I waked up early this morning at 5 and ended up finish a lot of housework. Everyone needs one of these days which you can be alerted and work out something which is important long term.
Then I continued to read ZAMM and finished another 40 pages. Once again, I feel this is one of the most important book I read intellectually since I came to the U.S.. In the world of knowledge, there are generally two types of knowledge, one is based on logic, arguments, or what Prisig calls "the classical knowledge". There is also another knowledge which expressed only in artistic manner and aesthetic. Or what Prisig calls "the romantic knowledge". In real-life, one will constantly face situation where one needs to apply both so called classical knowledge and the romantic knowledge. This is especially true if you are serious about something.
In my case, I found that I need to exercise my mind intensively on several activities. That includes (sort of in the descending order of importance) Learning, Thinking, Reading, Writing, Science, Mathematics, Programming, Philosophy, Psychology. To a lesser extent, all the Games I like to play. I found that in all these cases, both types of knowledge are need. You will also see that people who are bad in doing them are the ones who always think this subject as only one sided.
I frankly got to admit that I was stuck in several of these subjects. For example, in Science, I always found that I am a lesser scientist than people around me. I know people who can solve a problem faster than me. In writing, there are always people come by and tell me how my writing is bad. Same happens in programming.
I always feel lost about these issues. To an extent, the issue really boils down to what "good" is for these subjects. If you really think about it, and just like what Prisig realized, it is extremely hard to define what "good" is in writing and programming. Or in Science and Math, it's tough to ask what a good research is.
But the strange thing is we all know what "good" is when we look at the writing, or the program, or the research papers. This has always been baffled me. I believe Prisig has given me a very good idea. I would not say I agree or disagree with his thought. But at least I feel great that someone think deeply in those issues.
If you like to think and read this message, I strongly suggest you to read ZAMM. I believe it resolves many issues for smart people.
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