Notes from Books
See Also:
Social Conquest of Earth,
Conceptual Spaces Cheat Sheet,
Swarm Intelligence,
Meca Sapiens/Strnge Loop,
Clock of the Long Now,
Consciousness: a user's guide,
The Space Between Our Ears,
Book Notes.
Big Questions
What does it mean to be human?
Why are we here?
Do we have Free Will?
Does Evolution have a direction?
What's the deal with Religion, Group Selection and stuff?
How many legs does the The Elephant And The Rider Metaphor have?
Older Notes
Aside from religious texts, which can give us sense of what we are doing
here on this earth, and political texts, which can tell us the rules by which
we are supposed to be playing, there are also many books which I have found
useful for thinking about how to live my life. This is not a very disciplined
approach. Sorry.
7 habits, Stephen Covey:
Be Proactive - responsible for yourself
conceptualize - begin with end in mind
first things first - always measure importance
think win/win - do not make bad deals for you or others
see to understand, then to be understood
synergize... errr...
retool, keep learning, "who ain't a busy livin is a busy dieing"
5 disciplines - Peter Senge - Fifth Discipline
team learning -
shared values -
systems thinking - you need to understand as much of the big picture as
you can.
personal mastery - the basic 7 habits stuff
mental models -
9 laws of god - Kevin Kelly - Out of Control
distribute being - eggs in one basket...
control from the bottom up -
cultivate increasing returns
grow by chunking
maximaize the fringes
honor your errors
seek persistent disequilibrium (poised systems)
change changes change
Getting to Yes - Roger Fisher, William Ury
separate people and problems
focus on interests not on positions
invent options for mutual gain
insist on using objective criteria
I should reread this and take notes. Flow : The Psychology of Optimal
Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Here are some notes on Two Independent Axes of Depression.
2013.09.08 (started 17-OCT-97 jch)