A Gentleman's Library

On one of the auction sites that I lurk, I came across this fascinating auction, entitled, A Gentleman's Library: collectibles, Books, Paintings and Curiosities.

And then I saw these 126 objects and sat back to imagine what kind of a library would this be? what kind of a gentleman would that be? it would obviously be a large airy room, with tall wooden bookcases with glass doors somewhere or other, with loads of shelves filled with fascinating curios and objects.

the gentleman is obviously fairly rich, very well educated and very widely read across a variety of subjects, topics, ages and locations. He also has an active imagination and has an eye for the interesting and curious.

As part of my research into spices, I am also checking probate records of spice merchants, and I think what you leave behind is a fascinating indication of what you are. What a fascinating exercise to look at what you leave behind and then try to think about what you were...

btw, didnt buy anything, far too expensive for my taste..

the questions to ask every day

lovely quote on the net. I am sure the book of the dead will have more to say about this, but...

You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions.  Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not.  
‘Have you found joy in your life?’ 
‘Has your life brought joy to others?’

once you boil it down to this formulation, then life is good. And why wait for the end of your life? just think of this at the end of every day...if not, why not? 

Chalkboards

I grew up in india where we had chalkboards. When I had to teach the first time in uni, I was so bloody nervous that I managed to break every chalk stick in the box. But I still get excited when I hold chalk in my arms. Very primeval reaction. Not usually found these days of whiteboards and board pens. Not fun indeed. 

And then you see this. How extraordinary. The best we would get up to in school was to draw penis pictures. And these Japanese students are something else. 

The Most Punctual Man in India

Gandhi is an amazing man kids. As you grow up and learn more about him, you'll understand why he's so amazing. And frustrating as well. His achievements, his thoughts, his views all have frustrated me for so long. I'm slowly working my way through his collected works online. He was a prolific writer and speaker. His collected works span more than 100 volumes. Four times that of an encyclopaedia Brittanica. Voracious reader and an encyclical genius. 

But I digress. This is about time. Time is the biggest enemy of mine. And my biggest friend at the same time. In work, I pride myself on being able to fix business. Or deliver things. This depends upon three things. The amount of work to be done. The amount of resources (money, people, technology) and the amount of time that I have. The first two I can change but one thing which I cannot is time. I can never recover any time. That's why it's my biggest enemy. 

But it's my friend as well kids. One of the advantages of believing in the Hindu philosophy means that I'm not restricted by normal lifetimes but on multiple lifetimes. One benefit is that I don't fear death. 

But timekeeping is vital kids. We have to be on time. It's the greatest form of respect to others and to yourself. We have so much left to do that needlessly wasting time is bleah. Bear in mind that this isn't meaning that you have to be on the go all the time son. Sitting and reading a book. Observing a sunrise. Sitting and talking to a friend are all things you want to do. But not waste time. 

Think of your life as a suitcase. You have a choice of just throwing things into it. Or  being organised and managing to fit in the tiniest sock and tie into a nook and cranny. (Btw I'm useless at packing) but life is like that. You want a full suitcase when you check out? Or an empty one which is disorganised? 

Finally, if you ask me, baba how do I know if I'm wasting time? Think back on anything that you did that didn't excite you. Or raised a smile. Or made you happy. Anything of those times indicate that you wasted that time. One learns. 

But in the meantime, be punctual. Respect yourself and others to be on time. 

It's kannu's special day today. And I still remember the wonderful day when he was born and I held him in my arms. That tiny little child cradled in my arms. Blinking slowly up at me. And the most joyous time of my life began. Which doubled when Diya was born. Time well spent :)

Love

Baba

The Most Punctual Man in India
http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/most-punctual-man-india
(via Instapaper)

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The watch never left his side. It was the first thing Gandhi reached for when he rose each morning at 4 a.m., and the last thing he checked before going to bed, often past midnight. He consulted it frequently through the day so as never to be late for an appointment. And, at that final moment, when three bullets from an assassin’s Beretta knocked him over, his 78-year-old body slumped to the ground, and the watch also stopped.

Mahatma Gandhi’s Ingersoll pocket watch, costing just a dollar, was among the handful of material possessions he owned. Since he didn’t have a pocket to carry it in, he attached the watch to his dhoti with a safety pin and a loop of khadi string. The Ingersoll is displayed in a glass case at the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi alongside his bloodstained dhoti and shawl. Together, the three items form a striking metaphor of Kala, the Hindu god of time who is also the god of death.

Gandhi’s legendary punctuality had a utilitarian imperative—without it he would never have been able to answer the sacks of letters and streams of visitors that demanded his attention each day. But, as with everything he valued, it had a moral imperative as well. Simply put, time was tied to his philosophy of trusteeship: the belief that just as we do not own our wealth but are trustees of it—and thus have to use it wisely—similarly, we are trustees of our time. “You may not waste a grain of rice or a scrap of paper, and similarly a minute of your time,” he wrote. “It is not ours. It belongs to the nation and we are trustees for the use of it.” Consequently, any abuse of time was unethical. “One who does less than he can is a thief,” he wrote to a friend. “If we keep a timetable we can save ourselves from the last-mentioned sin indulged in even unconsciously.” While this focus on punctuality may portray Gandhi as skittish and anxious, the opposite was true: a timetable allowed him to give the issue at hand his tranquil and undivided attention.

Can identity be chosen or is it inborn? – Katharine Quarmby – Aeon

The answer is yes to both. 

Think about it. You guys were born and both of you inherited some identities immediately. Hindu background. Indian background. British citizenship and nationality. Male or female. Londoner. Suburban. And so on and so forth. 

And as you grow, you will keep on getting new identities and discard old ones. You may move to Paris so become Parisian. You may decide to become pastafarian so ignore and drop the Hinduism. And so on and so forth. There are two lessons to learn. 

One. Be supremely comfortable in what you are. Don't give a shit about what people say. You are what you are and are comfortable with it. 

Two. This is more interesting. You'll realise that people love to put other people into a box. As soon as they do, then they know how to react to you. But don't allow that. Force them to create a new box for you. For example, when people ask me where I'm from, I say I'm from Burma. Or I'll say I'm from Sweden. Or talking about religion, say you're a Jedi. People get confused. And don't understand. Don't allow yourself to be pigeonholed. It's fun. 

Love

Baba

Can identity be chosen or is it inborn? – Katharine Quarmby – Aeon
http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/can-identity-be-chosen-or-must-it-be-inborn/
(via Instapaper)

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Alice, the heroine of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking‑Glass (1871), has many extraordinary encounters, but the one that's always stuck with me is her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, an egg-shaped being, balanced on a wall. He is annoyed when Alice calls him an egg, he tells her she should stop growing, and they end by arguing about the contextual meaning of the word 'glory'.

'When I use a word,' Humpty says, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty, 'which is to be master – that's all.'

As Alice walks away, Humpty Dumpty comes crashing to the ground.

How do I tell my son about death?

I've spoken to both of you about death many times. And it's quite a straightforward thing for me kids. Yes you will feel sad and will shed tears but I hope not. I have had nothing but joy with you two. So when I have to leave, I want you to remember the fun and happy times we had. And you will need to be strong for mamma and make her happy. Make her think of the happy times. 
Death is the final adventure kids. I'm a Hindu so I don't have that many psychological hang ups as Christians or Muslims or Jews do. Their religious worldview is based upon the fact that their existence ends when they die. This author is an atheist and still thinks that his life finishes at death. Not mine. I will be going on to do more.  There's more lives in store for me. More fun to have. More chips to eat. More mountains to hike. And more books to read. And more places to go. And and and. 
So no worries about death. It's fun. Just a gate or door to another life kids. The greatest adventure begins again. 
It was good seeing both of you Kannu. :) she's a lovely girl. Very nice and quiet. I hope you had a good time with her. 
Btw, we have a great book at home. The book of questions. It's a very powerful book to use to learn about the other person in your life. There are no right answers. Or all answers are right. And those answers tell you much about you and her. It's fascinating to learn about yourself and her. Try it out :) 
Love
Baba



How do I tell my son about death? – Cormac James – Aeon
http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/how-do-i-tell-my-son-about-death/
(via Instapaper)

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I have a good arsenal of strategies to dip into when my five-year-old son tells me: 'Dad, I don't want to have a bath' or 'Dad, I don't want to go to school'. In fact, it feels like the past few years have been a schooling in communications and sales strategy, for a particularly difficult customer. But when he told me recently: 'Dad, I don't want to die', I found I didn't have a pitch. I didn't even have anything I wanted to sell.
I wish I did. I'd love to give him an answer that would completely quieten his anxiety, because, like most parents, I feel towards my child a duty of not only physical but also psychological care. My problem is this: I'm a card-carrying atheist, and I feel a competing sense of duty towards the truth. Two things that seem not just mutually exclusive but vigorously, irrepressibly, tomandjerrily antagonistic. Care versus Cruelty. Comfort versus Fact. Child versus Death.
I try to get him to talk, to see what exactly he thinks dying is, all the better to hear what he's frightened of, and to see if some sly fudge might be made that neither denies the problem nor sells him a lie. Sensitive plant, he shrinks at the slightest prod, and won't – or can't – voice anything but vague apprehension. The mere idea is a place he doesn't want to go. The one revealing hint comes in his off-hand question: 'When you're dead, can you still imagine things, like for dreaming?' 'Dead' for him seems to be Little Red Riding Hood in the wolf's belly, or Snow White in her glass coffin waiting to wake – not dead dead, just less alive than he is now, on account of something nasty. That's the worst his imagination can come up with, apparently, and it's an idea I'm inclined to let him play with, at least until I decide how best it ought to be corrected, if at all.
I consult friends – two trenches over, with kids of their own – to see what line they've sold about death, and how that went down. In every home, at every bedside, the children seem to have been told the same story: 'it' is something that will happen in a long, long time, in a strange land, far, far away. (I particularly liked my friend T's line, telling his son that it's not actually him, the little boy, who's going to die, but a very wrinkly, crotchety old man with the same name.)

Self help

Makes one think eh?

a bit of a basic set of rules, but gosh, makes sense indeed. 

A little slice of heaven

I saw this photo today. And for some strange reason, I just stared at it for a long long time.

this is just an amazing image. this is my dream place…and I WILL have it :)

My First Mistake

Kannu

An amusing story about the first mistake made on a job. Such is life son. I remember mine. I was left in charge of the overnight support for a software company. And a call came from a bank at 12 midnight that the batch had failed. So I called Philadelphia which is where our main support is and they investigated and recommended rerunning the batch which I dutifully relayed. 

It buggered up the database because id forgotten to tell them to go to backup first. 

This was 24th dec. you were just born. And I spent the next 4 days at the bank. With countless others. Working to fix the issues. That was a bad bad situation. Not something that I'd like to repeat. 

Nobody blamed me. I was hardly 3 months into the job. But there you go. 

Love

Baba

My First Mistake
http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/roundtable/my-first-mistake.php

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•  

  The victim of the first big mistake I ever made was a gentleman to whom I had never been properly introduced (and whose name I still do not know) but who was possessed of three singular qualities: he was alone in a room with me, he was without his trousers, and he was very, very dead.

  Some context might be useful. It was the winter of 1962. I was eighteen years old and had taken a year off before going up to Oxford University. I also had a girlfriend far away in Montreal, and in the superheated enthusiasm of my puppy love, I had promised to visit her. The fact that I then lived in London and she three thousand miles away meant that fare money had to be amassed: I had to get a job, and one that paid well enough to allow me to get away to Canada as quickly as possible.

  London had two evening papers back then, the News and the Standard. It was in the classified columns of one that I spied the advertisement: “Mortuary Assistant required,” it said. “Eleven pounds weekly.” The bar to entry was hardly Himalayan. “Some basic knowledge of human anatomy an advantage, though not essential. Telephone Mr. Utton, Whittington Hospital, Highgate.”

Old People need so little but they need that so little so much

When I was a small boy, I read this quote, “Old People need so little but they need that so little so much” and that has stayed with me since. Now I am a middle aged git, it again pops up now and then. I guess previously I was interested in this because I was hoping to get to know and help the older generation. Now that I am middle aged, I am considering how I will prepare for old age. Loneliness? But here’s an article which made me think

Elderly perceived themselves to be the transmitters of religious education both in the
family sphere and community sphere. There was concern among the Indian elderly of modi-
fying their practices, to suit the changing times as is captured in the following quotation.
If anybody dies, they call me first. My function is not only to practise custom but also
to give solace and consolation to people who are in grief. This is my main part. I also
train assistants. We should not stick to the past. Many boys and girls in my Jain com-
munity ask ‘Why is this done?’ If I cannot answer I will lose respect. I explain to them
from the knowledge I have Ieamed about religions and traditions. Certain traditions are
simply done for no reason. We should keep only the necessary traditions . . . (Indian
male in elderly group).
The successful transmission of religious education to younger generations is seen as an
art requiring sensitive modifications to adapt to the needs of the younger audience

I think I will go potter around in a university :)

Dominick Dunne on His Daughter's Murder

This story moved me like nothing. I was reading the story on the tube and suddenly it became very dusty. 

As the old quote goes, no man should have to bury his child. That would be painful enough. But to have my child murdered? And then to sit through a trial like this? That would require the patience and forbearance of a saint. I wouldn't have been able to do so. My little princess being hurt? Wouldn't disembowelling and then shoving the living carcass into a diving chamber at full blast be an apt response? 

Dominick Dunne on His Daughter's Murder | Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1984/03/dunne198403?printable=true

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Crime and Punishment

Justice

A father’s account of the trial of his daughter’s killer.

It was the beginning of a long hot summer. I flew to Los Angeles on July 5, 1983, for an indefinite stay. Throughout the flight from New York I engaged in diligent conversation with the stranger next to me, postponing as long as possible facing the feelings of dread within me. My two sons, Griffin and Alex, had preceded me out from New York. Alex, the younger one, met me at the airport, and we drove into Beverly Hills to the house where my former wife, Ellen Griffin Dunne, called Lenny, lives. Griffin was already there. It is not the house we lived in as a family. It is smaller and on one level. Lenny has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair. We were gathering, a family again, for a murder trial.

The first time I saw Lenny she was getting off a train at the railroad station in Hartford, Connecticut. She was ravishing, and I knew that instant that I would marry her if she would have me. We had a large wedding at her family’s ranch in Nogales, Arizona, in 1954, and after living briefly in New York, we moved to Beverly Hills, where I worked for twenty-five years in television and films. We had five children, two of whom died when they were only a few days old. Long divorced, we have, rightly or wrongly, never become unmarried. Often I have felt through the years that our lives might have been better if we had just stuck out the difficult years of our marriage, but I do not know if she would agree with that. We never venture into the realm of what might have been. I refer to her in conversation as my wife, never my ex-wife, and there is not a day in which she does not occupy my thoughts for some period of time. We communicate regularly and mail each other clippings we cut out of newspapers, and I no longer resent, as I once did, addressing her as Mrs. E. Griffin Dunne rather than as Mrs. Dominick Dunne.

When the telephone in my New York apartment woke me up at five o’clock in the morning on October 31, 1982, I sensed as I reached for the receiver that disaster loomed. Detective Harold Johnston of the Los Angeles Homicide Bureau told me that my twenty-two-year-old daughter, Dominique, was near death at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. I asked him if he had notified my wife. He said he was calling from her house. Lenny got on the phone and said, “I need you.”

“What happened?” I asked, afraid to hear.

“Sweeney,” she answered.

“I’ll be on the first plane.”

Buzz Bissinger Shopping Addiction Story

At first, son, when I read this, I was amazed and felt quite superior thinking of this chap as a muppet. As a person whose clothing skills range from boring off the shelf ill fitting suits to crack exposing shabby jeans, the idea of spending 1/2 million dollars on Gucci clothes is preposterous. 

Then I figured, actually I'm guilty of obsessions and addictions as well. I used to smoke for decades! So that was an addiction. 

I'm obsessed with buying books and to a lesser extent watches and cuff links. It's long past the point that I can logically justify buying more books as I already have more than enough unread books to last me couple of years. It's tough to beat addiction and obsessions. 

So salutary lessons kannu. Avoid. 

Then again, what are the heights of humankind other than obsessions and addictions? Where would we be without Michelangelo's magnificent obsession with art? 

Tough one eh? 

Love 

Baba

Buzz Bissinger Shopping Addiction Story: Newsmakers: GQ
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201304/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-addiction?printable=true

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Newsmakers

In the past few years, I’ve bought eighty-one leather jackets. Dozens of boots and leather gloves. I’ve purchased pants that cost $5,000. I own a $22,000 coat. This winter I took a tour of Milan’s Fashion Week (all expenses paid by Gucci, in appreciation of my many, many purchases), where I spent tens of thousands more and began to seriously grapple, once and for all, with a compulsion that could cost me more than just my life savings. My name is Buzz Bissinger. I am 58 years old, the best-selling author of ‘Friday Night Lights,’ father of three, husband. And I am a shopaholic

Creative Jobs Versus Financial Stability - Is Creative Ambition Enough to Get Financial Stability

Son

Didu told me a story when I would read books rather than study. It was about a man who gets down from a big expensive car wearing a suit and bumps into a woman. She is his old gf who had dumped him as he never could show determination to do something in his life. Always lost in books and dreams. After a coffee, they parted ways. The gf is kicking herself for having let him go. And then the next scene is of the man who lives in a little pokey room on top of a garage. He is a driver. Still reads books but also drinks. 

That stayed with me and still does. I could have been that man son if luck/god/whatever hadn't intervened. So do have a creative side. Paint. Write. Sing. Teach. Photograph. But only after you have financial security. I'm proud of your saving habits. When you told mamma that you will buy your phone from your own money, I was so proud. Seriously. That's my boy. 

Keep on it son. I love you. 

Baba

Creative Jobs Versus Financial Stability - Is Creative Ambition Enough to Get Financial Stability - ELLE
http://www.elle.com/life-love/society-career/creative-ambition-versus-financially-stable-job

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When I was 26, my then roommate was a great scavenger of furniture. One day, she came home with a daybed frame: a twin-size wooden box with only three legs, which is likely why someone had left it on a curb in the first place. The frame sat propped against our dining room wall for the next year, until I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband), and she let us take it. My husband made a fourth leg out of salvaged wood, and we found a cushion that more or less fit the frame in the “as is” section of IKEA. The back was constructed from a mattress pad rolled up and stuffed into a homemade pillowcase, and the whole ensemble was eventually covered with some black corduroy fabric that we bought for $10. All told, I think we spent about $40 on the “couch.” That was six years ago. At the time, I thought of our jury-rigged furniture as a temporary arrangement, a way station on the path to adulthood. Now it serves as a reminder of how slow and grueling the road to financial security can be.

Which brings me to a second anecdote, one that occurred about a year ago. Over a plate of pasta one night, my husband told me that I needed to make more money. I don’t remember what prompted it, whether we were discussing saving for a down payment or planning a vacation, but regardless of the topic, it was hard to argue with his point. If I really wanted the things I said I did, we’d need more than we were bringing in, than I was bringing in, because, as he implied, I was the one who wasn’t really holding up my end.

Princeton's Marriage Market Theory Worked for Me

From an aesthetic and romantic perspective it sounds cold blooded and far too planned. But there is truth in this article. Human behaviour can be modelled. Even if you are not interested in economics, your behaviour and the way society and fellow individuals act behave and are structured are based in economics. 

The benefits of marriage are many and are well known. So in terms of maximising your life's happiness, be on the lookout for a good partner at LSE or Oxford or Cambridge wherever you go. This is the best population for you to find your partner. After this, the chances drop dramatically. It's simple statistics and macroeconomics that you will never come across such watering holes with such high density of potential mates. Don't rely on blind luck son. 

So find a mate by the time you graduate in 20-22 years in uni. This doesn't mean you become celibate. Far from it. Explore. But when you find the one and the point is to find the one in uni. Be with them. Marriage around 25-28 and life will be good. Any changes to this timeline and your lifetime happiness will be reduced or be suboptimal. Simple economics. 

Of course shit happens but plan and aim for the best and prepare for the worst. 

Love

Baba

Princeton's Marriage Market Theory Worked for Me - Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-03/princeton-s-marriage-market-theory-worked-for-me.html

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Most of my research deals with the economics of cities, but I have a smattering of knowledge in the minor field of spouse-meeting at Princeton.

There is usually little demand for such arcana — the American Economic Association has never held a symposium on the topic — but the blogospheric explosion after an alumna’sletter to the Daily Princetonian advising female students to “find a husband on campus before you graduate” led my editor to urge me to weigh in.

While I don’t feel I can provide advice to young women, I am comfortable, based on both personal experience and the infallible majesty of economic theory, urging young male Princetonians to view your female classmates as prospective long-term friends and spouses (the qualifications for the two roles having much in common), rather than short-term amorous encounters.

The letter writer, Susan Patton, is surely right that for many people, college years provide the high point of intense exposure to a wide range of prospective life partners.       

However, my own finely tuned algebraic simulations of an optimal spousal-search model find that while college provides an ideal time to accumulate a large stock of good friends (prospective spouses), it is typically suboptimal to wed at age 21 because of preference uncertainty and the benefits of continuing to meet alternatives.

Niven's laws

One of my friends shared this link with me. Very amusing some of them son. Perfect to sprinkle in your conversation or essays. Provides a bit of zest. Btw, a bit of a sneaky tip. In your exam papers and essays, just a small hint of humour increases your marks. Marking papers is a bloody boring job. One of the main reasons why i couldn't be full time in academia. So when I read something a bit amusing, it increases my marking generosity. And many other teachers have said so to me as well. 

Love

Baba. 

Niven's laws - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niven%27s_laws#Niven.27s_Law_.28re_Time_travel.29

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Niven’s laws were named after science fiction author Larry Niven, who has periodically published them as “how the Universe works” as far as he can tell. These were most recently rewritten on January 29, 2002 (and published in Analog Magazine in the November 2002 issue). Among the rules are:

Never fire a laser at a mirror.

Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naïve.

It is easier to destroy than to create.

Ethics change with technology.

The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.

Others

Niven’s Law (re Time travel)

See also: Novikov self-consistency principle

A different law is given this name in Niven’s essay “The Theory and Practice of Time Travel”:

Niven’s Law

If the universe of discourse permits the possibility of time travel and of changing the past, then no time machine will be invented in that universe.

Hans Moravec glosses this version of Niven’s Law as follows:

There is a spookier possibility. Suppose it is easy to send messages to the past, but that forward causality also holds (i.e. past events determine the future). In one way of reasoning about it, a message sent to the past will “alter” the entire history following its receipt, including the event that sent it, and thus the message itself. Thus altered, the message will change the past in a different way, and so on, until some “equilibrium” is reached—the simplest being the situation where no message at all is sent. Time travel may thus act to erase itself (an idea Larry Niven fans will recognize as “Niven’s Law”).

Ryan North examines this law in Dinosaur Comics #1818.

This proposition is also extensively examined in James P. Hogan’s Thrice Upon a Time.

(stories)

is also the title of a 1984 collection of Niven’s short stories.

Included in the 1989 collection N-Space are six laws titled Niven’s Laws for Writers. They are:

Writers who write for other writers should write letters.

Never be embarrassed or ashamed about anything you choose to write. (Think of this before you send it to a market.)

Stories to end all stories on a given topic, don’t.

It is a sin to waste the reader’s time.

If you’ve nothing to say, say it any way you like. Stylistic innovations, contorted story lines or none, exotic or genderless pronouns, internal inconsistencies, the recipe for preparing your lover as a cannibal banquet: feel free. If what you have to say is important and/or difficult to follow, use the simplest language possible. If the reader doesn’t get it then, let it not be your fault.

Everybody talks first draft.

In the acknowledgments of his 2003 novel Conquistador, S.M. Stirling wrote:

And a special acknowledgment to the author of Niven’s Law: “There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is ‘idiot’.”

(from Known Space)

Drawn from Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven

1. Never throw shit at an armed man.
2. Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.

Never fire a laser at a mirror.

Mother Nature doesn’t care if you’re having fun.

F × S = k. The product of Freedom and Security is a constant. To gain more freedom of thought and/or action, you must give up some security, and vice versa

Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.

It is easier to destroy than create.

Any damn fool can predict the past.

History never repeats itself.

Ethics change with technology.

Anarchy is the least stable of social structures. It falls apart at a touch.

There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.

The ways of being human are bounded but infinite.

The world’s dullest subjects, in order:

Somebody else’s diet.

How to make money for a worthy cause.

Special Interest Liberation.

The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.
Niven’s corollary: The gene-tampered turkey you’re talking to isn’t necessarily one of them.

Fuzzy Pink Niven’s Law: Never waste calories.

There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
in variant form in Fallen Angels as “Niven’s Law: No cause is so noble that it won’t attract fuggheads.”

No technique works if it isn’t used.

Not responsible for advice not taken.

Old age is not for sissies.

Robert Peston on his wife Siân Busby: 'I miss her all the time'

A paean to a loved one. Brave? Most definitely. Curious eh? To see and read these memories? Lucky that they had such a love to share and behold son. 

But one thing. Don't cry when I leave. One of my teachers told me that tears are an expression of regret. Regret that that person didn't get to do so many things. Play with them. Read with them. Dance with them. Cook with them. So on and so forth. We have had fun son. We have done so many things together. So nothing to cry about. But be happy for the times we spent together. That's the thing. Look around you at the people you love. Will you cry if they go? Why? Regret? If there's regret then why haven't you done those things with them? Do it now! 

Be happy son. 

Love

Baba

Robert Peston on his wife Siân Busby: 'I miss her all the time' | Radio Times
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-05-05/robert-peston-on-his-wife-sin-busby-i-miss-her-all-the-time

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Siân Elizabeth Busby died on 4 September 2012 after a long illness. A few days later I transcribed her handwritten manuscript for the end of A Commonplace Killing, her final novel. My motive was selfish: I wanted to keep talking to her. I still do. The tears could not be staunched as I read, deciphered and typed. Foggy-brained, the transcription was spoilt by spelling mistakes and typographical errors. All mine. Siân’s prose was as pellucid and accurate as ever. And brave. Here she was, all hope lost of reprieve from the lethal cancer, reflecting on what it is like to know that death awaits on the morrow.

What caught me off guard is that the work is complete, and – for me at least – more-or-less perfect. Siân worked on it until the illness became excruciating and wholly incapacitating. I did not know, until reading handwriting as familiar as my own and hearing her voice in my head, that she had finished this exquisite work. I should have guessed. When Siân put her formidable mind to a project, whether it was teaching herself to read as an infant, years before going to school, or curating a museum on the history of Judaism (a non-Jew, she could hold her own in a scholarly spat with the rabbis, and inevitably knew far more about my inherited faith than me), or directing a 19-hour Chinese opera, she always triumphed. And as if to accentuate my own vanity, she was never smug, always dissatisfied with her own efforts, routinely critical of her achievements.

Why You Should Take the Blame - Peter Bregman

Bit amusing son but true. I'm seriously guilty of this. Blaming others. It's very easy and becomes the default reaction. Not good. 

One of many things that I need to fix. 

Love

Baba

Why You Should Take the Blame - Peter Bregman - Harvard Business Review
http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2013/04/why-you-should-take-the-blame.html

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I was at a party in Greenwich Village in New York City. It was crowded, with about twice as many people as the space comfortably fit. There was a dog in the mix too. But it was a casual event and we all spent a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning.

I was at the sink washing dishes when I heard the dog yelp behind me. I turned just in time to see a woman curse at the dog as it dashed out of the kitchen. She had obviously just stepped on his foot or tail.

“Watch out!” she shouted after the dog, then saw me looking at her and added, “He’s always in the way.”

Really? You step on a dog and then you blame the dog? Who does that?

The Charles Schulz Philosophy

Words to live by…

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip.
You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4 Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?
The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday.
These are no second-rate achievers.
They are the best in their fields.
But the applause dies...
Awards tarnish...
Achievements are forgotten.
Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with..

Easier?

The lesson:
The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the
most credentials, the most money...or the most awards.
They simply are the ones who care the most.

We Found Our Son in the Subway

What a touching story

The story of how Danny and I were married last July in a Manhattan courtroom, with our son, Kevin, beside us, began 12 years earlier, in a dark, damp subway station.

Danny called me that day, frantic. “I found a baby!” he shouted. “I called 911, but I don’t think they believed me. No one’s coming. I don’t want to leave the baby alone. Get down here and flag down a police car or something.” By nature Danny is a remarkably calm person, so when I felt his heart pounding through the phone line, I knew I had to run.

When I got to the A/C/E subway exit on Eighth Avenue, Danny was still there, waiting for help to arrive. The baby, who had been left on the ground in a corner behind the turnstiles, was light-brown skinned and quiet, probably about a day old, wrapped in an oversize black sweatshirt.

While having a bit of dust in my eyes, i started laughing as well as I remembered what Ma and Baba did to me.

I used to hate bathing when I was very young, they told me that they found me a bucket of shit on the wayside. And then Baba put a hanky over his nose and put it in the front of the scooter and drove it home. Then they cleaned me up but its difficult to get rid of the smell so they would keep on giving me a bath. (by this time, I am usually howling). And that’s why I need to shower/take a bath…so sniffling and howling, i would be dragged off to the bathroom and then my Ayah would scrub few millimetres of skin off my body. Parents are evil, I tell you.

I really believed that I was found in a bucket of shit for a very long period of time. Man o Man…im so stupid..

9 Rules for Success by British Novelist Amelia E. Barr, 1901

You cant argue against these century old rules…I specially liked the Cromwell’s note in #5

1. Men and women succeed because they take pains to succeed. Industry and patience are almost genius; and successful people are often more distinguished for resolution and perseverance than for unusual gifts. They make determination and unity of purpose supply the place of ability.
2. Success is the reward of those who “spurn delights and live laborious days.” We learn to do things by doing them. One of the great secrets of success is “pegging away.” No disappointment must discourage, and a run back must often be allowed, in order to take a longer leap forward.
3. No opposition must be taken to heart. Our enemies often help us more than our friends. Besides, a head-wind is better than no wind. Who ever got anywhere in a dead calm?
4. A fatal mistake is to imagine that success is some stroke of luck. This world is run with far too tight a rein for luck to interfere. Fortune sells her wares; she never gives them. In some form or other, we pay for her favors; or we go empty away.
5. We have been told, for centuries, to watch for opportunities, and to strike while the iron is hot. Very good; but I think better of Oliver Cromwell’s amendment — “make the iron hot by striking it.”
6. Everything good needs time. Don’t do work in a hurry. Go into details; it pays in every way. Time means power for your work. Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.
7. Be orderly. Slatternly work is never good work. It is either affectation, or there is some radical defect in the intellect. I would distrust even the spiritual life of one whose methods and work were dirty, untidy, and without clearness and order.
8. Never be above your profession. I have had many letters from people who wanted all the emoluments and honors of literature, and who yet said, “Literature is the accident of my life; I am a lawyer, or a doctor, or a lady, or a gentleman.” Literature is no accident. She is a mistress who demands the whole heart, the whole intellect, and the whole time of a devotee.
9. Don’t fail through defects of temper and over-sensitiveness at moments of trial. One of the great helps to success is to be cheerful; to go to work with a full sense of life; to be determined to put hindrances out of the way; to prevail over them and to get the mastery. Above all things else, be cheerful; there is no beatitude for the despairing.