- to make a case that most concept has some thing like an opposite twin;
-- maybe the twin is not opposite; maybe that each concept has a twin;
- to make a case for seeing a concept (idea, value, virtue, metric) as a spectrum;
- to make a case for seeing a concept to be like a balancing scale
- to make a case for understanding a concept to have multiple aspects (parts), with some aspects being fixed (static, unchanging), and some aspects being dynamic (organic, with ebb and flow, life cycle)
-- this true for a concept that represent a system
--- this would be less true to not true for fundamental or basic concept
-- by fixed, static, unchanging, we do not mean absolute, fixed, unchanging, like a constant; it is a relative fixed point, for reference, and because it is a reference point, we want it to be relatively stable; more importantly, the reference material (baseline, measurement) should be stable enough over a duration (period), in a given environment (temperature, pressure, humidity, gravitational force, corrosion resistance, decay); for example, geological stability; humidity and temperature wise, an underground cave is relatively stable;
-- by dynamic, we mean changing relative to the rest of the environment; for example, the wind is dynamic; the rain is dynamic; the river is dynamic; sunshine is dynamic; the weather is dynamic; however, the ground is relatively stable, until an earthquake, mudslide, or flash flood;
- to make a case that language, by its very natural dependent on human usage, can be under the influence of manipulation and deception.
- to make a case that some value (virtue) in extreme situation or taken to the extreme at either end of the spectrum is highly correlated with maladaptive behavior
- to make a case that many concepts (idea, value, virtue, metric) involve tradeoffs with other desired performance characteristics.
- to make a case that separate concepts (idea, value, virtue, metric) were often interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
____________________________________
Tim Ferriss, Tools of Titans, 2017 [ ]
p.175
“Andy Grove had the answer: For every metric, there should be another ‘paired’ metric that addresses adverse consequences of the first metric.”
Marc Andressen on Twitter
“... For every [virtue], there should be another ‘paired’ [virtue] that addresses adverse consequences of the first [virtue].”
“... For every [value], there should be another ‘paired’ [value] that addresses adverse consequences of the first [value].”
(Tim Ferriss, Tools of Titans, 2017, 081 Ferriss, )
____________________________________
Tony Schwartz with Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy., The way we're working isn't working: the four forgotten needs that energize great performance, 2010
p.30
On the one hand, it's undeniably more demanding and frustrating to improve in our areas of weakness than to build on our existing strengths. It's also true that we're likely to be more effective doing whatever it is we already enjoy most and do best.
On the other hand, a sole focus on strengths creates its own problems.
“There is always an optimal value”, explained the philosopher Gregory Bateson, “beyond which anything is toxic, no matter what: oxygen, sleep, psychotherapy, philosophy.”
The Stoic philosophers referred to this paradox as anacoluthia, the mutual entailment of the virtues.
No virtues, they argued, is a virtue by itself.
• No virtues is a virtue by itself.
Even the noblest virtues have their limits.
p.30
Honesty in the absence of compassion [empathy] becomes cruelty. Tenacity unmediated by flexibility congeals into rigidity. Confidence untempered by humility is arrogance. Courage without prudence is recklessness.
Because all virtues are connected to others, any strength over used ultimately becomes a liability. Inhaling deeply is useful, but only if we're equally capable of exhaling just as deeply. Even pleasure and pain are connected. Pushing beyond our comfort zone is uncomfortable, but it's the only means by which we can learn and grow, and ultimately perform better and experience deeper satisfaction. This understanding has ancient roots.
“”─“”‘’•─“”
pp.30-31
In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang refer to opposing forces that are actually interdependent and part of a greater whole. Seng-ts'an, a Chinese Zen master [a Japanese Zen master, or, a Chinese Ch'an master], put it this way: “If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind's worst disease.” [Zen is Japanese Buddhism that came to be adopted by, associated with the Japanese warrior class]
(Schwartz, Tony, 1952-, HF5549.5.P37S39 2010, 658.3'128—dc22, copyright © 2010)
(The way we're working isn't working : the four forgotten needs that energize great performance / Tony Schwartz, with Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy. — 1st Free Press hardcover ed., 1. performance., 2. work — psychological aspects., 3. organizational effectiveness., 4. personnel management., )
____________________________________
Even a sheet of paper has two sides
--Japanese Proverb
____________________________________
An introduction to buddhism
An introduction to buddhism : teachings on the four noble truths, the eight verses on training the mind, and the lamp fo the path to enlightenment
by The Dalai Lama
translated by Thupten Jinpa
2004, 2003, 2018
pp.92-93
At this point it may be helpful to reflect a little on the different levels of meaning in the principle of dependent origination. On one level dependent origination refers to the nature of things and events as understood in term of their dependence upon causes and conditions.
On another level this dependence can be understood more in terms of mutual dependence. For example, there is a mutuality of concepts between, say, long and short, in which something is posited as “long” in relation to something else that is “short”. Similarly, things and events have both parts and a whole; the whole is constituted of the parts, and the parts are posited in relation to the whole.
An introduction to buddhism : teachings on the four noble truths, the eight verses on training the mind, and the lamp fo the path to enlightenment
The Dalai Lama
translated by Thupten Jinpa
2004, 2003, 2018
____________________________________
Tao te ching
Lao Tsu
a new translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
TWO
Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.
Therefore having and not having arise together.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low rest upon each other;
Voice and sound harmonize each other;
Front and back follow one another.
Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching no-talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it last forever.
source:
https://terebess.hu/english/tao/gia.html#Kap02
____________________________________
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tao Teh King, by Lao-Tze
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Tao Teh King
Author: Lao-Tze
Release Date: July 12, 2008 [EBook #216]
Last Updated: February 4, 2013
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TAO TEH KING ***
Produced by Gregory Walker, and David Widger
THE TAO TEH KING,
OR
THE TAO AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
by Lao-Tse
Translated by James Legge
2. 1. All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is.
2. So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to (the idea of) the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one (the idea of) the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other; that (the ideas of) height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following another.
3. Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
4. All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show itself; they grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership; they go through their processes, and there is no expectation (of a reward for the results). The work is accomplished, and there is no resting in it (as an achievement).
The work is done, but how no one can see;
'Tis this that makes the power not cease to be.
source:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/216/216-h/216-h.htm
____________________________________
• what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning. ── Werner Karl Heisenberg [1901─1976]
• To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual. ── Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
[1770─1831]
- mutual dependence. (dependent origination)
- mutuality of concepts
- long and short: “long” exist in relation to that which is “short”.
- the whole is made up of the parts
- parts exist in relation to the whole.
John Bartlett.──17th ed., Bartlett's familiar quotations, 2002
p.760:11
p.760:13
p.760
Werner Karl Heisenberg
1901─1976
11 The more precisely we determine the position [of an electron], the more imprecise is the determination of velocity at this instant, and vice versa.1
On the Perceptual content of quantum
Theorectical kinematics and mechanics [1927]
1 Heisenberg's “uncertainty principle.”
13 Since the measuring device has been constructed by the observer ... we have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Physics and philosophy
p.390
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1770─1831
6 To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.
Philosophy of history, introduction
( Bartlett's familiar quotations : a collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern literature / John Bartlett; edited by Justin Kaplan.──17th ed., rev. and enl., 1. quotation, English, PN6081.B27 1992, 808.88'2──dc20, 2002, )
____________________________________
Wisdom Through the Ages
A Collection of Favorite Quotations
Hellen Granat
p.143
We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
——Anaïs Nin
p.390:6
6 To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual.
—— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770─1831
Philosophy of history, introduction
Bartlett's familiar quotations : a collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern literature / John Bartlett, p.390:6
(Wisdom Through the Ages : A Collection of Favorite Quotations / Hellen Granat, copyright © 1998, ——, p.143)
____________________________________
• the eventual cost and quality of the product is inseparable from the way it is made. (this statement is a given now a day; however, historically, this was not so; the coordination, communication and the system requirement to put [design for manufacturing] into practice is a heavy lift (big hurdle); [design for manufacturing] is its very own field of study, discipline, knowledge domain, research, and development; the most recent case I can point to is the current Starlink satellite production line.)
• the eventual cost and quality of the product is inseparable from the way it is made. (mutual dependency)
George Stalk, Jr. (and) Thomas M. Hout., Competing against time, 2009 [ ]
p.115
According to R. E. Gomory, then senior vice president for science and technology at International Business Machines, and R. W. Schmitt, a retired senior vice president for science and technology at the General Electric Company, in the United States
The design phase of the cycle of development has
traditionally concentrated on the features and performance
of the product rather than on the processes by which it is
manufactured. We design a product first and then tackle the
job of how it is to be made. Yet the eventual cost and quality
of the product is inseparable from the way it is made. If a
product can be made easily, its cost will be low and, most
probably, its quality high.3 . . .
Much has been said by industry and government leaders
about reforming the educational system and strengthening
the national scientific base——things that help build a strong
foundation. A strong science base supplies a vast storehouse
of new ideas, and a good educational system provides
engineers and manufacturing workers with knowledge; but
strength here cannot make up for inadequacies in the
functioning of the development and manufacturing cycle.
The United States must learn to succeed, not only in the
ladder type of innovation in which a wholly new idea from
science creates a wholly new product (the science-dominated
process at which we have succeeded in the past), but also at
the rapid-cycle, engineer-dominated process of incremental
product improvement. Neither process is a substitute for the
other; we need both. 4*
* Excerpts, Vol. 240, Page 1204, 27 May 1988, "Science and Product." Gomory, R. F. Copyright 1988 by the AAAS.
(Stalk, George, HD69.T54S73 1990, 658.5'6——dc20, copyright © 2009)
( Competing against time : how time-based competition is reshaping gloabl markets / George Stalk, Jr. (and) Thomas M. Hout., 1. time management., 2. delivery of goods., 3. competition, international., 4. comparative advantage (international trade)., )
____________________________________
• when you make a decision to take an approach - a particular course of action (coa) - the advantages and disadvantages do not "cancel-out" one another; the advantages and disadvantages do not balance each other out either, like on a balancing scale; you might benefit from the advantages, however, you also live with the dis-advantages; the advantages and dis-advantages are the properties (mutual dependency) of the decision; ...
• An advantage does not "cancel-out" dis-advantage, the disadvantage remain until 'corrective action' (gets rid of the known cause of a problem) are taken.
• a disadvantage does not "cancel-out" advantage; the advantage remain;
• disadvantages and advantages do not can "cancel-out" each other; both aspect remain;
using wealth & poverty as an example
• disadvantages [of relative poverty] and advantages [of relative poverty] do not can "cancel-out" each other; both aspect remain;
• disadvantages [of relative wealth] and advantages [of relative wealth] do not can "cancel-out" each other; both aspect remain;
• beyond a range (stage), additional wealth does not bring equal amount of additional benefit; (the principle of diminishing return comes into play);
• argument against merger and acquisition: beyond a range (stage) of scope and scale, bigger does not bring equal amount of additional benefit; (the principle of diminishing return comes into play); see book, Innovator's Dilemma, go to the section in the book with a list of merger and acquisition, and ...
- U.S. oriented view
• wealth & poverty, both is a relatively new concept; for most of human existing, there was really no need for the usage for the concept of wealth & poverty;
approach
p.202, p.203
Note that in choosing house A the manager knew why and on what grounds he was doing so. He did not take the "cancel-out" approach used by some managers in decision making. In this approach, ([in this approach]) the assumption is that an advantage cancels out a disadvantage so that things even up. This is not so.
([pause])
If there is a disadvantage attached to an alternative, finding an advantage does not get rid of it. Once the decision is made, the disadvantage will have to be lived with until it is removed by corrective action of some sort.
([pause])
The only safe way to deal with disadvantages in decision making is to recognize them and to keep them visible before one throughout the process. A final decision or course of action can then be made in full knowledge of the disadvantage rather than by glossing over defects and hiding them.
([pause])
Having all the assessments that enter into a decision visibly set forth is a major advantage in itself. For one may readily go back to reexamine the judgements made and consider corrective actions that can be taken to improve an already good alternative.
© 1965 by Charles H. KEPNER and Benjamin B. TREGOE
(The Rational Manager : A Systematic Approach to Problem Solving and Decision Making, Charles H. KEPNER, Benjamin B. TREGOE, © 1965, p.202, p.203)
____________________________________
the big hairy monster is global warming (G-5, G-7, G-20, BRICS)
it is big
it is hairy
it is a monster because the current industrial base, food, water, transportation, energy and practically everything that you see, know, dont know, taking for granted, comfort as a society and civilization is the root cause of global warming; modern civilization have been living on borrowed time; industrialization, modern mass production, rate of energy usage, consumption, pollution, waste, throw away, disposable, land filled, over production;
fossil fuel, coal, and ... in it of themselves in the ground, underground, inside the ground, embedded in the crust of Earth, do not cause problem and do not do anything; however, when we development the knowledge, understanding, capability, and capacity to find it, mine it, extract it, process it, figure out what to do with it, make it useful, apply it, make it practical, that is when we reap the advantages from their usefulness, and so with those advantages, we get accompanying disadvantages; the advantages do not cancel out the disadvantages; the advantages do not balance out the disadvantages; we live with the disadvantages; some of the disadvantages take a long time to provide society the necessary feedback to force the academy, science, and decision-makers to take action; what starts out as advantages could turn into disadvantages when view from the perspective of scope, scale, and a longer period of time horizon; the self-interest part of human nature is to pass on the disadvantages to someone else, to the next generation, to keep and use the advantages for special interested parties, ...;
the next nth generation - the ones that survive - will look back on this period and ask themselves, what were they thinking; how long did they think they could get away with it; and they will be reminded of all intelligence organizations cardinal rule: do not get caught!
1. do not break the rule.
2. when you break the rule, see #1
3. do not get caught!
4. And when you do get caught, have plausible deniability.
5. see #1
____________________________________
James C. Collins and Wiliam C. Lazier, Beyond entrepreneurship, 1992 [ ]
p.79
four types of mission
1. targeting
2. common enemy
3. role model
4. internal transformation
(Collins, James C. (James Charles), Beyond entrepreneurship : turning your business into an enduring great company / James C. Collins and Wiliam C. Lazier., 1. small business-management., 2. organizational effectiveness., HD62.7.C645 1992, 658.4--dc20, 1992, )
____________________________________
buddhism explanation of what is reality?
- principle of dependent origination pervade the entire spectrum of reality.
An introduction to buddhism
An introduction to buddhism : teachings on the four noble truths, the eight verses on training the mind, and the lamp fo the path to enlightenment
by The Dalai Lama
translated by Thupten Jinpa
2004, 2003, 2018
pp.92-93
At this point it may be helpful to reflect a little on the different levels of meaning in the principle of dependent origination. On one level dependent origination refers to the nature of things and events as understood in term of their dependence upon causes and conditions.
On another level this dependence can be understood more in terms of mutual dependence. For example, there is a mutuality of concepts between, say, long and short, in which something is posited as “long” in relation to something else that is “short”. Similarly, things and events have both parts and a whole; the whole is constituted of the parts, and the parts are posited in relation to the whole. ([ this is worth pointing out: a functional whole with all the parts working in harmony together is greater than the individual parts working independently by themselves - one definition of a community; as a matter-of-fact, a system (like a biological human organism as a system) is that each part exist in a dependent relationship with the whole; ... ])
principle of dependent origination.
- dependence upon causes and conditions.
- mutual dependence.
- mutuality of concepts
- long and short: “long” exist in relation to that which is “short”.
- the whole is made up of the parts
- parts exist in relation to the whole.
- designations, appellations, labels, and so on.
- a label or a name
- appellations
- these three levels of meaning in the principle of dependent origination pervade the entire spectrum of reality.
p.93
On another level still, the principle of dependent origination relates to the subject, which is the conceptual mind that creates designations, appellations, labels, and so on. As we have briefly discussed before, when we give something a label or a name we generally tend to assume that the labelled object has some kind of true, independent existence. Yet when we search for the true existence or esssence of the thing in question, we always fail to find it.
Our conclusion, therefore, is that while things do exist on the conventional level, they do not possess ultimate, objective reality.
Rather, their existence can only be posited as a mere appellation, designation, or label. According to Nagarjuna, these three levels of meaning in the principle of dependent origination pervade the entire spectrum of reality.
principle of dependent origination
- nature of things and events
- dependence upon causes and conditions
- causes and conditions
- causes ==> conditions
- conditions ==> causes
- causes <== conditions
- conditions ==> causes
- causes <=> conditions (??)
- conditions <=> causes (??)
- conditions ==> causes (the thing that make something happen)
- causal chains and conditions
- causal web of links and nodes =(which exist in relation to)= conditions
- causal [threads] =(which exist in relation to)= conditions [fabric]
- [conditional] fabric made from [causal] threads
- mutual dependence
- long and short: “long” in relation to “short”
- things and events have both parts and a whole
- the whole is make up of the parts
- parts exist in relation to the whole
- (conditions) =(is make up of)=> (causes)
- (causes or parts) =(exist in relation to)=> (conditions or the whole)
- (fibers) =( interwoven and twisted into )=> (threads)
- (threads) =( woven into )=> (the whole cloth)
- designations, appellations, labels, and so on
- a label or a name
- appellations [a title, “Great” in Great Britain as one example]
[a title, “Great” in Catherine the Great]
- principle of dependent origination pervade the entire spectrum of reality.
An introduction to buddhism : teachings on the four noble truths, the eight verses on training the mind, and the lamp fo the path to enlightenment
The Dalai Lama
translated by Thupten Jinpa
2004, 2003, 2018
____________________________________
- mutual dependence.
- mutuality of concepts
- long and short: “long” exist in relation to that which is “short”.
- the whole is made up of the parts
- parts exist in relation to the whole.
John Bartlett.──17th ed., Bartlett's familiar quotations, 2002
- the whole is made up of the parts
13 One composed of many.5
Minor Poems, moretum, l. 104
Virgil [Publius Vergilius Maro] 70─19 B.C.
5 E pluribus unus.
adapted (E pluribus unum) for the motto on the face of the Great seal of the united states, adopted June 20, 1782. For the latin on the reverse of the Great seal, see Virgil, 95:n16 and 96:n3.
( Bartlett's familiar quotations : a collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern literature / John Bartlett; edited by Justin Kaplan.──17th ed., rev. and enl., 1. quotation, English, PN6081.B27 1992, 808.88'2──dc20, 2002, )
____________________________________
what is a system?
“Any system consists of several individual parts. Each part is essential and related to each other part to attain a certain outcome; each acts as a stimulus to other parts. The system has an order and a sequence which is determined through the actions, reactions, and interactions among the parts. This constant interplay governs how the system manifests itself. A system has life only now, when its component parts are present.”, Virginia Satir, 'The New Peoplemaking', 1988, pp.130-131.
"Another important part of any system is that it tends to perpetuate itself. Once established, a system will stay the same until it dies or something changes it: a part breaks down from lack of care or because of a defect; or a catastrophic event affects the system. Sometimes even a minor incident can overwhelm the system, which indicates that the system's designers behaved as though change would never happen.";--the new people making, by virginia satir, 1988, p.136
4. Open or close (Virginia Satir, 'The New Peoplemaking') [ ]
Systems: Open or Closed?
<I have located the book, added page numbers, added some text, changed the formatting to match closer to the book. 01/10/2015>
<follow the link to see how the other person re-presented the TEXT.>
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaVAawimx1mOZGdiOXpzcG1fMzQ1ZjJqN21tZ2g&hl=en&authkey=CJqAyP4H
(link access & verify 01/10/2015)
pp.130-131
Systems: Open or Closed?
In this chapter I want to discuss something that at first you might not think has much to do with your family and peoplemaking. Stay with me. The concept of systems was borrowed from the world of industry and commerce. It has become a way of understanding how human being in groups work.
Any system consists of several individual parts. Each part is essential and related to each other part to attain a certain outcome; each acts as a stimulus to other parts. The system has an order and a sequence which is determined through the actions, reactions, and interactions among the parts. This constant interplay governs how the system manifests itself. A system has life only now, when its component parts are present.
Sounds confusing? It isn't really. You put yeast, flour, water, and sugar together to make bread. The bread isn't like any one of its ingredients, yet it contains all of them.
Steam isn't like any of its parts, but it contains them all.
All human life is part of a system. We hear a lot about beating the system, which would seem to say that all systems are bad. Not so. Some are and some are not. The implications of systems thinking for personal, family, and societal behavior are evident everywhere today; in the early Seventies, when this book first came out, they were just beginning to be apparent.
An operating system consists of the following:
A purpose or goal. Why does this system exist in the first place? In families, the purpose is to grow new people and to further the growth of those already here.
Essential parts. In families, this means adults and children, males and females.
An order to the parts' working.[<--verify 01/10/2015] In families, this refers to the various family members' self-esteem, rules, and communication.
Power to maintain energy in the system so the parts can work. In families, this power is derived from food, shelter, air, water, activity, and beliefs about the emotional, intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual lives of the family members and how they work together.
Ways of interacting with the outside. In families, this means relating to changing contents, the new and the different.
There are two types of systems: closed and open. The main difference between them is the nature of their reactions to change, both from the inside and from the outside.
.
.
.
([ as far as I know, no system is absolutely/completely closed or open. ])
p.132
... Closed family systems evolve from certain sets of beliefs:
People are basically evil and must be continually controlled to be good.
Relationships have to be regulated by force or by fear of punishment.
There is one right way, and the person with power has it.
There is always someone who knows what is best for you.
.
..
.
p.133
Now we come to an important philosophical question.
Do you believe that All human life deserves the highest priority?
"I believe this with all my being."
p.133
As before, ask them to take different names and to pick one of the growth-impeding communication styles (placating, blaming, computing, or distracting).
p.136
"Another important part of any system is that it tends to perpetuate itself. Once established, a system will stay the same until it dies or something changes it: a part breaks down from lack of care or because of a defect; or a catastrophic event affects the system. Sometimes even a minor incident can overwhelm the system, which indicates that the system's designers behaved as though change would never happen.";--the new people making, by virginia satir, 1988, p.136
pp.139-140
... Far too many adults have forgotten how to enjoy the simply pleasures children find in life. Simple sharing among groups can help greatly in these areas.
All families are in balance. The question is: What is the cost to each family member to maintain that balance?
I think the stakes are high regarding the nature of your family system. The family is the one place in the world where all of us can expect nurturing: soothing bruised souls, elevating self-worth, as well as getting things done.
The family is the obvious place to learn this nurturing and growing [and developing]. To achieve these goals and become truly vital, there has to be continual observation and changing and reshaping in the family. This can only take place in an open system.
The New Peoplemaking;
Virginia Satir, 1988;
pp.130-131, p.132, p.133, p.136, pp.139-140
____________________________________
highly correlated
“There are certain personality characteristics that are highly correlated with academic and professional success: dedication to work, attention to detail, ability to manage time, conscientiousness. People who have this constellation of traits are generally excellent students and productive workers. They can also be difficult to live with.”
“If we try to impose a businesslike, vertically integrated decision-making structure on our families, we are likely to encounter resentment and resistance. Conversely, if our style tends to be impulsive, superficial, and pleasure-seeking, we may find it difficult to succeed at work.”
source:
https://www.nateliason.com/notes/soon-old-late-smart-gordon-livingston
Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart by Gordon Livingston
____________________________________
• A given modification by itself may raise new, unanticipated difficulties or turn out to involve tradeoffs with other desired performance characteristics.
• separate innovations were often interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
Nathan Rosenberg, Inside the black box: technology and economics, 1982
p.123
The learning-by-using experience generates two very different kinds of useful knowledge that, borrowing from a well-established terminology, we may designate as embodied or disembodied. In the first case, the early experience with a new technology leads to better understanding of the relationship between specific design characteristics and performance that permit subsequent improvements in design. In this case, the result is an appropriate design modification. What we are describing here is a feedback loop in the development stage. Optimal design often involves many iterations. A given modification by itself may raise new,
unanticipated difficulties or turn out to involve tradeoffs with other desired performance characteristics. This knowledge is pursued in prototype testing, but such testing may not disclose various kinds of useful information.
p.246
The industrial revolution, beginning in Great Britain in the last third of the 18th century, had at its center a rapidly expanding armamentarium of new technologies involving new power sources, new techniques of metallury and machine making, a new modes of transportation. These new technologies, when successfully organized and administered, brought immense improvements in the productivity that transformed the lives of all participants.
p.246
The separate innovations - in metallury, power generation, and transportation - were, in significant ways, interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Often, one innovation could not be extensively exploited in the absence of others or the introduction of one innovation made others more effective. Metallurgical improvements, for example, were absolutely indispensable to the construction of more efficient steam engines. The steam engine, in turn, was utilized for introducting a hot blast of air into the blast furnace. The hot blast, by improving the efficiency of the combustion process, lowered fuel requirements and thereby reduced th price of iron. Thus, cheaper metal meant cheaper power, and cheaper power was translated into even cheaper metal. Similarly, the availability of cheap iron was essential to the construction of railroads. Once in place, however, the railroads reduced the considerable cost of transporting coal and iron ore to a single location. In this fashion, railroads reduced the cost of making iron. But cheaper iron, in turn, meant cheaper rails; this involved a further lowering of transportation costs, which again decreased the cost of producing iron. Thus, part of the secret of the vast productivity improvements associated with the new industrial technology was the the separate innovations were often interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
Although this transformation, which we call the industrial revolution, began in Britian, there was never any doubt that such new technologies would spread and be adopted elsewhere when the circumstances and surrounding condition permitted (or were created).
(Inside the black box./ Nathan Rosenberg, 1. technological innovations., 2. technology─social aspects., HC79.T4R673 1982, 338'.06, first published 1982, )
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https://blas.com/the-second-law/
• as [the] theory develops, we shall use our increased insight to build more general definitions and find the most all-embracing definition ... . That is ... the delights of science: the more deeply a concept is understood, the more widely [a concept] casts its net.
source:
The second law
P. W. Atkins
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1308474.The_Second_Law
The Second Law
(Scientific American Library Series #10)
by Peter Atkins
All natural change is subject to one law. It's the second law of thermodynamics. In this volume, the acclaimed chemist and science writer P. W. Atkins shows how this single, simple principal of energy transformation accounts for all natural change. Moving from the steam engine to the nuclear age, the narrative is full of vivid examples, ideas, and images - but virtually no mathematics.
https://blas.com/the-second-law/
The Second Law by PW Atkins
Summary
PW Atkins’ beautiful book, The Second Law, defines what the second law means and how it impacts every facet of the world and our lives
Key Takeaways
1.The Laws of Thermodynamics
1. The name thermodynamics is a blunderbuss term originally denoting the study of heat, but now extended to include the study of the transformation of energy in all its forms. It is based on a few statements that constitute succinct summaries of people’s experiences with the way that energy behaves in the course of its transformations. These summaries are The Laws of Thermodynamics. Although we shall be primarily concerned with just one of these laws, it will be useful to have at least a passing familiarity with all of them. There are four laws. The third of them, the second law, was recognized first; the first, the zeroth law, was formulated last; the first law was second; the third law might not even be a law in the same sense as the others
1. Zeroth Law
1. The zeroth Law was a kind of logical afterthought. Formulated by about 1931, it deals with the possibility of defining the temperature of things. Temperature is one of the deepest concepts of thermodynamics, and I hope this book will sharpen your insight into its elusive nature. Simply, around thermal equilibrium and
2. First Law
1. The first law is popularly stated as “energy is conserved.”
3. Second Law
1. The second law recognizes that there is a fundamental dissymmetry in Nature: the rest of this book is focused on that dissymmetry. All around us are aspects of that dissymmetry: hot objects cool, but cool objects do not spontaneously become hot; a bouncing ball comes to rest, but a stationary ball does not spontaneously begin to bounce. Although the total quantity of energy must be conserved in any process, the distribution of that energy changes in an irreversible manner. The second law is concerned with the natural direction of change of the distribution of energy, something that is quite independent of its total quantity
2. Energy drops from the hot source to the cold sink, and is conserved; but because we have set up this flow from hot to cold, we are able to draw only some energy off as work; so not all the energy drops into the cold. The cold sink appears to be essential, for only if it is available can we set up the energy fall, and draw off some as work. In every engine, there has to be a cold sink, and that at some stage of the cycle energy must be discarded into it. That little mouse of experience is nothing other than the second law of thermodynamics. All the law seems to be saying is that heat cannot be completely converted into work in a cyclic engine: some has to be discarded into a cold sink. That is, we appear to have identified a fundamental tax: Nature accepts the equivalence of heat and work, but demands a contribution whenever heat is converted into work. Note the dissymmetry. Nature does not tax the conversion of work into heat: we may fritter away our hard-won work by friction, and do so completely. It is only heat that cannot be so converted. Heat is taxed; work is not.
1. No process is possible in which the sole result is the absorption of heat from a reservoir and its complete conversion into work.
2. Similarly, no process is possible in which the sole result is the transfer of energy from a cooler to a hotter body (flow from cold to hot is possible but not natural. Only the spontaneous shift of heat from cold to hot without there being change elsewhere is against nature..)
3. Natural processes are accompanied by an increase in the entropy of the universe.
3. The domain of the second law is corruption and decay
([ work and heat are names of methods, not names of things (NOT a person, NOT a place, NOT a thing, a method) ])
([ work and heat are names relating to the transfer of energy ])
([ heat is a name of methods ])
([ heat is relating to the transfer of energy ])
([ heat means to transfer energy in a special way ])
([ heat is not a form of energy: it is a method of transferring energy ])
4. One of the most important contributions of 19th century thermodynamics is our comprehension that work and heat are names of methods, not names of things…Both heat and work are terms relating to the transfer of energy. To heat an object means to transfer energy in a special way (making use of a temperature difference between the hot and the heated). To cool an object is the negative of heating it: energy is transferred out of the object under the influence of a difference in temperature between the cold and the cooled. It is most important to realize, and to remember throughout the following pages, that heat is not a form of energy: it is the name of a method of transferring energy. The same is true of work. Work is what you do when you need to change the energy of an object by a means that does not involve temperature difference. Thus, lifting a weight from the floor and moving a truck to the top of a hill involves work. Like heat, work is not a form of energy: it is the name of a method for transferring energy.
5. Work into Quality
1. Suppose we have a certain amount of energy that we can draw from a hot source, and an engine to convert it into work. We know that the second law demands that we have a cold sink too; so we arrange for the engine to operate in the usual way. We can extract the appropriate quantity of work, and pay our tax to Nature by dumping a contribution of energy as heat into the cold sink. The energy we have dumped into the cold sink is then no longer available for doing work (unless we happen to have an even colder reservoir available). Therefore, in some sense, energy stored at a high temperature has a better “quality”: high-quality energy is available for doing work; low-quality energy, corrupted energy, is less available for doing work…Just as the increasing entropy of the universe is the signpost of natural change and corresponds to energy being stored at ever-lower temperatures, so we can say that the natural direction of change is the one that causes the quality of energy to decline: the natural processes of the world are manifestations of this corruption of quality
2. Here is our first major result of thermodynamics: we now know how to minimize the heat we throw away: we keep the cold sink as cold as possible, and the hot source as hot as possible. That is why modern power stations use superheated steam: cold sinks are hard to come by; so the most economical procedure is to use as hot a source as possible. That is, the designer aims to use the highest-quality energy…There appears to be a limit to the lowness of temperature. The conversion efficiency of heat to work cannot exceed unity, for otherwise the first law would be contravened…Absolute zero appears to be unattainable
1. Hottest possible source, coldest possible sink. This contrast offers the most efficient system
2. Some deep thread with velocity, friction, superheated sources and super cooled sinks
3. Quality must reflect the absence of chaos. High-quality energy must be undispersed energy, energy that is highly localized (as in a lump of coal or a nucleus of an atom); it may also be energy that is stored in the coherent motion of atoms (as in the flow of water)
6. When we do work on a system, we are stimulating its particles with coherent motion; when we heat a system, we are stimulating its particles with incoherent motion
1. Deep thread with coherence, superfluidity, work
7. Thermal equilibrium corresponds to the most probable state of the universe…So long as a process is occurring in which more chaos is generated than is being destroyed, then the balance of the energy may be withdrawn as coherent motion…The state of more chaos can allow greater coherence locally, so long as greater dissipation has occurred elsewhere…Order on any scale can arise from collapse into chaos: order springs locally from disorder elsewhere. Such is the spring of change.
8. Chaos determines not only destiny but also the rate at which that destiny is achieved
4. Third Law
1. The third law of thermodynamics deals with the properties of matter at very low temperatures. It states that we cannot bring matter to a temperature of absolute zero in a finite number of steps.
1. Fluid flows from a hot, thermally “high” source to a cold, thermally “low” sink
2. Other
1. Work and heat are mutually inter-convertible, and heat is not a substance like water
2. An engine is something that converts heat into work. Work is a process such as raising a weight. Indeed, we shall define work as any process that is equivalent to the raising of a weight. Later, as this theory develops, we shall use our increased insight to build more general definitions and find the most all-embracing definition right at the end. That is one of the delights of science: the more deeply a concept is understood, the more widely it casts its net.
1. Work is a way of transferring energy between a system and its surroundings; it is a transfer effected in such a way that a weight could be raised in the surroundings as a result. When work is done on a system, the change in the surroundings is equivalent to the lowering of a weight.
3. The godfathers of the field are Kelvin, Clausius, Carnot, and Boltzmann
What I got out of it
1. The last half was a bit too technical for me but there were a couple fundamental ideas which were clarified around the second law of thermodynamics. Two of the biggest, for me, are that quality of energy = capacity for work (think this is a fascinating way to think about the elusive idea of “quality”) and the idea that the larger the contrast between the hot source and the cold sink, the more efficient the system is (this is an idea which can be applied to every facet of your life…seek out contrast…, aka competitive advantage…)
sub-source:
Tim Ferriss, Tools of Titans, 2017 [ ]
p.322
The second law
P. W. Atkins
Chris Young
chefsteps.com
p.322
One of the books that Chris has found himself gifting a lot is an out-of-print book on thermodynamics called The Second Law.
“It was written by an Oxford physical chemistry professor named P. W. Atkins. That book is just an phenomenal, casual, infographic-laden read on how the world works from an energy perspective. I found that so incredibly useful in trying to understand how to do something, how to make something work, whether something's even possible. It's frequently my bullshit detector.”
(Tim Ferriss, Tools of Titans, 2017, 081 Ferriss, )
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