The da Vinci Delay

“How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci”:

If there is one conclusion to be drawn from the life of Leonardo, it is that procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted — the things we truly want to do. Procrastination is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that we call genius.

From the February 20 Chronicle of Higher Education

Somewhat related: Elizabeth Gilbert’s excellent TED talk, “A different way to think about creative genius“

Jedi Bathroom Tricks

I’ve passed through Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport a few times in my travels. Unbeknownst to me, I have been experimented on each time…

The flies in the men’s-room urinals of the Amsterdam airport have been enshrined in the academic literature on economics and psychology. The flies — images of flies, actually — were etched in the porcelain near the urinal drains in an experiment in human behavior.
After the flies were added, “spillage” on the men’s-room floor fell by 80 percent. “Men evidently like to aim at targets,” said Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, an irreverent pioneer in the increasingly influential field of behavioral economics.

That’s pretty cool. I never knew this. This is the sort of thinking we need more of in tackling user-facing security problems. The biggest challenges aren’t math- people are the weak point in any system. If we can nudge people into doing the right thing, in any discipline, and amuse them along the way, we’ll have done the world a service.

Merlin Mann on Patterns

Merlin Mann’s talk at the recent MacWorld conference, “Toward Patterns for Creativity“, hits on several ideas and questions that I’ve been struggling with for a while, in various contexts.

How do we do things? Where do we get stuck? Is creativity something magical, or can we tease out some method/pattern/framework that can help guide and facilitate this sort of work?

There is his usual dry, geek-centric humor, with some useful and relevant self-reflection from this famed (now reformed?) purveyor of Productivity Porn.

Sunday Funnies

First, xkcd, on Voting Machines & Anti-Virus. Then, the other, angrier Bob, and a confrontation with emptiness.

How to Cook Your Life

Edward Espe Brown is the author of the Tassajara Bread Book, one of my favorites in the “Basics” kitchen literature category, right after my battered original copy of the Colorado Outward Bound School Cookbook. (Construction paper and cheap xeroxed pages…)

It’s very entertaining, and Brown has a great attitude about cooking and food. The book draws heavily on his experiences cooking at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, a gorgeous-looking place I’ve always wanted to visit.

Brown is featured in a documentary from 2007, How to Cook Your Life (great trailer) New York Times review.

Even though I knew this was coming out, I failed to catch it when it was in theaters, and only realized just as the DVD came out in May.

I need to get a movie night going… maybe something with a kitchen focus.

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Alan Watts meets South Park

Very Cool! Trey Parker and Matt Stone produced a few short animations for some classic Alan Watts lectures.

via del.icio.us and freshminds

I was turned on to Alan Watts back in college, by one of my favorite professors, Peng-Khaun Chong. I remeber that one of the texts for one of his courses was Tao: The Watercourse Way

Highly recommended- This was the book Watts was working on when he died, I believe. co-authored/edited by his friend Al Chung-liang Huang, who did the amazing calligraphy for the book.

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You know why I can’t keep up?

Because almost every day, I have some idea that will take a WEEK to implement, or flesh out, or make understandable to others. Some days (like today) I can’t even finish writing an idea DOWN, before an equally good (and equally compelling) idea arises.

This makes my hands hurt. Particularly since when I’m not writing, I’m gesturing wildly at no one in particular.

You know the “oracle” people, in the special bathtubs in Minority Report They just lay there saying odd things, and there’s this special team, with Jet Packs, no less, that runs out and just DEALS WITH IT.

Sweet job! (As long as I get to come out of the tub now and then.)

I miss having Minions. Working at MIT, I was one of the few people who seemed to truly grasp the potential in having the really high-end minions. My minions kicked ass.

Minions, I salute you, wherever you may be!

Hey.

Welcome.

This is a place where I talk a bit. What I talk about is bound to change, may or may not make sense, and is offered without any warranty of usability. Some smaller parts may present a choking hazard of sorts, and so small children and narrow minds should proceed only under adult supervision.

What’s with the name? Well…

“The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.”
-Shunryu Suzuki

Probably one of my favorite zen quotes, and as clever and true a statement about reality as anyone might like. We’re just wired to try to capture, stabilize, and control our little worlds. It never works for long, and when it seems to be working, it’s often just that we’re pretending Extra Hard.

Everything changes… Just watch and you’ll see.