Thursday, 7.27pm
Sheffield, U.K.
“You’ve got to live right, too. It’s the way you live that predisposes you to avoid the traps and see the right facts. You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally. That’s the way all the experts do it. The making of a painting or the fixing of a motorcycle isn’t separate from the rest of your existence. If you’re a sloppy thinker the six days of the week you aren’t working on your machine, what trap avoidance, what gimmicks, can make you all of a sudden sharp on the seventh? It all goes together … The real cycle you’re working in is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be “out there” and the person that appears to be “in here” are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together.” – Robert Pirsig, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
I came across a picture of my motorcycle recently.
Well, my old motorcycle. It was stolen years ago. And before that it spent a lot of time being taken apart because it just didn’t work properly. That’s why the fuel tank in the picture above is resting on the seat rather than the traditional location.
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance is possibly my favourite book and I keep going back to that when I think of anything.
We all have choices to make. Some of them seem important. Some are important. And it’s important to be able to tell the difference between the two.
David Graeber reaches out for this idea in his book “Bullshit jobs”. A lot of things we do aren’t worth doing, and so they aren’t worth doing well.
If AI comes along and does those things better that still doesn’t make them worth doing.
But it’s going to be hard to tell the difference between one thing and the other.
Let’s take something simple, like health.
You know carbs are bad right, they raise blood sugar?
You also know that’s wrong – because what’s the point of food that doesn’t raise your blood sugar?
You need the sugar to fuel your body and brain – and where do you think that’s going to come from if not carbs?
But the food advice out there is simply too confusing to make any sense.
And when something is confusing you have to ask yourself who benefits from confusion?
It’s not the people selling you potatoes.
It’s the ones selling you highly processed food.
And much of the information out there is really marketing material.
This really applies to many decision situations – electric cars or diesel? Remote or office? The list can go on.
Which is where ZatAoMM comes in.
There is one criterion that rules them all.
Ask yourself this the next time you have to make a choice, little or large.
Once you’ve made it, do you have peace of mind?
That’s all that matters.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
Handcrafted insight 