Psybertron Asks

I was posting a more prominent link to the TED talk by Sherwin Nuland (related to the ECT Meme thread) when I noticed this interesting piece from Jill Bolte Taylor. A brain scientist who got to study her own brain and glimpsed the euphoric mystical “now” … and like Sherwin saw this mystical revelation as part [...]

Struck in this story initially by the reference to nursing in contrast to health-care-management. Sometimes people are robbed of any intrinsic “job satisfaction” by their management systems. This medical example is the Dr James Willis “Friends in Low Places” agenda. Engagement with the task skills and their primary objectives is a key factor as Richard Sennett’s “The Craftsman” [...]

I just blogged about Colin Talbot‘s “Paradoxical Primate” which despite the unlikely sounding TLA (Three Letter Acronym) “PST” (Paradoxical Systems Theory) jargon, and the negative review I initially stumbled upon, I found the subject and title headings sufficiently attractive to order a copy. I’d just renewed contact with Bruce Charlton only a couple of days ago, [...]

Shortly after I started blogging, I stopped to capture some references to / reviews of the few books I’d read that had made an impression before I’d started the psybertron research quest (see header). T. E. Lawrence “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” was one of those. The review I posted then has never been more than [...]

Ben Goldacre, over at the Grauniad-based “Bad Science Blog” does a good job exposing pseudo-scientific tosh. Anyone who cites Deleuze and Guattari as their main references and uses “fascist” as an adjective to describe ” evidence-based [science]” is on a hiding to nothing, though to be fair Dr David Holmes et al (Ottawa and Toronto) [...]

I’ve had an angle for some time (since before the manifesto) that adding technology to a system that is not already reasonably automatic, almost invariably makes matters worse. Introduction of new IT systems for example bring new process constraints whose downside may often outweigh the value of the system itself, since the value of ad-hoc [...]

I have had the pleasure and benefit of corresponding with Robert Pirsig in recent months, and as a result have been able to make and publish a significant update to my Robert Pirsig Biographical Timeline. See my Pirsig Project Pages for the significance of Robert Pirsig, author of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” [...]

Read Owen Barfield’s “Poetic Diction” and “History in English Words” a year or so ago, and blogged several items. [here][here][here]. I was doing a search on Barfield today in preparation for reading more of his work and came across two interesting sites. This review of Barfield’s “Saving the Appearances – A Study in Idolatry” on [...]

Didn’t spot this post from July by Dave Pollard, discussing and quoting from Dave Snowden’s “Masterclass”, until a cross-hit today. Usual stuff – analysis of “official” business processes leads to duff decision – no, really ? The unofficial business (in this case rest-break exchanges, but classically the “water-cooler meeting ” or “elevator pitch” idea) exhanged [...]

Agents of Change. Another one from Daniel Quinn [Ishmael Quote] Each of us must become an agent of change within the range of our own influence, and it doesn’t matter how great that range is. If you can’t reach a hundred (Ishmael’s suggested number), then reach ten, and if you can’t reach ten, then reach [...]

Where to start – I have 12 pages of notes from David Gurteen’s 3rd Knowledge Management Conference in London yesterday 3rd March 2004. (Matt Mower has blogged notes too.) The main speakers were David Snowden (IBM / Cynefin) and various advocates and users of the Cynefin framework – Martyn Laycock, Bruce Cronin, Les Johnson, Anabelle [...]

Robot Wisdom Back On-Line. Hooray … Jorn still does not yet seem to be posting in public anywhere, but his material (home pages and blog) are all back on line in the state they were on 1st October 2003. Great news given that I am slowly getting to grips with James Joyce’s Ulysses, is that [...]

Just started reading James Joyce’s Ulysses yesterday (it had to happen one day, Jorn). I’m about six chapters in (two chapters into the second part) and surprised to find it not too hard going. Plenty of unintelligible neologisms, but they don’t interrupt the already strange prose-poetry flow. Plenty of intriguing throwaways that presumably hint at [...]

Science and the Humanities – A plea from Robert M Young, Professor of Psychoanalysis at Sheffield Uni, and co-editor of NIBBS – Human Nature Review. [via David Morey on the MoQ Discuss Forum] In conclusion he writes …. [Quote] In my opinion psychoanalysis, seen as a discipline in the humanities, is centrally complementary to biological [...]

Friends of James Willis – Having finished my latest re-read of Lila, I’m back on to James’ “Friends in Low Places“. Compelling stuff. I didn’t pick it up until 1 am, and could hardly put it down. Needless to say I overslept this morning !

Avoiding the Charybdis of Scientific Fundamentalism – A paper from Dr James Willis given to an audience of medical practitioners last year. Those of you following my blog will notice I’m working my way through James’ work and find that he voices the need to avoid the extremes of scientific fundamentalism as he calls it [...]

Re-reading ZMM It had to happen, after reading Phaedrus, and Dr Willis, and strangely after a dinner conversation alluding to Ahab’s peg leg. (The analogies with Moby Dick are patent – The New Yorker). Pirsig says … [Quote] [Most] of the time I’m feigning 20th C lunacy …. so as not to draw attention to myself. [...]

The Paradox of Progress by Dr James Willis [Quote] Throughout this book, I have used my experience of general practice as an analogy for life in a technological world … I have quoted some of the things they say in order to show the wisdom, love, humanity of ordinary people.[Unquote] A thoroughly recommended read, even [...]

A common thread of mine is that the formally managed aspects of business life often represent the 80% with only 20% of the value, and often there is a very important hidden element which actualy represents most of the real value. (I say something to that effect in the manifesto.) In Dr Willis on-line book [...]

Dr James Willis – Author of “The Paradox of Progress” and “Friends in Low Places”. Writing in a medical / healthcare context, but spot on the main theme of recoiling from hyper-rationalism. [Quote] Most of all we need to keep technology in its proper place, as the servant of the individual person, not the master. [...]