XXIIVV
Dieter Rams
Dieter Rams09+00

A collection of notes on general Knowledge.

The knowledge portal serves as a clipboard, a place to collect various bits of knowledge from various books and their authors.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The Rock by T. S. Eliot in 1934.

A collection of notes on Ascetism.

One must first place oneself from the point of view of Epicurus and distinguish natural from imaginary needs. When we are able to despise in practice all that is unnecessary to life, when we will disdain luxury and comfort, when we will savor the physical pleasure that come from simple food and drink.

The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, 'If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.'
Said Diogenes, 'Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king'

Anthony de Mello

A collection of notes on Health.

If you feel like everyone hates you, you need to sleep. If you feel like you hate everyone else, you need to eat.

health knowledge

Because when an organ is working properly, you don't feel it. If you see your eye, you've got cataract. If you hear your ears, you've got singing in your ears, you know, getting in the way of hearing. When you are fully functioning, you are unaware of the organ. When you're thinking clearly, your brain isn't getting in your way. Alan Watts

A collection of notes on Design.

You should be planning, expecting, desiring to live among material surroundings created, manufactured, distributed, through radically different methods from today's. It is your moral duty to aid this transformative process. This means you should encourage the best industrial design.

Get excellent tools and appliances. Not a hundred bad, cheap, easy ones. Get the genuinely good ones. Work at it. Pay some attention here, do not neglect the issue by imagining yourself to be serenely "non-materialistic." There is nothing more "materialistic" than doing the same household job five times because your tools suck. Do not allow yourself to be trapped in time-sucking black holes of mechanical dysfunction.

design knowledge

design pragnanz

A collection of notes on Writing.

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

writing knowledge

Improvement means deterioration.

programming practices

A collection of notes on Work.

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Parkinson's law
There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small village. As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, "How long does it take you to catch so many fish?"

The fisherman replied, "Oh, just a short while."

"Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?" The businessman was astonished.

"This is enough to feed my whole family," the fisherman said.

The businessman then asked, "So, what do you do for the rest of the day?"

The fisherman replied, "Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night."

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.

"I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches."

The fisherman continues, "And after that?"

The businessman laughs heartily, "After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich."

The fisherman asks, "And after that?"

The businessman says, "After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!"

The fisherman was puzzled, "Isn’t that what I am doing now?"

/classic Brazilian story

work knowledge

work habits

work charisma