communication. community. cognition.
Posts tagged Kung Fu
Philosophy of Retreat
“It’s said ‘If you’re being run out of town, you should jump in front and call it a parade’; sure, you get to carry the biggest stick, but you’ve made it easier for your enemies to stab you in the back.”
Home Field Advantage
Mar 19th
“Never get into an argument with a guy who buys ink by the barrel — unless you can keep the fight on your patch of pixels!”
Inspired by BlogMaverick Mark Cuban and
NY Times sports editor Tom Jolly.
Three Essences of Writing
Jan 31st
Good writing sometimes happens by accident — but writing well is a function of discipline and purpose. Know what you want to say, know what you don’t want to say, and get there with minimum delay.
My Kung Fu background introduced me to a conscious outlook: that every person exists in three realms, the physical, mental, and spiritual. I say “conscious” outlook because deep down I already felt that way, just never expressed it as such. Our connection to those realms involves the three parts of our person: body, mind, and spirit. Perhaps no single spiritual or religious tradition can “own” that thought, as it exists in so many cultures and histories.
Extending the notion to the process of writing, we have three planes of comparison, three axes by which we can measure improvement.
Physical writing: More than just the layout of the words on the page, the physical aspect of writing is revealed in the way it sounds as you were to read it. Short sentences set tone. Punctuation dictates. Rhyme, rhythm, and meter matter. Even unspoken, the visceral nature of the written word may echo in the mind of the reader.
Mental writing: Beyond mere words, this is the exercise of deciding which concepts must introduce your grand conceit – which ones bridge as evidence – and which ought to close the argument. The selection of individual words for both denotation and connotation is part of the mental realm.
Spiritual writing: Good writing informs, great writing elevates. Often, it does so through the use of analogy and metaphor. The introduction of a concept through the prior understanding of something else builds up the reader instead of tearing him down. It also stretches the most out of communication – like teaching a child about a parallelogram by showing a rectangle that leans.
Good writing stands out. Great writing sneaks up on you; it makes you smarter and wiser, it inspires without calling attention to how. Great writing pleases the ear, the brain, and the soul.
(Thanks to Rich Becker for the post that got me thinking…)
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, writing, Kung Fu, language[/tags]
Un-Rutting
Jul 17th
Patterns are good things. When we tune in to them properly, we can process information faster and more efficiently. We can make predictions. We can detect anomalies. But if we aren’t careful, we let the patterns imprint us with ruts that get in the way of real thinking.
I was reminded of that tonight while teaching Kung Fu. I had a handful of Novices tonight, who had a decent level of experience with a sequence I developed. It’s a series of stances and kicks that flow one into another, impressing the importance of ensuring you’re in the right stance to deliver a particular kick. After the sequence, there is a simple reversal that starts back the opposite way with the opposite feet.
Tonight, I changed the order a bit. I swapped out the thrust kick for the stepping side-kick, along with the appropriate stances. I had more than one Novice point out that “it was uncomfortable coming down in this stance from this kick, and wouldn’t it be easier to do it this way?” Of course, they were right. It was easier to do it their way – because for so long it was the only way they had practiced.
My takeaway? I’m going to be more attuned to the patterns that I’ve allowed to become rote. Maybe if I can mix things up in the office, I’ll see things a little differently. Maybe I can try to do more wirelessly, from the conference room overlooking the city. Maybe I can change my e-mail/news monitoring habits, and get something different accomplished first thing in the morning.
If something is uncomfortable, it might be because it is completely wrong. Then again, it might be you’ve just let a pattern harden your possibilities. A little discomfort might just be the prescription for a problem you didn’t know you had.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, education, self improvement, Kung Fu[/tags]
Proof of Concept
Apr 17th
Have you ever had one of those ideas that you thought were really cool, and inspired — and you were certain would never work? Maybe it’s the complexity, such that execution is never perfect. Maybe it’s the sheer number of things that could go wrong, or the consequences if they do. Or maybe it’s just that the idea is so simple, you worry there’s no way it could work. Oh – there’s also the fear of failure… that gets in the way too.
Sunday afternoon, my four-year-old daughter wanted to go outside and do some Kung Fu. Not the Spongebob Squarepants “kah-rah-TAY!” variety, but actually some of the Kung Fu she sees daddy teaching out the window on Tuesday nights. She is obviously too young to learn much of value, and I’ve already slipped in a couple of concepts that might help protect her. Still, I was waiting for her to get a little older before asking so determinedly, and has such had to rely on an old answer: logic.
When I used to do presentations for Junior High and elementary kids, I’d invariably get asked about my hobbies, or what I did for fun. In one case, I knew the teacher, who took it upon herself to let the class know that they needed to behave because I knew “Kung Fu.” The natural response for a middle-school student is “Show us some Kung Fu!” — which would lead to the whiteboard for a lesson in logic. More >
