I cannot do everything

I am only one
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything
but still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
i will not refuse to do
the something that I can do.

~ Edward Everett Hale

Breathe

its my attention span, i think.
the reason i cant seem to get by things in peace.
and i never arrive at some tranquil palace with rock gardens.
but i need that baroque room with heavy oak doors,
that wont let in, or let out, even a whisper.
i need curtains, thick as tar.
at least for the next few hours. i need space to breathe.
or time maybe.

slam the door. be the lotus. white elephant.
close both the eyes. open the third.
the lake in Lumbini.
red-brown bricks. a site of excavation.
freeze. try not to let things associate with memories.
quick, try and find an object to focus on.
MDR-P180 Stereo Headphones.
Oh no. not wired for sound again.
the the the the the, the spoon! will do.
focus on the spoon.

the passage of time.

after a while its darkness. the spoon. it alighted.
first blue. then orange. then a semi ochre yellow and then green.
a pulsating shape. pulsating without strain.
then a monochromatic black. but blurred.

the passage of time.

flashes. of thought without movement. and a lot of speed.
sudden landing. opening. light. day.
fade in. a paved brick road.
noise. fish market in thailand. its drizzling.
and at the end of the road, an ice cream shop.
ice cream cones carved in elaborate persian motifs.

fade out. evening. almost amsterdam. by the sea.
i am reflected in a tall tilted structure of steel and glass.
reflecting the setting sun. tilting towards me. a building thats a bridge.
crossing over to some island town.
car wheels screaching above my head.

the passage of time.

this road goes nowhere. never been on a road that goes nowhere.
but this is how it would probably seem.
its the trees that give it away. those tall shiny swaying trees.
those trees by the road with green leather leaves.
i keep walking but nothing changes. nothing moves.
not in any direction. i keep on till i can see no more.

the passage of time.
i feel raw power. to move earth wind and water into charted territories.
the kind of power that is a real boiling potential of destruction.
the feeling doesn't last. it goes as soon as it comes.
all orifices duct-taped, leaving no room to converse.

cannot feel the passage of time. i look up.
blocks of lead falling from up? above? sky?
they just come to being whenever i look at them.
movable type. letterpress blocks.
they might be saying something.
they are definitely alpha-numeric roman alphabets.
but i cant relate to them in sequence.
even though they make perfect sense, each on its own.
dissolve.

senseless. a large auditorium. a large aquarium.
no fishes. everbody is waiting for the play to begin.
eventually it does. doesnt seem like much drama.
neither much costume. but its intense.
fishes swimming in the aquarium.
in a packed auditorium. curtains.

passage of time.
passage of an unknown amount of time.

my attention span is shrinking.
or maybe the scarcity of it coming back into being.

it doesnt seem too unreal. all of this.
i could spend a lifetime, not knowing where i am.
only if i didnt try to find out where i am.
but the thought itself, ripples up the darkness,
shattering the silence. pause.
where am i? i ask. i think. whichever.

eyes jerk open.
silence shuts down.
i look around.
i look at my self.
my bio-chemical casing.
my teeth are clenched.
my vertebra stiff.
all my limbs are numb.
i realise i should be breathing, properly.

Chordic Organisation

Purpose and Principles

Well, you really have to go deep. I spent months and months asking myself, "What is an organization?" If I'm talking about institutional and organizational change, what am I really talking about? What is an organization in the deepest sense? It surely isn't just a set of bylaws, because I can write a set of bylaws and shove it in a desk drawer, and it just becomes an old moldering piece of paper. And if you really think deeply about it, you discover that every organization and every institution, without exception, has no reality save in your mind. It's not its buildings. Those are manifestations of it. It's not its name, it's not its logo, and it's not some fictional piece of paper called a stock certificate. It's not money. It is a mental concept around which people and resources gather in pursuit of common purpose.

Now let's follow this just a little further. If that institution has no reality save in your mind and the minds of all your associates and the people who deal with it, then what is its real nature? What's its real strength? And that led me to believe that the heart and soul of every organization, at least every healthy organization, is purpose and principles. What is the purpose that brought you together and what is your system of beliefs about how you intend to conduct yourself in pursuit of that purpose? If your beliefs are based on the old model of top-down command and control, specialization, special privilege, and nothing but profit, your organization will, in time, turn toxic. It will become antithetical to the human spirit and destructive of the biosphere. The evidence is everywhere around us.

Your organization needs to be absolutely clear about purpose and principles and must be very careful to know what a purpose and a principle is—you know, a purpose is not an objective, it's not a mission statement—a purpose is an unambiguous expression of that which people jointly wish to become. And a principle is not a platitude—it is a fundamental belief about how you intend to conduct yourself in pursuit of that purpose. You have to get very precise about these things. If the purpose and principles are constructive and healthy, then your organization will take a very different form than anything that you ever imagined. It will release the human spirit and will be constructive of the biosphere. Natural capital and human capital will be released in abundance and monetary capital will become relatively unimportant. To put it another way, I believe that purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they'll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs.

I've found that it's very difficult to lead people through enough metaphors and enough thinking about this—you can only think about it so much and your circuit breakers just go out. You have to rest, reset them, and come back to it. And you go over and over it. But what I find is that once you get a group of people who really begin to understand this, then energy, excitement, and enthusiasm literally explode out of them—they know what to do. You know, it's just in their nature. You can't stop it.

So to go back to the question of change—you can see that because of these four hundred years of intense conditioning, we've been taught to fear change. If you're in a rigid, mechanistic, cause-and-effect society and/or organization, then any change becomes a crisis in self-esteem. It destroys our identity, our sense of being, our sense of time and place. And we're never sure we're going to be of any value in the new order of things. We falsely see this as terrifying. But my God, this might be the greatest, most exciting adventure for the species that ever occurred.

~ wie

Leadership

Over the years, I have had long discussions with thousands of people throughout many different organizations about management: aspirations to it, dissatisfaction with it, or confusion about it. To avoid ambiguity, I always ask each person to describe the single most important responsibility of any manager. The incredibly diverse responses always have one thing in common: they are downward-looking. Management inevitably is viewed as exercise of authority -- with selecting employees, motivating them, training them, appraising them, organizing them, directing them, controlling them. That perception is mistaken.

The first and paramount responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage self: one's own integrity, character, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, temperament, words, and acts. It is a complex, unending, incredibly difficult, oft-shunned task. We spend little time and rarely excel at management of self precisely because it is so much more difficult than prescribing and controlling the behavior of others. However, without management of self no one is fit for authority no matter how much they acquire, for the more authority they acquire the more dangerous they become. It is the management of self that should occupy 50 percent of our time and the best of our ability. And when we do that, the ethical, moral and spiritual elements of management are inescapable.

Asked to identify the second responsibility of any manager, again people produce a bewildering variety of opinions, again downward-looking. Another mistake. The second responsibility is to manage those who have authority over us: bosses, supervisors, directors, regulators, ad infinitum. Without their consent and support, how can we follow conviction, exercise judgment, use creative ability, achieve constructive results or create conditions by which others can do the same? Managing superiors is essential. Devoting 25 percent of our time and ability to that effort is not too much.

Asked for the third responsibility, people become uncertain. Yet, their thoughts remain on subordinates. Mistaken again. The third responsibility is to manage one's peers -- those over whom we have no authority and who have no authority over us -- associates, competitors, suppliers, customers -- one's entire environment if you will. Without their respect and confidence little or nothing can be accomplished. Our environment and peers can make a small heaven or hell of our life. Is it not wise to devote at least 20 percent of our time, energy, and ingenuity to managing them?

Asked for the fourth responsibility, people have difficulty coming up with an answer, for they are now troubled by thinking downward. However, if one has attended to self, superiors, and peers there is nothing else left. Obviously, the fourth responsibility is to manage those over whom we have authority. The common response is that all one's time will be consumed managing self, superiors and peers. There will be no time to manage subordinates. Exactly! One need only select decent people, introduce them to the concept, induce them to practice it, and enjoy the process. If those over whom we have authority properly manage themselves, manage us, manage their peers, and replicate the process with those they employ, what is there to do but see they are properly recognized, rewarded -- and stay out of their way?

It is not making better people of others that leadership is about. In today's world effective leadership is chaordic. It's about making a better person of self. Income, power and position have nothing to do with that. In fact, they often interfere with it.

The obvious question then always erupts. How do you manage superiors, bosses, regulators, associates, customers? The answer is equally obvious. You cannot. But can you understand them? Can you persuade them? Can you motivate them? Can you disturb them, influence them, forgive them? Can you set them an example? Eventually the proper word emerges. Can you lead them?

Of course you can, provided only that you have properly led yourself. There are no rules and regulations so rigorous, no organization so hierarchical, no bosses so abusive that they can prevent us from behaving this way. No individual and no organization, short of killing us, can prevent such use of our energy, ability, and ingenuity. They may make it more difficult, but they can't prevent it. The real power is ours, not theirs, provided only that we can work our way around the killing.

~ leadertoleader

The Author

Dee Hock is founder and coordinating director of the Chaordic Alliance. Its purpose is to develop, disseminate and implement new concepts of organization. Hock is also founder and CEO emeritus of both Visa USA and Visa International, now a $1.25 trillion enterprise jointly owned by more than 20,000 financial institutions. He is a laureate in the Business Hall of Fame and author of the recently released 'Birth of the Chaordic Age'.

Singularity: The Post-Human Era

Singularity:
Since the rise of Homo sapiens, human beings have been the smartest minds around. Sometime in the next few decades, we can expect technological advancements to break the upper bound on intelligence that has held for tens of thousands of years. The Singularity presents the human species with some difficult issues, to which almost no one is paying attention because they're too busy watching television.

Calvin: I imagine bugs and girls have a dim perception that Nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the intelligence to really comprehend its magnitude.
~ Bill Watterson

Like the sponge cells and the slime mold amoeba, you and I are parts of a vast population whose pooled efforts move some larger creature on its path through life. Like the sponge cells, we cannot live in total separation from the human clump. We are components of a superorganism.
~ Howard Bloom

God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
~ Freeman Dyson

You cannot "serve" God. You don't serve entities. You serve purposes. Asking "What is the meaning of life?" and getting back "God" is like asking "What is two plus two?" and getting back "Spackling paste." It's not even a religious issue. It's a category error, pure and simple. When I ask what two plus two equals, I expect a number. When I ask what the meaning of life is, I expect a goal. That doesn't mean that God can't exist and be a goal in some sense I don't understand at all, because the Universe is a weird place; but it does mean that equating God with a goal will lead you to make a lot of silly mistakes by trying to "serve God" the way you'd serve another human being. If you're religious and you want to be really hubristic, you can say: "Serve God? Of course not, but I serve the same purpose God does."
~ Eliezer S. Yudkowsky

Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an "intelligence explosion," and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.
~ I. J. Good

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. Any intelligent machine of the sort . . . would not be humankind's "tool", any more than humans are the tools of rabbits or robins or chimpanzees.
~ Vernor Vinge

• Question: Can an AI, starting from a blank-slate goal system, reason to any nonzero goals?
• Answer: Yes.
• Logic: Either life has meaning or it doesn't. >> Gotta be one or the other. >> But we don't know which. >> If we don't know, we should figure it both ways. >> If life is meaningless, nothing makes a difference. Even bemoaning the pointlessness is pointless. >> Since nihilism has absolutely nothing to say, only the "meaning hypothesis" is relevant. >> It doesn't matter whether the probability of the "meaning hypothesis" is 1% or 99%. As long as it's not 0%, the relative value of choices and goals is the same as if the probability were 100%, absolute certainty. >> When it comes to making choices, you can assume that life has meaning and work from there. >> We know a goal exists; let's translate that knowledge into an actual Goal object and try to achieve it. >> Some methods are pretty useful no matter what you're trying to do. For example, "think about how to do it" or "pay someone else to do it" or "try to create a superintelligence which can figure out what G1 (any goal) is and do it". >> All done: We have something specific to do.
• Conclusion: In other words, it isn't necessary to have some nonzero goal when the system starts up. It isn't even necessary to assume that one exists. Just the possibility that a nonzero goal exists, combined with whatever heuristics the system has learned about the world, will be enough to generate actions. We don't have direct access to the real meaning of life. But whatever it is, it's a good guess that the Minds on the other side of Singularity have a better chance of achieving it, so the Singularity is the interim meaning of life. You don't have to know what the meaning of life is in order to work towards it.
~ Eliezer S. Yudkowsky

Trying to speak about the ultimate reality is like sending a kiss through a messenger.
~ Anonymous

Calvin: You know, I don't understand why humans evolved as such thoughtless, shortsighted creatures.
Hobbes: Well, it can't stay that way forever.
Calvin: You think we'll get smarter?
Hobbes: That's one of the two possibilities.
~ Bill Watterson

The Origins of Separation

When Ananda saw the Buddha, he prostrated himself at His feet, weeping bitterly and saying that, since the time without beginning, though he had heard much about the Dharma, he still could not acquire the transcendental power of the Tao.

Earnestly he asked the Buddha to teach the preliminary expedients in the practice of Samatha, Samapatti and Dhyana which led to the enlightenment of all Buddhas in the ten directions. There was also present a great number of Bodhisattvas, as countless as sand grains in the Ganges, and great Arhats and Pratyeka-Buddhas who had come wishing to hear about the Dharma. They all waited silently and reverently for the holy Teaching.

The Buddha said to Ananda: You and I are close relatives. Tell me what you saw in the assembly when you made up your mind to give up all worldly feelings of affection and love to follow me?

Ananda replied: I saw the thirty-two excellent characteristics and the shining crystal-like form of the Buddha’s body. I thought that all this could not be the result of desire and love, for desire creates foul and fetid impurities like pus and blood which mingle and cannot produce the wondrous brightness of His golden-hued body, in admiration of which I shaved my head to follow Him.

The Buddha said: Ananda and all of you should know that living beings, since the time without beginning, have been subject continuously to birth and death because they do not know the permanent True Mind whose substance is, by nature, pure and bright. They have relied on false thinking which is not Reality so that the wheel of Samsara turns. Now if you wish to study the unsurpassed Supreme Bodhi to realize this bright nature, you should answer my questions straightforwardly. All Buddhas in the ten directions trod the same path to escape from birth and death because of their straightforward minds, with the same straightforwardness of mind and speech from start to finish without a trace of crookedness. Ananda, when you developed that mind because of the Buddha’s thirty-two excellent characteristics, tell me what saw and loved them.

Ananda replied: World Honoured One, my love came from the use of my mind, my eyes seeing and my mind admiring them, so that it was set on relinquishing birth and death.

The Buddha continued: As you just said, your love was caused by your mind and eyes but if you do not know where your mind and eyes really are, you will never be able to destroy delusion. For instance, when the country is invaded by bandits, the king, before sending his soldiers to destroy them, should first know where they are. That which causes you to transmigrate without interruption, comes from defects in your mind and eyes. Now tell me where your mind and eyes are.

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About a Box

the box is blue, jaded azure blue, with rust marks left behind,
graciously by the 52 seasons that it has seen.
the box is my home, the best one i have ever had and probably ever will.
i sleep in the box after dark, whose roof during the day is a busy table.
a riot of givings and takings that is the the business of the world.
i am the receptionist in this riot, to a few hundred passers by.
the blue box is the center of my world, a perfect semblance of 6 walls.
if i were a lizard, i would change the ceiling everyday.
and sleep on the opposite side, and move everything else around,
so that it looked the same,
from the abritarily chosen vantage position of wherever i lied.
a sleep experiment in varying gravity.
lizards are lucky. i cant afford vantage points.
lit by a bulb, with electricity borrowed from
the high voltage power lines passing overhead, this box is also my school.
i think so, from what i know about schools.
its a place where you learn things about the world, things about things.
where you learn how to live better, and about right and wrong,
about who we are and where we come from.
and learn to dream about where we could be going.
i learnt everything i know about the world i live in, right here.
and i know where i am going.
every night for thirteen years, after the day was done,
and the box was rubbed clean of all the day's excrements,
i have looked at the sky, and in brighter nights, the moon,
reflected in the glazed surface of washed dishes. and i have wondered.
i have heard from the elders, that the sky is not a thing,
it is just a blanket of air, a huge fluffy blanket.
that thought is a nice one, before going to sleep.
it reminds me of back home when i was a kid,
the feeling of sharing the blanket with my brothers and sister.
it makes me feel small, all over again.
after i left home, for years i could feel nothing but rage,
but now there are so many colours to it,
that i don't know the difference. i feel i don't feel anything anymore.
sometimes i am so automatic, like the movements of the sun,
the movement of my hands, serving one body after another,
leaves an emptiness in my heart that is pure bliss,
almost happiness.
if only i had something to compare it with, i could be sure.
i am like the box, boxes feel nothing. they just stay, inches above the ground.
they are home to things that you can't see from the outside.
now i hear the sharp ugly sound again, someone outside is kicking the box.
in the biting early morning cold, it is the watchman trying to wake me up.
i'll pretend i am sleeping, for just a little longer.
no one can see what's inside, from outside.
the walls are warmer. the blue is black.
shivering, i hug my folded blanket tighter. its nice to feel the cold.
to feel. for many more years to come, and through changing colours,
i know the box will keep me alive. and free.

The War Prayer

It was a time of great exulting and excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest depths of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast doubt upon its righteousness straight way got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! -- then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation:

"God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory.

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