Avalanche Party at Toft House

An upcoming band at a new venue. I mentioned a couple of posts ago, my meditative release from worldly intellectual and practical concerns includes loud, intense, visceral musical experience. The moral imperative is to give it your full attention. Last night was my latest fix. The band are Avalanche Party and the venue was Toft … Continue reading “Avalanche Party at Toft House”

50 Years of Systems and Pirsig

Ostensibly I’m re-reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in order to review the 50th Anniversary edition, but as usual I’m finding more significant note-worthy connections with my ongoing systems thinking work than there are pages in the original. The read – the story – is of course very familiar, I’m reading it for … Continue reading “50 Years of Systems and Pirsig”

Do as I Say, Not as I Do?

There’s an assumed hypocrisy in saying one thing and doing another, but in reality, in complex situations, there is always some motivation. And as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, after Brunsson, there are good reasons, hypocrisy is an essential life skill anyway. The other way round, “Do as I do, not as I say” there’s an easy … Continue reading “Do as I Say, Not as I Do?”

Not Frightening the Horses

When dealing with science and engineering “STEM” and other numerate bean-counter accountant & management “MBA” types it’s funny what comes up in conversation. In dialogue you might pick-up considerations like Love and Spirituality, but you won’t find those words in their spreadsheets or specifications. In sensible, real-world, day-job contexts where rubber meets the road it … Continue reading “Not Frightening the Horses”

Against Criticism?

In my own rules of discourse, I’ve always emphasised creativity & increasing understanding over analytically destructive critique & debate. This is to counterbalance, by dynamic integration, the imbalance promoted by the “critical thinkers” who shout most effectively in the dysmemic sense. In fact, the destructiveness of Aristotle’s analytic knife features in my very first (2001) … Continue reading “Against Criticism?”

Forgotten More Than I’ve Written?

24th year of blogging and, I’m repeating myself a lot as I’m marshalling main threads into (hopefully) book and/or thesis chapters. Cycling through the topics I’m finding stuff I said years ago is pretty good to go mostly unchanged. Kind of embarrassing that I didn’t pull it all together sooner. Contexts and content of current … Continue reading “Forgotten More Than I’ve Written?”

50th Anniversary Edition of ZMM has Arrived

The publisher very kindly let me have 3 copies of the 50th anniversary edition of ZMM published Tuesday last week. I can confirm that as well as the new Foreword from Matt Crawford, this edition contains both the Author’s Introduction, the Afterword referring to Chris’s death and the Readers’s Guide, that were added at the … Continue reading “50th Anniversary Edition of ZMM has Arrived”

WOSC or ISSS – “Systems Umbrella”?

#EMFAMBE (Actually published a week or so ago as a “page” for no good reason – so now as a “post”. In fact was really an early draft of a longer piece, now I have all three presentations mentioned in the final para at “END” below, before all the other post-notes.) I’ve elaborated my own … Continue reading “WOSC or ISSS – “Systems Umbrella”?”