Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Taking a break from my "Notes in the Raw" to give a Really Cool Quote from a book I'm reading...

"Of the value traps, the most widespread an pernicious is value rigidity. This is an ability to revalue what one sees because of commitment to previous values. In motorcycle maintenance, you must rediscover what you do as you go. Right values makes that impossible.

What you have to do, if you get caught in this gumption trap of value rigidity, is slow down – you’re going to have to slow down anyway whether you want to or not – but slow down deliberately and go over ground that you have been over before to see if the things you thought were important were really important and to... well... just stare at the machine. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just live with it for a while. Watch it the way you watch a line when fishing and before long, as sure as you live, you’ll get a little nibble, a little fact asking in a timid, humble way if you’re interested in it. That’s the way the world keeps on happening. Be interested in it."

Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, p.399/400

2 comments:

  1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an outstanding book. For many years I made a point of rereading it each year (that and Walden by Thoreau).

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  2. Haha, Yup... Keep your cycle tuned, my friend!

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