Stuart Patience
Literacy and education; teacher training; building effective organisations. Norwich, UK - Jakarta, Indonesia| Driverless Crocodile
In The Heretical Imperative [Peter Berger] has argued that the distinctive feature of this [‘modern’, Western] culture is that there is no generally acknowledged “plausibility structure,” acceptance of which is normally taken for granted without argument, and dissent from which is regarded as heresy, that is, according to the original meaning of hairesis—choosing for oneself,… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
Hannah Arendt on science, language, politics and our future machine overlords| Driverless Crocodile
Lesslie Newbigin and Michael Polanyi on objectivity, personal knowledge, nihilism and tradition| Driverless Crocodile
Lesslie Newbigin lived and worked in South India from 1936 to 1974, and originally wrote this in Tamil. Wherever and whenever we look at man, we find that he is full of self-contradiction. He is divided against himself, and he is divided against his environment. He is not at peace in himself, and he is… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
Literacy and education; teacher training; building effective organisations. Norwich, UK - Jakarta, Indonesia| Driverless Crocodile
tools for building the future.| Driverless Crocodile
Only a tiny fraction of the world’s population will ever discover this book. And here you are reading it. What are the odds? Aren’t you lucky? David Elikwu – Sovereign I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Sovereign, which comes out today. David describes it as ‘a guide to building a self-directed… Read More »Luck Magnet: David Elikwu’s ‘Sovereign’ is out now The post Luck Magnet: David Elikwu’s ‘Sovereign’ is out now appeared first on Driverless Crocodile.| Driverless Crocodile
Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love. He naturally dreads, not only to be hated, but to be hateful; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of hatred. He desires, not… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
TRANSLATORS NOTE (1940) [U.S. has not yet entered the Second World War] In July, 1941, the undeclared war between China and Japan will enter its fifth year. One of the most significant features of the struggle has been the organization of the Chinese people for unlimited guerrilla warfare. The development of this warfare has followed… Read More »Uproar in the East, Strike in the West: Samuel B. Griffith on Mao Zedong’s Yu Chi Chan (Guerrilla Warfare) The post Uproar in the East, Strike ...| Driverless Crocodile
Sarah Paine is a professor of History and Grand Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College. This excellent lecture sheds a lot of light on strategy in the Pacific in WW2, and contains great illustrations of how worldview affects decision making and strategy. Recommended. This one’s next: See also: One Hundred Million Souls for the… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
Other things are rarely equal. All things never are. What the ocean does: swell direction and height, wave interval, secondary swell, wind strength, tide (high or low, spring or neap), dawn or dusk, rain or shine, bake or freeze. The contours of the seabed and the beach: where the reef begins, where the sand’s shifted,… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
Worldview: Sarah Paine on Japanese culture and strategy in World War 2| Driverless Crocodile
Arendt wrote the prologue to The Human Condition not long after the successful launch of Sputnik raised the first realistic prospect of humanity taking its first steps off-planet, and in the shadow of threatening and perplexing developments in atomic and quantum physics (see her comments on the crisis of language in the sciences). It’s a… Read More »Hannah Arendt on science, language, politics and our future machine overlords The post Hannah Arendt on science, language, politics and our...| Driverless Crocodile
It would be no surprise to me if it came as no surprise to you that running a leaf blower for thirty minutes produces far less pollution than driving a Ford Raptor from Texas to Alaska. Or that an hour’s use of a leaf blower emits nowhere near as much carbon as driving a Toyota… Read More »Fact check: Comparing Leaf Blower Carbon Emissions with Pollution from Cars The post Fact check: Comparing Leaf Blower Carbon Emissions with Pollution from Cars appeared first on Driverless Crocodile.| Driverless Crocodile
See also: GK Chesterton on HG Wells and the function of an open mindFools’ Money (2): Counter ArgumentChesterton’s Fence (at Farnham Street)| Driverless Crocodile
Disclaimer: I’m an intermediate surfer. This post is for people a step or two behind me, so your mileage may vary – let me know what I’ve missed in the comments. I’m convinced that most surf coaching videos and websites spend way too much time talking about the pop up* and way too little time… Read More »Surfing: Why does it help to arch your back when paddling? (it isn’t for leverage) – Surf Lessons #8 The post Surfing: Why does it help to arch your back when paddling? (it is...| Driverless Crocodile
Here’s Stephenson, from his Substack: Speaking of the effects of technology on individuals and society as a whole, Marshall McLuhan wrote that every augmentation is also an amputation. I first heard that quote twenty years ago from a computer scientist at Stanford who was addressing a room full of colleagues—all highly educated, technically proficient, motivated… Read More »Neal Stephenson on augmentation as amputation The post Neal Stephenson on augmentation as amputation appeared fi...| Driverless Crocodile
Newbigin was a sharp but affectionate observer of Western culture, a highly educated insider with an extra layer of perspective that came from almost 40 years lived in India from 1936 to 1974. Soviet leaders regarded science simply as a necessary tool for the implementation of their social planning. The idea that pure science should… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
You can’t start a fire without a spark… and fuel… and… Asked what a cause is, we may be tempted to say that it is an event which precedes the event of which it is the cause, and is both necessary and sufficient for the latter’s occurrence; briefly, that a cause is a necessary and… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
Some foundational assumptions:| Driverless Crocodile
If you want a problem solved in such a way that you’ll never have to think about it again your options are: When we say we want a sustainable solution we’re often in practice asking for a final solution. We’re saying something like: “I want to use this small up-front investment to create a perpetual… Read More »| Driverless Crocodile
