows operating system, Office productivity suite, and servers/cloud businesses contributed 78% of Microsoft’s revenue and almost all of the gross profit.

Despite the competitive ferocity of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and others at the company’s helm, Microsoft has been unable to return to its domineering ways in the internet’s recent mobile- and social-computing trends. In fact, Microsoft stumbled in category after category of consumer computing and technology, including search, social networking, phones, music players, and tablets. Google, Facebook, Apple—lead by entrepreneurs just as intensely competitive as Bill Gates—have soared ahead, altering the social-media-tech consumer experience.

Recommended Reading: If you like business history and entrepreneurial success stories, read ‘Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time’, Daniel Gross’s engaging profiles of twenty great American entrepreneurs: Revolutionary War financier Robert Morris, McDonald’s ‘founder’ Roy Kroc, Walt Disney, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, et al. For more stories of Bill Gates’s fierce competitive instincts, read Stephen Manes’s “Gates”.

Wondering what to read next?

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  2. No Amount of Shared Triumph Makes a Relationship Immune to Collapse
  3. Competition Can Push You to Achieve Greater Results
  4. Microsoft’s Resurgence Story // Book Summary of CEO Satya Nadella’s ‘Hit Refresh’
  5. How Johnson’s Baby Powder Got Started: Serendipity and Entrepreneurship

Inspirational Quotations #563

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I have condemned Khomeini’s fatwa to kill Salman Rushdie as a breach of international relations and as an assault on Islam as we know it in the era of apostasy. I believe that the wrong done by Khomeini towards Islam and the Muslims is no less than that done by the author himself. As regards freedom of expression, I have said that it must be considered sacred and that thought can only be corrected by counter-thought. During the debate, I supported the boycott of the book as a means of maintaining social peace, granted that such a decision would not be used as a pretext to constrain thought.
—Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian Novelist)

The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.
—Martin Heidegger (German Existential Philosopher)

Dreams say what they mean, but they don’t say it in daytime language.
—Gail Godwin (American Novelist)

There is a point where you aren’t as much mom and daughter as you are adults and friends. It doesn’t happen for everyone–but it did for Mom and me.
—Jamie Lee Curtis (American Children’s Books Writer)

The real price of everything is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
—Adam Smith (Scottish Philosopher)

Patience is also a form of action.
—Dick Sutphen

Love is an ocean of emotions entirely surrounded by expenses.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (Scottish Businessperson)

The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
—George Goodman (American Economist)

Most ball games are lost, not won.
—Casey Stengel (American Sportsperson)

The true and solid peace of nations consists not in equality of arms, but in mutual trust alone.
—Pope John XXIII (Italian Catholic Religious Leader)

Little deeds of kindness,|little words of love,|make our earth an Eden,|like the heaven above.
—Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (American Educator)

Love all. Serve all. Help ever. Hurt never.
—Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Hindu Religious Leader)

Dueling Maxims, Adages, and Proverbs

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Dueling Maxims, Adages, and Proverbs

Different Proverbs & Different Situations

The 17th-century Anglo-Welsh writer James Howell once said, “Proverbs may not improperly be called the philosophy of the common people.”

And the Spanish philosopher George Santayana once remarked, “Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.”

Maxims and proverbs condense humankind’s wisdom through the ages. Applied appropriately, proverbs are persuasive devices to convince others—through wit, humor, zing, irony, or bitterness—of implied wisdom and collective experience.

Proverbs tend to sound convincing—that is, at least until a contradictory proverb is evoked. According to American poet and essayist William Mathews, “All maxims have their antagonist maxims; proverbs should be sold in pairs, a single one being a half truth.” This discrepancy even appears in the Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament), as Proverbs 26:4 counsels, “do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.” In the very next verse, Proverbs 26:5 urges, “answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”

One of the pleasures of working with maxims, proverbs, and quotations is contemplating confirmations, counterparts, contradictions, and inconsistencies. In other words, it’s fascinating and helpful to examine how words might apply differently in various situations.

When used without qualification, proverbs sometimes cancel one-another out. The following compendium illustrates this phenomenon.

Contradicting Common Proverbs

“All that glitters is not gold.” But, “Clothes make the man.”

“Clothes make the man.” But, “Never judge a book by its cover.”

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.” But sometimes, “Leave well enough alone.”

“Wise men think alike.” But, “Fools seldom differ.”

“Haste makes waste.” But sometimes, “Strike while the iron is hot.”

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” But sometimes, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

“Misery loves company.” But, “The more the merrier.”

“The more the merrier.” But sometimes, “Two’s company; three’s a crowd.”

“What will be, will be.” But, “Life is what you make it.”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But, “Every little bit helps.”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But, “The devil is in the details.”

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” But, “Penny wise, pound foolish.”

“Repentance comes too late.” But, “Never too late to mend.”

“All for one and one for all.” But sometimes, “Every man for himself.”

“Blood is thicker than water.” But, “Many kinfolk, few friends.”

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” But, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.”

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” But, “Actions speak louder than words.”

“Ask no questions and hear no lies.” But, “Better to ask the way than to go astray.”

“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” But sometimes, “If you lie down with dogs, you’ll wake up with fleas.”

“Better be alone than in bad company.” But, “There’s safety in numbers.”

“Tomorrow is another day.” But, “Another day might be too late.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” But, “Don’t beat a dead horse.”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” But, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

“A silent man is a wise one.” But, “A man without words is a man without thoughts.”

“There is nothing new under the sun.” But, “There is nothing permanent except change.”

“The bigger the better.” But sometimes, “Good things come in small packages.”

“Look before you leap.” But, “He who hesitates is lost.”

“Don’t talk to strangers.” But, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

“Variety is the spice of life.” But sometimes, “Don’t change horses in midstream.”

“All good things come to those who wait.” But sometimes, “Time and tide wait for no man.”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” But, “Time and tide wait for no man.”

“A miss is as good as a mile.” But sometimes, “Half a loaf is better than none.”

“Don’t speak too soon.” But sometimes, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

“Money can’t buy you love.” But, “Romance without finance can be a nuisance.”

“Never do evil, that good may come of it.” But, “The end justifies the means.”

“If you want something done right, do it yourself.” But sometimes, “Two heads are better than one.”

“There’s no fool like an old fool.” But, “An old fox is not easily snared.”

“Divide and rule.” But, “United we stand, divided we fall.”

“It’s never too late.” But, “The early bird catches the worm.”

“The early bird catches the worm.” But, “Good things come to those who wait.”

“To thine own self be true.” But, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

“With age comes wisdom.” But, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings come all wise sayings.”

“Actions speak louder than words.” But, “It’s the thought that counts.”

“It’s the thought that counts.” But, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.” But, “Ask and you shall receive.”

“Birds of a feather flock together.” But, “Opposites attract.”

“Ask and you shall receive.” But, “Ask no questions and hear no lies.”

“Faith will move mountains.” But, “Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.”

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” But, “You’re never too old to learn.”

“Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” But, “Let sleeping dogs lie.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” But, “Take no for an answer.”

“Knowledge is power.” But, “Ignorance is bliss.”

“It never rains, then it pours.” But sometimes, “Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.”

“Better safe than sorry.” But, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” But, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“Silence is golden.” But sometimes, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” But, “Idle hands do the devil’s work.”

“Practice makes perfect.” But, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

“If one door shuts, another opens.” But, “Opportunity never knocks twice on the same door.”

“Don’t preach to the choir.” But, “Don’t cast pearls before swine.”

“Many hands make light work.” But, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

“Too many cooks spoil the broth.” But, “Two heads are better than one.”

“Don’t cross the bridge until you reach it.” But, “Forewarned is forearmed.”

“One size fits all.” But sometimes, “Different strokes for different folks.”

“The best things in life are free.” But, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“A good beginning makes a good ending.” But, “It’s not over till it’s over.”

“Hold fast to the words of your ancestors.” But, “Wise men make proverbs; fools repeat them.”

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Inspirational Epigrams by Oscar Wilde (#346)
  2. The Best of the Chinese Proverbs (Inspirational Quotations #362)
  3. The Wit & Wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: The Best 100 Maxims from “Poor Richard’s Almanack”

Books I Read in 2014 & Recommend

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Other than a number of Rick Steves’ books for my summer-long travels in Europe, here are a few books that I read in 2014 and recommend.

Even though I read few works of fiction, I read a number of Agatha Christie’s “Poirot” books, including the enthralling “Death on the Nile”. Christie describes her characters brilliantly with superb detail.

Books on Business, Operations, & Finance

Books on Skills for Success

Four Timeless Books I Re-Read Every Year

'Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits' by Philip A. Fisher (ISBN 0471445509) Benjamin Graham’s “Security Analysis”, Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor”, and Phil Fisher’s “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits” discuss two complementary schools of investment analysis. Graham’s quantitative approach to value investing comprises of buying stocks below what they are worth and then selling them once they are fully priced. In contrast, Fisher’s qualitative approach to growth investing considers the intangibles (products and services, management, competition, growth prospects, etc.) and paying a premium for growth. Graham’s and Fisher’s viewpoints are a significant part of Warren Buffett’s approach to investments. He’s described himself as “85% Graham, 15% Fisher” (I think Buffett is more “15% Graham, 85% Fisher.”)

Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is the granddaddy of all self-help books that spawned the self-improvement industry. I discovered that the 2011 update, “How to Win Friends and Influence People Digital Age”, references my blog article on the art of remembering names.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Books I Read in 2015 & Recommend
  2. Book Summary of Maria Bartiromo’s ‘The 10 Laws of Enduring Success’
  3. Book Summary of Nassim Taleb’s ‘Fooled by Randomness’
  4. Book Summary of Viktor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’
  5. Crucible Experiences Can Transform Your Leadership Skills

Inspirational Quotations #562

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Power intoxicates men. When a man is intoxicated by alcohol, he can recover, but when intoxicated by power, he seldom recovers.
—Sappho (Greek Poet)

Our mistakes from the past are just that: mistakes. And they were necessary to make in order to become the wiser person we became.
—Bill Maher (American Comedian TV Personality)

Do what you fear most and you control fear.
—George Bancroft

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than “politicians” think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas… that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.
—Michel Foucault (French Philosopher)

Sow a thought, reap an act; Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap adestiny.
—Anonymous

If you take risks, you may fail. But if you don’t take risks, you will surely fail. The greatest risk of all is to do nothing.
—Roberto Goizueta (Cuban Businessperson)

I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of “work,” because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don’t always want to do. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep.
—Andy Warhol (American Painter)

As long as one keeps searching, the answers come.
—Joan Baez (American Singer)

Lord Chesterfield on Multitasking: Singular Focus on a Task is not only Practical but also a Mark of Intelligence

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Our modern technological environment is largely to blame for our scattered attention. This age is saturated with information overload and electronic gadgets, accompanied by a societal expectation that people will respond immediately. As a result, the phenomenon of multitasking has grown dominant.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield The meaning of multitasking has evolved over time. Three centuries ago, perhaps it meant dividing one’s immediate attention between various intellectual pursuits or recreational activities, such as socializing and dancing or eating and drinking. At that time, a father who cared deeply about his son’s education wrote to the boy persuading him to maintain singular focus on any task.

The British statesman Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773,) was a renowned man of letters. From 1737 until his son’s death in 1768, the Earl of Chesterfield wrote instructive letters to his son on a wide range of subjects, including history, geography, literature, society, politics, and even conduct. Over 300 of Lord Chesterfield’s letters to his son, full of timeless wit and wisdom, were later published by the son’s widow as “Lord Chesterfield’s Letters” (free ebook at Project Gutenberg.)

Letters to His Son, by Philip Dormer Stanhope (4th Earl of Chesterfield)

On 25-Apr-1747 (the New Style date corresponding to the Old Style 14-Apr-1747,) the 4th Earl of Chesterfield delivered advice that remains especially applicable today: he encourages focus, engagement, being present, and staying in the moment.

I have always earnestly recommended to you, to do what you are about, be that what it will; and to do nothing else at the same time. Do not imagine that I mean by this, that you should attend to and plod at your book all day long; far from it; I mean that you should have your pleasures too; and that you should attend to them for the time; as much as to your studies; and, if you do not attend equally to both, you will neither have improvement nor satisfaction from either. A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure, who either cannot, or does not, command and direct his attention to the present object, and, in some degree, banish for that time all other objects from his thoughts. If at a ball, a supper, or a party of pleasure, a man were to be solving, in his own mind, a problem in Euclid, he would be a very bad companion, and make a very poor figure in that company; or if, in studying a problem in his closet, he were to think of a minuet, I am apt to believe that he would make a very poor mathematician. There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time. The Pensionary de Witt, who was torn to pieces in the year 1672, did the whole business of the Republic, and yet had time left to go to assemblies in the evening, and sup in company. Being asked how he could possibly find time to go through so much business, and yet amuse himself in the evenings as he did, he answered, there was nothing so easy; for that it was only doing one thing at a time, and never putting off anything till to-morrow that could be done to-day. This steady and undissipated attention to one object is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind. When you read Horace, attend to the justness of his thoughts, the happiness of his diction, and the beauty of his poetry; and do not think of Puffendorf de Homine el Cive; and, when you are reading Puffendorf, do not think of Madame de St. Germain; nor of Puffendorf, when you are talking to Madame de St. Germain.

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Inspirational Quotations #561

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How majestic is naturalness. I have never met a man whom I really considered a great man who was not always natural and simple. Affectation is inevitably the mark of one not sure of himself.
—Charles G. Dawes (American Head of State)

I’ve never run into a guy who could win at the top level in anything today and didn’t have the right attitude, didn’t give it everything he had, at least while he was doing it; wasn’t prepared and didn’t have the whole program worked out.
—Ted Turner (American Businessperson)

Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.
—Philip K. Dick (American Novelist)

Look before you leap; see before you go.
—Thomas Tusser

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.
—Nancie J. Carmody

Seven days without laughter makes one weak.
—Unknown

Healthy personalities accept themselves not in any self-idolizing way, but in the sense that they see themselves as persons who are worth giving to another and worthy to receive from another.
—William Glasser (American Psychiatrist)

I couldn’t wait for success… so I went ahead without it.
—Jonathan Winters (American Comedian)

I believe that dreams transport us through the underside of our days, and that if we wish to become acquainted with the dark side of what we are, the signposts are there, waiting for us to translate them
—Gail Godwin (American Novelist)

All humans are frightened of their own solitude. But only in solitude can we learn to know ourselves, learn to handle our own eternal aloneness.
—Han Suyin (Chinese-born Eurasian Novelist)

Ambition, old as mankind, the immemorial weakness of the strong.
—Vita Sackville-West (English Gardener)

The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.
—Alberto Giacometti (Swiss Sculptor)