They call Warren Buffet the sage of Wall Street because he is the most successful investor ever. His core advice for investing is this: “Be fearful when others are bold, be bold when others are fearful“. The wonderful part of this advice is that it applies to life in general. It parallels chapter 73’s ‘He who is fearless in being bold will meet with his death; He who is fearless in being timid will stay alive. ‘ Continue reading ‘Sage Advice from Wall Street’
Monthly Archive for November, 2009
˜˜˜ Click Here for Translation and Commentary ˜˜˜
I’ve said this before, and I must say it again. Using more word can easily obfuscate the issue at hand. This is especially true with existential matters. Understanding what is being said hinges on what one already knows at the gut level. In other words, existential matters cannot really be taught. This is not unlike that, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink’. Continue reading ‘Chapter of the Week: #34′
It is alive!
A recent Science News article reports on a researcher’s discovery that is shaking up the current paradigm a bit. Apparently, he had actually found a gigantic virus—one so large and possessing such a peculiar mixture of traits that it is challenging the very notion of what it means to be alive. One researcher commented, “I think the discovery really messed up the heads of a lot of people”. Still another says, “The virus definitely seems to have its own agenda”. Isn’t the obvious agenda shared by all life a will to survival. I imagine “messed up heads” come from a specie centric ideal of what ‘will’ (free or otherwise) means. Acknowledging that a human and a virus both have a will to survive really messes with our sense of human superiority. Continue reading ‘Of Course It’s Alive!’
A hairy experiment
The idea that ‘… one who speaks does not know’ should logically include writing and thinking as well. After all, speaking, thinking and writing are all interconnected activities. So what am I doing here yapping away? It is partly social; I see curious connections, and feel the urge (an instinct to be helpful or gossip… or both?) to shine light ‘outside the box’, or at least broaden focus ‘inside the box’. (Of course, even ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ are iffy from a Taoist point of view, i.e., they produce each other).
For this quixotic quest, I rely heavily on science generally, and biology in particular, to provide a point for reference, a kind of baseline. Sure, science has its problems, but science offers as impartial a view as I’ve found anywhere out there. Continue reading ‘What Am I Doing?’
'Dead men's words'
What is the difference between understand and know? Chapter 70 alludes to it perhaps when it states, ‘My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice‘. Our cleverness at understanding is not matched by a comparable ability to know. The first, understanding, is theoretical. The later, knowing, is visceral. For example: Continue reading ‘I understand, but do I know?’
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