When Polly wants a cracker, Polly eats a cracker. But the million-dollar question is not whether parrots and humans can act out their inner desires - the question is whether they can choose their desires in the first place. Why does Polly want a cracker rather than a cucumber? Why do I decide to kill my... Continue Reading →
Two Quotes from Søren Kierkegaard
I came across two quotes from Kierkegaard recently, from two very different sources. It was quite a coincidence, and I thought that it must have been a sign. Here's the first, which funnily enough came from a book on IT leadership, called A Seat at the Table, by Mark Schwartz: If I were to wish for... Continue Reading →
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I finished reading the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera a couple of day's back Loved it (mostly). It reminded me of what it was like to live a life that was lighter, not weighed down by expectations; que sera sera. Just thought I'd like to share a couple of passages from the book. Emphasis... Continue Reading →
Are you what you write? (or, Machiavelli the playwright)
I just watched a documentary on Niccolò Machiavelli. You may know him as that scheming, deceitful, and generally rotten guy who wrote the political bible The Prince. So infamous is he that his name has become an adjective synonymous with evil. Just see what Merriam-Webster has to stay about being "Machiavellian": suggesting the principles of conduct laid... Continue Reading →
Fast Cars
With a light press of the accelerator, the car effortlessly sped up. Without my realising it we were now a little over the speed limit. It was odd how slow it felt. The cabin deathly quiet as the car stoically glided along. Flashback 10 years: driving in Perth in the 小金车 (xiao jin che or... Continue Reading →
Do not give me a gift of which I desire
A little note about happiness, from the book Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari: If I identify happiness with fleeting pleasant sensations, and crave to experience more and more of them, I have no choice but to pursue them constantly. When I finally get them, they quickly disappear, and because the mere memory of past pleasures... Continue Reading →
The Run
We act very much as if we were on a voyage. What can I do? I can choose out the helmsman, the sailors, the day, the moment. Then a storm arises. What do I care? I have fulfilled my task: another has now to act, the helmsman. If the weather is bad for sailing, we... Continue Reading →
Winning first place without ever being first
Or: what I learned from playing too much DiRT Rally (one of my favourite rally racing games.) So here's the context: I'm playing "career mode", in which I buy a car, hire a couple of engineers, and go out to race. In order to win the championship, I have to have the best time across... Continue Reading →
Thinking About Life
Maybe it's do with the weather of late - cool, dreary, wet; or maybe it's to do the long runs I've been doing - lonely, peaceful, contemplative. Whatever it was, I've been thinking about life - about how it has been; about how it is now; and about how it is going to be. I... Continue Reading →
On meritocracy, luck, and giving back
Kottke's post on meritocracy, a concept that I had in my younger days considered infallible, reminded me that even those of us who have worked hard and achieved so-called "success" have much to owe to "luck". Even the smartest, hardest working, most beautiful of us all, would likely have not fared well, had we been born... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 