1 IDEAS AND SYSTEMS, UNITS OF MEANING
1.1 When I tell people that I studied Systems Design Engineering in University they often think that means I worked with computer systems but then I explain that the concept of systems isn’t limited to computers. It’s any type of system. So then the question is, “What is a system?” Whatever has the most meaning for us at the time. The key word is meaning. A system has some purpose or function, and depending on the way we look at it we can see one meaning or another. And because we can choose the way we look at a system, we can choose the meaning that we see.
1.2 Shooting rifles in the army we were part of a system and the function of that system was to make holes as close to the center of a target as possible. But the rifle itself was also a system designed to output projectiles. We, the person operating the rifle, were also a system and in this context we were a system whose function was to operate a rifle.
1.3 Systems are made up of components that are interconnected and that work together to perform the function of the system. Systems can be broken down into subsystems, which are systems in themselves. Systems can be combined with other systems to create a larger system. Whatever those subsystems or higher systems are, they all have a purpose.
1.4 We can substitute the word idea for system.
1.5 A motorcycle can be an idea and it stops there or we can think of a motorcycle in terms of its parts, an engine, a transmission, primary drive etc. Or we can go smaller, the gears, shafts, nuts and bolts and the things that they connect. If we wish to ride a motorbike then the idea that we become is that of a rider. But if we need to fix one or build one then the idea we become is that of a mechanic and then the ideas we need to be familiar with are the parts of the bike. Depending on what we have to do, we might need to understand the idea of a starter motor or we might need to understand the ideas within a starter motor. The more we understand (and the more tools we have) the more we can do. Or we understand the idea of a person who understands the smaller ideas of bikes and take the bike to them.
1.6 We are ideas made up of other ideas such as our heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and spleen. We are also part of other ideas, of a family or a loving couple, of the job we do or the hobbies we enjoy.
1.7 We are also the idea of ourselves.
1.8 The beauty of systems and of ideas is that we can choose the way we look at them. Which view gave us the best understanding?
1.9 Suppose we want to learn how to ride a motorbike then that is the idea we are trying to make real. Initially we learn how to make the bike stop, and how to make it go, at the same time learning how to keep it balanced. We also learn how to steer it. Eventually we learn all of these smaller ideas so that then we can make the bigger idea of riding real. Then we can express the idea.
1.10 Perhaps we discover that riding a bike is stressful, or not as much fun as we thought it would be. Do we want to ride a bike for transportation or are we more interested in riding a bike to go fast, in which case perhaps what we really want to do is race, or perhaps find a place where we can ride it fast without hurting ourselves or anyone around us. Or perhaps we simply don’t enjoy riding and so we leave that idea and look for another idea to make real.
1.11 Each of us has many ideas that we are either learning or expressing, helping to make real. Some of them are ideas we love, others not so much. Sometimes an idea isn’t quite what we think so we can either change the way we look at it, the way we connect to it or we disconnect and find a new idea to connect to.
1.12 Which ideas do we want to put our attention on? What are the ideas that are important for us, what are the ideas that help us to balance the idea of ourselves? What are the ideas that we subconsciously or unconsciously think about? Ideas, what are the ideas in our life? Knowing the ideas, we can choose the ones that we want to make real and continue to make real. And just as ideas are made up of other ideas we can ask ourselves this question, “what are the ideas that I am a part of.”
1.13 This book is an idea that I am helping to make it real. Before I started I was working on another idea for a book, “Belly Breathing to Tone the Abs,” but then I realized that I liked the idea of this book better. And that’s the thing about ideas, we can choose the ones we like, the ones we want to help make real.
1.14 Here’s an idea. Imagine an ideal life. Imagine leading a life where all the ideas in our life work together instead of pulling us apart. Or imagine something simpler, perhaps a life that we love or even just a job that we like with people that we enjoy working with.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Connection, Change and Relationship
CONNECTION, CHANGE AND RELATIONSHIP
1.1 Computer systems deal with the flow of information from one idea to another. As that information flows from one part of the system to another it causes change. The part of the system sending the information changes as it sends the information, just as we change when we open our mouth to speak. And the part of the system listening for information, it changes when it receives the information as we might do when we see the traffic light ahead of us turn to red while we are driving. In going from one place to another information causes change. And when that information is read and acted on even more change occurs. (Sitting in a car, the speedometer is always there, but do we always notice it changing? “...Sorry officer, I was not conscious of my actual speed...”)
1.2 Even the simple act of delivering the information, electrons flowing along wires, is change but in order for change to occur, for one idea to change another they have to be connected. They have to have a relationship so that information can be exchanged.
1.3 A relationship is two or more ideas connected in such a way that information can be exchanged so that change is caused. Depending on the connection and the relative size of each idea that change may be big or it may be small. One idea may change more than the other. Change may occur simultaneously, fish turning simultaneously as one or it may occur sequentially, like in a conversation, two people taking turns listening to each other.
1.4 I am connecting to this idea, that of basic principles, and in connecting to my computer I am helping to give that idea form. And in the process of writing I am changing myself. Both the small changes as my fingers tap out words on the keyboard and bigger changes as my understanding of what I am writing about improves. The more I connect to this idea the better I understand it and the more I grow and change as a result.
1.1 Computer systems deal with the flow of information from one idea to another. As that information flows from one part of the system to another it causes change. The part of the system sending the information changes as it sends the information, just as we change when we open our mouth to speak. And the part of the system listening for information, it changes when it receives the information as we might do when we see the traffic light ahead of us turn to red while we are driving. In going from one place to another information causes change. And when that information is read and acted on even more change occurs. (Sitting in a car, the speedometer is always there, but do we always notice it changing? “...Sorry officer, I was not conscious of my actual speed...”)
1.2 Even the simple act of delivering the information, electrons flowing along wires, is change but in order for change to occur, for one idea to change another they have to be connected. They have to have a relationship so that information can be exchanged.
1.3 A relationship is two or more ideas connected in such a way that information can be exchanged so that change is caused. Depending on the connection and the relative size of each idea that change may be big or it may be small. One idea may change more than the other. Change may occur simultaneously, fish turning simultaneously as one or it may occur sequentially, like in a conversation, two people taking turns listening to each other.
1.4 I am connecting to this idea, that of basic principles, and in connecting to my computer I am helping to give that idea form. And in the process of writing I am changing myself. Both the small changes as my fingers tap out words on the keyboard and bigger changes as my understanding of what I am writing about improves. The more I connect to this idea the better I understand it and the more I grow and change as a result.
Looking at Where We Want to Go (Seeing the Horizon and Everything Within It)
LOOKING AT WHERE WE WANT TO GO
1.1 When I was in the army I used to go cycling with a friend. We had a regular circuit that included a steep uphill as well as a bendy downhill and a pub at the end where we could sit and chat at the end of our ride.
1.2 One of our favorite parts of the ride was the steep downhill that turned sharply left at the very bottom. We always egged each other on to see if we could go down without using our brakes before the corner. It was a scary prospect because we never knew if a car would be coming the opposite way.
1.3 My friend and I both finished our training and got posted to new locations before I was able to figure out how to go around that particular corner without using my brakes to slow down first. I did do it once and thanked the gods there wasn’t anything coming the other way. I would liked to have ridden that corner comfortably and with skill rather than hope and a prayer.
1.4 Fifteen years later I went on a motorcycle course that focused on teaching motorcycle riders how to go faster on the part of a track or road that slows them down most, the corners. I was finally on my way to going around corners fast on two wheels.
1.5 On the course we got about five rides each day. We’d get a briefing before each ride, a preview of what we were going to practice on the track. Then we tried the lesson on the track at speed, applying what we learned. After each ride we were asked what we thought and what we had learned and we got to ask questions if we had any. Then we were given the theory and instructions for the next part of our ride. Each day had some sort of rhythm, rests so we could learn where we were going and also see where we’d been so that we could learn how to go faster.
1.6 We learned how using the brakes affects the pitch of the bike, throwing it forwards and compressing the front forks. On the other hand, accelerating tends to lift the front end. We could use the accelerator and the brakes to help balance the bike as well as adjust our speed.
1.7 Going around a corner, if we release the brakes too late then the front end of the bike is still dipped while going around the corner. So we learned how to time when to engage our brakes and when to release them.
1.8 We learned how shifting our weight to one side pushes the bike the other way so the bike has more clearance on the side we are leaning our body towards. This same action could be used while cornering, shifting our body into the corner so the bike moves out from it to create more clearance to the inside of the bike. That would give us that much more room to go faster or tighter around the bend. On the other hand, sitting up higher on the bike in a corner would push the bike down reducing clearance between it and the road.
1.9 We were learning a lot and by the time we were on the last ride of the first day I was pretty tired. I was looking forwards to a rest but I thought I had enough juice in me for some fun on the final few corners before the pits.
1.10 On the track I was riding there is one corner called the Corkscrew that has two turns, a sharp left turn followed immediately by a turn to the right. Rounding the first part of the corkscrew the road momentarily disappears from sight because it dips down. The usual tendency is to upright the bike at that point, but then when the road reappears you see that you have to keep on turning left otherwise you’ll run off the track. Then you have to lean right quickly after for the turn that follows.
1.11 Following the track into the first turn of the corkscrew I was already thinking about corners yet to come. My focus tightened to the road just ahead of me. Exiting the second left turn I leaned the bike to the right and kept looking a few feet ahead of me. The bike smoothly went to the right and continued going right until it was on its side sliding and I was on my backside swearing at myself as I skidded after my bike.
1.12 I was the thirteenth mishap of the day and the head mechanic was marginally upset. I think he threw a spanner. I wasn’t too happy either. Luckily the damage to myself was minimal.
1.13 Looking back I realized that I’d gone where I was looking. Thinking about corners I couldn’t even see I’d become fixated on a point on the road just ahead of the bike. I stayed looking at that one small stationary piece of road and that’s where I went.
1.14 I should have been looking ahead as far as I could see and dealing with what I could see, the horizon and the road leading up to it. Then, as the road changed I would have seen those changes and been ready for them and been able to handle them. As it was, the road changed and I didn’t change with it.
1.15 The next day I got on my bike I was scared. My mind was dominated by the notion of not crashing. Going around the bends I felt like I was being pulled to the outside of each corner. And because I was scared I kept looking at where I didn’t want to go, to the outside of each corner. And that’s where I went.
1.16 I decided to look at where I wanted to go.
1.17 In the next corner I followed the inside edge of the turn with my eyes. When I could see the track beginning to straighten then my eyes followed the line out of the turn. I looked for the furthest point ahead that I could see, each moment shifting my gaze and following the road’s horizon while staying aware of the road leading up to it.
1.18 There was a feeling, delicious, of falling into each corner, but then I’d smoothly roll the accelerator and come flying out. It’s similar to the feeling I had when skating, falling from skate to skate, easily, rhythmically, smoothly transitioning from one side to the other. Riding was fun again.
1.19 Looking back, initially my problem had been becoming fixated on one spot. This was particularly dangerous because I was in a corner when it happened. On a straightaway it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, I probably could have just kept on going straight. But because the road was bending and dipping and rising, I needed to look ahead to see the changes before I got to them. Because I wasn’t looking ahead, I didn’t see those changes and so I went down.
1.20 The next problem was looking to the outside of each corner. My mind wanted to follow the bend of the road to the inside but my eyes had been looking to the outside of the turn. I was pulling myself apart because part of me seemed to be going one way while part of me wanted to go another.
1.21 When I looked at where I wanted to go, and kept moving my gaze ahead of me, then my eyes and my mind and my body were unified and together we handled each bend as we got to it. Leading with my eyes the bike and my body followed.
1.22 And now I know part of the reason why I had so much trouble going down that road on my bicycle with my friend in England. After having accelerated down the hill, when I went around the corner I looked at the place I didn’t want to go, the outside of the bend, the opposite lane of traffic, and that is nearly where I went unless slowed down first. I didn’t realize that part of what I needed to do was look at where I wanted to go so that I could go there.
1.1 When I was in the army I used to go cycling with a friend. We had a regular circuit that included a steep uphill as well as a bendy downhill and a pub at the end where we could sit and chat at the end of our ride.
1.2 One of our favorite parts of the ride was the steep downhill that turned sharply left at the very bottom. We always egged each other on to see if we could go down without using our brakes before the corner. It was a scary prospect because we never knew if a car would be coming the opposite way.
1.3 My friend and I both finished our training and got posted to new locations before I was able to figure out how to go around that particular corner without using my brakes to slow down first. I did do it once and thanked the gods there wasn’t anything coming the other way. I would liked to have ridden that corner comfortably and with skill rather than hope and a prayer.
1.4 Fifteen years later I went on a motorcycle course that focused on teaching motorcycle riders how to go faster on the part of a track or road that slows them down most, the corners. I was finally on my way to going around corners fast on two wheels.
1.5 On the course we got about five rides each day. We’d get a briefing before each ride, a preview of what we were going to practice on the track. Then we tried the lesson on the track at speed, applying what we learned. After each ride we were asked what we thought and what we had learned and we got to ask questions if we had any. Then we were given the theory and instructions for the next part of our ride. Each day had some sort of rhythm, rests so we could learn where we were going and also see where we’d been so that we could learn how to go faster.
1.6 We learned how using the brakes affects the pitch of the bike, throwing it forwards and compressing the front forks. On the other hand, accelerating tends to lift the front end. We could use the accelerator and the brakes to help balance the bike as well as adjust our speed.
1.7 Going around a corner, if we release the brakes too late then the front end of the bike is still dipped while going around the corner. So we learned how to time when to engage our brakes and when to release them.
1.8 We learned how shifting our weight to one side pushes the bike the other way so the bike has more clearance on the side we are leaning our body towards. This same action could be used while cornering, shifting our body into the corner so the bike moves out from it to create more clearance to the inside of the bike. That would give us that much more room to go faster or tighter around the bend. On the other hand, sitting up higher on the bike in a corner would push the bike down reducing clearance between it and the road.
1.9 We were learning a lot and by the time we were on the last ride of the first day I was pretty tired. I was looking forwards to a rest but I thought I had enough juice in me for some fun on the final few corners before the pits.
1.10 On the track I was riding there is one corner called the Corkscrew that has two turns, a sharp left turn followed immediately by a turn to the right. Rounding the first part of the corkscrew the road momentarily disappears from sight because it dips down. The usual tendency is to upright the bike at that point, but then when the road reappears you see that you have to keep on turning left otherwise you’ll run off the track. Then you have to lean right quickly after for the turn that follows.
1.11 Following the track into the first turn of the corkscrew I was already thinking about corners yet to come. My focus tightened to the road just ahead of me. Exiting the second left turn I leaned the bike to the right and kept looking a few feet ahead of me. The bike smoothly went to the right and continued going right until it was on its side sliding and I was on my backside swearing at myself as I skidded after my bike.
1.12 I was the thirteenth mishap of the day and the head mechanic was marginally upset. I think he threw a spanner. I wasn’t too happy either. Luckily the damage to myself was minimal.
1.13 Looking back I realized that I’d gone where I was looking. Thinking about corners I couldn’t even see I’d become fixated on a point on the road just ahead of the bike. I stayed looking at that one small stationary piece of road and that’s where I went.
1.14 I should have been looking ahead as far as I could see and dealing with what I could see, the horizon and the road leading up to it. Then, as the road changed I would have seen those changes and been ready for them and been able to handle them. As it was, the road changed and I didn’t change with it.
1.15 The next day I got on my bike I was scared. My mind was dominated by the notion of not crashing. Going around the bends I felt like I was being pulled to the outside of each corner. And because I was scared I kept looking at where I didn’t want to go, to the outside of each corner. And that’s where I went.
1.16 I decided to look at where I wanted to go.
1.17 In the next corner I followed the inside edge of the turn with my eyes. When I could see the track beginning to straighten then my eyes followed the line out of the turn. I looked for the furthest point ahead that I could see, each moment shifting my gaze and following the road’s horizon while staying aware of the road leading up to it.
1.18 There was a feeling, delicious, of falling into each corner, but then I’d smoothly roll the accelerator and come flying out. It’s similar to the feeling I had when skating, falling from skate to skate, easily, rhythmically, smoothly transitioning from one side to the other. Riding was fun again.
1.19 Looking back, initially my problem had been becoming fixated on one spot. This was particularly dangerous because I was in a corner when it happened. On a straightaway it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, I probably could have just kept on going straight. But because the road was bending and dipping and rising, I needed to look ahead to see the changes before I got to them. Because I wasn’t looking ahead, I didn’t see those changes and so I went down.
1.20 The next problem was looking to the outside of each corner. My mind wanted to follow the bend of the road to the inside but my eyes had been looking to the outside of the turn. I was pulling myself apart because part of me seemed to be going one way while part of me wanted to go another.
1.21 When I looked at where I wanted to go, and kept moving my gaze ahead of me, then my eyes and my mind and my body were unified and together we handled each bend as we got to it. Leading with my eyes the bike and my body followed.
1.22 And now I know part of the reason why I had so much trouble going down that road on my bicycle with my friend in England. After having accelerated down the hill, when I went around the corner I looked at the place I didn’t want to go, the outside of the bend, the opposite lane of traffic, and that is nearly where I went unless slowed down first. I didn’t realize that part of what I needed to do was look at where I wanted to go so that I could go there.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Idea Space
IDEA SPACE, AN ABUNDANCE OF IDEAS
1.1 Waiting for a friend to arrive for lunch one day, I pondered teaching yoga to kids. I thought of helping them learn what their body could do before they got stuck into habits that limited their body’s potential.
1.2 I’d seen children who’s posture mimicked their parent’s almost exactly and I thought that if I could help them be aware of their body they could then choose how they held themselves. Aware of their body maybe they’d be able to operate it without artificially limiting it.
1.3 I thought of the habits or mannerisms that we picked up from those around us. If we were conscious of what we were doing and what those around us were doing we could choose the things we pick up, or at least the things we keep.
1.4 At one level that is what yoga is about, becoming more conscious, in this case conscious of possibilities. Aware of what the possibilities are we can choose the things we do and how we do them. Teaching kids yoga I wanted to help them understand what their body is capable of, as well as their mind, and rather than limiting them I wanted to teach them frameworks within which they could express themselves.
1.5
1.6 I’ve been living in Taiwan for a number of years now and before I started teaching yoga here I taught English to young children for a year. There are quite a few foreigners teaching English and part of my idea was to train those same teachers, those who wanted to, to teach Yoga as part of their kids exercise time. I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to learn to teach something as well as English. At the same time they’d be helping the kids as well as themselves stay flexible (or get flexible.) And I would get the chance to develop a training program that would benefit teachers as well as the people that they taught.
1.7 The other part of the idea was selling yoga to the schools where it might be taught, and in turn to the parents of the children who might be taught. I thought that perhaps one of the biggest things to sell it on is how it can benefit the mind, perhaps if the children stayed flexible in their body they’d also stay flexible in their minds, be able to think more creatively.
1.8 I wasn’t aware of any evidence to that fact and it seemed like a pretty slim connection and so I thought that perhaps the mental flexibility could come in the way I taught yoga. Teach the teachers, and through them the children a set sequence of poses, and then teach them how to vary the sequence and then the poses. Give them a framework and show them how to express themselves within that framework.
1.9 Another benefit, more in line with what the parents were sending their kids to English school for was that it would be a great opportunity for kids to learn about their body in English, or indeed in both languages, Chinese and English.
1.10 The school could possibly benefit by getting more students whose parents want their kids to learn yoga (as well as English) and perhaps even the yoga studio I worked for could benefit either through getting their name out into the community or in having a potential source for future yoga teachers or students.
1.11 Why was I so keen on this idea, because I thought that everyone involved could benefit.
1.12
1.13 When my friend arrived I told him about my idea and asked him if he be interested in helping me develop it and teach it to kids. He would think about it.
1.14 The next time I saw my friend I asked him if he was still interested in teaching kids yoga? He said not to worry about it. There were plenty of ideas to go around. That it didn’t matter if we did this idea, there were other ideas we could do instead if it came down to it.
1.15 In the last few years I’ve had a lot of exposure to talk about wealth consciousness, focusing on thoughts of being wealthy, of having lots of wealth as opposed to its opposite. And all of a sudden I realized that the real key wasn’t an abundance of money but an abundance of ideas. There are an infinity of ideas waiting to be made real.
1.16 Wow, imagine, not only picking the ideas we want to make real but having an infinity of ideas from which to choose from.
1.1 Waiting for a friend to arrive for lunch one day, I pondered teaching yoga to kids. I thought of helping them learn what their body could do before they got stuck into habits that limited their body’s potential.
1.2 I’d seen children who’s posture mimicked their parent’s almost exactly and I thought that if I could help them be aware of their body they could then choose how they held themselves. Aware of their body maybe they’d be able to operate it without artificially limiting it.
1.3 I thought of the habits or mannerisms that we picked up from those around us. If we were conscious of what we were doing and what those around us were doing we could choose the things we pick up, or at least the things we keep.
1.4 At one level that is what yoga is about, becoming more conscious, in this case conscious of possibilities. Aware of what the possibilities are we can choose the things we do and how we do them. Teaching kids yoga I wanted to help them understand what their body is capable of, as well as their mind, and rather than limiting them I wanted to teach them frameworks within which they could express themselves.
1.5
1.6 I’ve been living in Taiwan for a number of years now and before I started teaching yoga here I taught English to young children for a year. There are quite a few foreigners teaching English and part of my idea was to train those same teachers, those who wanted to, to teach Yoga as part of their kids exercise time. I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to learn to teach something as well as English. At the same time they’d be helping the kids as well as themselves stay flexible (or get flexible.) And I would get the chance to develop a training program that would benefit teachers as well as the people that they taught.
1.7 The other part of the idea was selling yoga to the schools where it might be taught, and in turn to the parents of the children who might be taught. I thought that perhaps one of the biggest things to sell it on is how it can benefit the mind, perhaps if the children stayed flexible in their body they’d also stay flexible in their minds, be able to think more creatively.
1.8 I wasn’t aware of any evidence to that fact and it seemed like a pretty slim connection and so I thought that perhaps the mental flexibility could come in the way I taught yoga. Teach the teachers, and through them the children a set sequence of poses, and then teach them how to vary the sequence and then the poses. Give them a framework and show them how to express themselves within that framework.
1.9 Another benefit, more in line with what the parents were sending their kids to English school for was that it would be a great opportunity for kids to learn about their body in English, or indeed in both languages, Chinese and English.
1.10 The school could possibly benefit by getting more students whose parents want their kids to learn yoga (as well as English) and perhaps even the yoga studio I worked for could benefit either through getting their name out into the community or in having a potential source for future yoga teachers or students.
1.11 Why was I so keen on this idea, because I thought that everyone involved could benefit.
1.12
1.13 When my friend arrived I told him about my idea and asked him if he be interested in helping me develop it and teach it to kids. He would think about it.
1.14 The next time I saw my friend I asked him if he was still interested in teaching kids yoga? He said not to worry about it. There were plenty of ideas to go around. That it didn’t matter if we did this idea, there were other ideas we could do instead if it came down to it.
1.15 In the last few years I’ve had a lot of exposure to talk about wealth consciousness, focusing on thoughts of being wealthy, of having lots of wealth as opposed to its opposite. And all of a sudden I realized that the real key wasn’t an abundance of money but an abundance of ideas. There are an infinity of ideas waiting to be made real.
1.16 Wow, imagine, not only picking the ideas we want to make real but having an infinity of ideas from which to choose from.
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