A while back I had posted about software work and the pin factory. As that post makes out, I am no admirer of specialization.
Yesterday I finished reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". The sub-title of the book is An Inquiry into Values (Note: Italics and underline are mine). The edition is the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition.
Quote from the book:
"Arete implies a respect for the wholeness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency - or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself."
In an earlier paragraph the author, quoting Kitto, an authority on ancient Greece, says arete to the ancient Greeks simply meant excellence.
PS: Prof. Prisig could just as well be talking of software instead of Motorcycles. I hope to post more on the subject - and the book.
1 comment:
Good to see posts after long time:). Pl keep writing.
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