Year: 2025
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Bird spotting as relevance realisation
We went hiking through the jungles of Central America. There is a rare bird in this scene. As we emerged from jungle’s undergrowth to this raised open area, our guide immediately pointed, and said, there’s a male quetzal. I couldn’t see the bird. Even when he pointed in the direction, I still couldn’t see. He…
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Retreats
Where I am, there are countless retreats and an almost limitless demand for it. It puzzles me. It seems that people are retreating from the world. I wonder what the opposite might be. To stay calm and determined in the face of adversity, or to aim to do something about it; to change the small…
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Entropy, Kintsugi and Antifragility
“The laws of thermodynamics were developed by nineteenth-century scientists to describe relationships between heat and mechanical energy. The second law of thermodynamics is based on the observation that many physical processes appear irreversible: Although these processes may theoretically be able to proceed forward or backward, when we observe them, they only go one way. Once a…
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FinOps Notes (so far!)
I’ve been reading through a book about FinOps. It appears to be a topic which is getting increasing attention. I expect that most of it can be boiled down to some key principles. Principles: Next steps: Key metric: unit economic metrics to enable data driven decision making by engineering teams Definition Cloud: Problem: A FinOps…
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The Creative Mind: Notes & Summary
The Creative Mind by Margaret Boden was a revelatory book which has certainly helped to understand what creativity is as well as its origin
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Spellbound: Notes
Spellbound by Daniel Liberman Tapping into the unconscious, understanding it – understanding why it can lead us astray from ourselves destructively but also understanding how we can tap into the unconscious and being to harness the power. To understand the unconscious we cannot use ‘language’ or rational thinking. We need something else. The key to…
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The felt presence of immediate experience
“When our own goals and beliefs and perceptions and behaviors are functionally integrated such that there is little conflict or contradiction between them that is when we experience this this sense of meaning in life” We have developed behaviours that help us pursue goals (biological, pre-programmed goals: finding a mate, keeping a mate, parenting etc,…
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Rooftop of Atitlan
Sitting on a deckchair on a roof. Memories of India. Tropical birds, chickens calling and the sound of manual labour. Intrigued by the detail of the potted mint plant leaves. Reckon I can smell them from here. That brush looks blue! Dogs barking. Shadows cast on banana leaves from other banana leaves. Grabbed scrunched up…