GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Notes

  • Excerpts from Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin

    I’ve always thought I’d read some Chinese philosophy, someday.

    That day came on a sunny afternoon my mind was blown as I was parking my car behind E-Jo, a Korean bone broth restaurant. The History of China podcast was talking about a Han dynasty emperor who used Daoism as his ruling ideology.

    That blew my mind. I always thought Daoists were crazy drunks in a forest, not competing with Confucians in the halls of power.

    Don’t get me wrong, the Tao Te Ching is great stuff for skipping out into the woods. But there is plenty of “leadership advice”. Timely stuff before landing a gig as a Project Manager representing the State.

    ~

    True leaders
    are hardly known to their followers.
    .
    .
    .
    When the work’s done right,
    with no fuss or boasting,
    ordinary people say,
    Oh, we did it.

    excerpt from Tao Te Ching 17

    My project teams have been complimentary of my leadership. Of course, I’m the source of their next project, so it’s hard to know how much of it is sincere. Then again, I guess such compliments are better than the alternative. On my end, I believe that I have the easiest job on the team. I move some paper around and they do all the real work.

    ~

    And so the wise soul
    predominates without dominating,
    and leads without misleading.
    And people don’t get tired
    of enjoying and praising
    one who, not competing,
    has in all the world
    no competitor.

    excerpt from Tao Te Ching 66

    A hidden benefit of joining the State is that any promotion includes a significant increase in stress for a marginal pay raise. There is no financial incentive to rise up the hierarchy. As such, I have no competition in my office. If someone else wants the headache, let them have it.

    John Minford’s commentary for this section includes this short poem by Li Bo for his friend the Taoist Hermit Yuan Danqiu.

    I envy you, my friend,
    Dwelling on East Mountain,
    Lover of beauteous hills and valleys,
    Asleep in the green season of spring
    Among empty forests,
    Rising long after daybreak,
    The wind in the pines
    Blowing through your sleeves,
    The stony brook washing your soul.
    I envy you,
    Lying there unperturbed,
    Pillowed high
    On your emerald mist.

    ~

    How to make peace?
    Wise souls keep their part of the contract
    and don’t make demands on others.
    People whose power is real fulfill their obligations;
    people whose power is hollow insist on their claims.

    excerpt from Tao Te Ching 79

    In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to get annoyed at an underperforming contractor or consultant. Such tendencies get worse the longer I hold this comfortable position of power. I need to constantly remind myself that I don’t have to insist on my rights — I hold the fucking checkbook. Unfortunately, I’m sometimes forced to remind my partners of their obligations and my expectations of their performance, but there’s no excuse for losing my cool.

    Whosoever lacks Inner Power will try to control Others by Force, will demand a due, exact a tithe, and Bitterness will ensue. The Tao of Softness and gentleness wards off Bitterness. Hardness and Strength, Vanity and Pride create Bitterness and Resentment

    John Minford’s translation of Magister Liu’s commentary

  • Nobody Speak, DJ Shadow feat Run The Jewels, 2016

    I was waiting for Election Day to share this banger with Run the Jewels.

    But today (with the twin firings of Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon) was too perfect not to share.

  • The Box, Marc Levinson, 2016

    I’m only a third through The Box, but I can already recommend it.

    A good history book creates context and energizes the mind. As we wrestle with the advent of AI, Levinson tells a a story of disruption that rhymes with what I fear we will see in the coming years.

    The world of shipping was completely different up through the first half of the 20th century before the invention and adoption of containers. Then the 50’s and 60’s flipped it upside down.

    • It’s mindblowing that we had a world of international trade with individually packed ships. How did we supply two world wars on opposite oceans merely with muscling things in and out holds?
    • What American doesn’t feel some sense of pride at a crazy innovator- entrepreneur stumbling into the creation of a new system to revolutionize the world?
    • The next chapter tells the utter devastation that this change wrought upon New York City. But was it ultimately for the better?
    • And chapter 6 details the struggles of the Longshoremen unions grappling with this change. (Good luck to us white collars, without any union support!)

    I’m curious what the next chapters will bring. It’s already been well worth the time. So surprising that the boring shipping container is the center of such a riveting narrative!

    ~

    Here’s a gratuitous plug for the boardgame Container by Franz-Benno Delonge. It’s one of my favorite games — a basic ruleset for a brainbursting experience. It’s been out of print for a while but can be easily DIY’ed.

  • My Little Library

    At the end of 2022, I started a rotation of books and essays to re-read regularly.

    I’m slowly going through them on this first pass, but in the future I plan on just reading selected passages.

    And yes, I’m open to suggestions!

    A spreadsheet with 45 books with their publication dates. Cells are colored by the region of origin.

    ~

    Main List

    1. The Art of War
    2. The Wisdom Books (Job thru Qohelet)
    3. Tao Te Ching
    4. Analects of Confucius
    5. The Way of Chuang Tzu
    6. Mencius
    7. Dhammapada
    8. Letter to Menoceus, Epicurus
    9. Bhagavad Gita
    10. Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius
    11. The Gospels and the Epistle to the Romans
    12. The Book of Lieh-Tzu
    13. The Wisdom of the Desert, Thomas Merton
    14. Bodhicarayvatara, Santideva
    15. Havamal
    16. The Book of Rumi:105 Stories (Masnavi)
    17. Narrow Road to the Deep North, Basho
    18. US Constitution
    19. Gettysburg Address
    20. Nevada Constitution
    21. The Aphorisms of Franz Kafka
    22. Letter from the Birmingham Jail
    23. Labyrinths, Borges
    24. Invisible Cities, Calvino
    25. 5000 B.C., Smullyan
    26. 8 Pieces of Brocade
    27. Opus, Satoshi Kon
    28. Fail Safe Investing
    29. Bed of Procrustes
    30. Vis for Vulnerable
    31. Several Short Sentences about Writing
    32. Salt Fat Acid Heat
    33. Creativity, John Cleese
    34. Smart Brevity

    Maybes

    1. Upanishads
    2. Socratic Dialogues, Plato
    3. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
    4. Quran
    5. The Journey to the West
    6. Self Reliance, Emerson
    7. Civil Disobedience, Thoreau
    8. Essays and Aphorisms, Schopenhauer
    9. Species of Spaces, Perec
    10. Amusing Ourselves to Death
    11. Radically Short Instructions, Matthews

  • Infected Mushroom, Guitarmass

    My musical secret is that I’m a sucker for EDM.

    When the deadline is threatening, I’ll be jamming to the heavy beat.

    When a deadline isn’t threatening, I enjoy the candy of the lighter stuff filling the background.

    My tastes vary wildly with no depth. To be honest, I don’t follow Infected Mushroom, but I did listen to Converting Vegetarians on repeat in the mid 00’s when my wife (then girlfriend) gave me a copy that a studio-mate had shared with her. Almost two decades later, that album might have been our only successful cross-pollination in our wildly divergent musical tastes.

    For Monday Night Music I’m sharing a recent song that I’ve been running on repeat. Here is an interesting reaction/analysis video of Guitarmass.

  • Monday Night Music

    A few months ago, I started sharing a song on youtube every Monday on Post.News

    I just transferred the archives back here onto Grizzly Pear under its own WordPress Category.

    I’m also tracking it on Youtube as its own playlist.

    At the start of the year, I also culled my subscriptions. Youtube is an amazing platform … and incredible timesuck. I also blocked channels from the recommendation algorithm, especially the ones with entertaining videos.

    In making Youtube boring, the algorithm was freed to unearth richer content. The latest random viral video pales against all the musical output that’s being shared at scale.

    Youtube may be the best music provider on the internet, you just have to get rid of all the other videos.

  • 402 (on Post.news)

    It’s fitting that this centennial post doesn’t land on a ’00 because I rePosted right past the landmark this morning.

    It’s been crazy busy at work for the past month. Good busy, but it takes a toll on creative output outside of work. (And inside work too!)

    Hopefully things will slow down in a month.

    In the meantime I’ve been happy finding (and sharing) the cool things everyone else are making. I’ve been using RP’s as bookmarks. Before posting, I enjoyed a quick stroll through through the recent past.

    I hope to return to a half-half equilibrium between original posts versus sharing other people’s work, but that might be after the next centenary.

    ~

    On Post in general, it feels that this place is going through a lull.

    The platform is still young, but no longer new. The limitless promise has worn off so the rough edges have become irritants.

    When are we going to get global notifications on comments? How much longer for lists! Why does rePosting something send me back to the top of the feed? Ugh, three columns. Bugs!

    I know, #StillinBeta! It helps to feel that management cares. Hopefully the doldrums are just a phase as it matures into a richer platform.

    It’s still a great crowd here. And I’ll be here as long as y’all are here.

    Here’s to more 00’s!

    ~

    Though you never know…which is why I believe everyone should keep their own website as an archive beyond of the whims of others…like here!

  • I’ll Overcome Some Day

    Once in a blue moon, diving into an internet rabbit hole pays off.

    This video by Genie Deez tells the story of the song, tying 1960’s Pete Seeger to a Sicilian mariner’s hymn from the 1790’s.

    That lead to a flurry of searches, my favorite being this lively congregational call and response from South Carolina.

    To go deeper, here is the published hymn by Charles Albert Tindley, a teacher’s guide about the song, and a lovely rendition by Caroline Disnew and Annastasia Victory.

  • Nuala’s Tune, Maura Shawn Scanlin

    This is a new channel with only one video, but it should have way more than 900+ views and 51 subscribers.

    Here’s to more of this joy in the coming weeks!

  • Zombie, the Cranberries

    I was going to share this video (after listening to their album No Need to Argue on our drive home from San Diego last Sunday).

    Then I heard the news.

    So I listened to this song. Really listened to it.

    Today’s immediate relevance makes it more gut wrenching than when I first heard it almost 30 years ago. We keep inflicting tragedy upon ourselves.