Remembering the Kanji for Geeks

First things first: this is more or less a recycled post from PixelBits. A few months ago I started to study Japanese on my own. I haven’t made much progress yet; I’m still struggling with remembering the Kanji (I use Helen Gilhooly’s “Beginner’s Japanese Script” from the “Teach Yourself”-series, and not the famous 3-volume course […]

  • The Aesthetics and Beauty of Knowledge

    Shih was the opposite of facts and raw information; shih was the elegance of knowledge, the insight and skill to organize knowledge into meaningful patterns. As an artist chooses colours or light to make her pictures, a master of shih chooses textures of knowledge – various ideas, myths, abstractions, and theories – to create a way of seeing the world. The aesthetics and beauty of knowledge – this was shih.

    – David Zindell, The Broken God, 1993

  • Geek Attitude

    The attitude thing is about flexibility, portability, creativity, sociability and jamming (ran out of suitable “ity” words!). It’s about improvising – in the practical and musical senses of the word; not getting tangled in boundaries and the “right” way to do things.
    Definitely the only way to travel.
    Martin Delaney – “Laptop Music”.