nullius in verba

 “The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I’m looking for the truth,’ and so it goes away.” Reading this line took me back 45 years, reminding me of my friend, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As I continued reading, I realised it had been with me all along. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig takes the reader on a journey filled with practical ideas that evolve into profound truths and goodness, becoming a trusted companion for life. Despite the complexity and depth of meaning that Robert introduces, it doesn't come across as heavy sophistry. Instead, it feels like someone explaining how to sweep a footpath or wash clothes, with a motorcycle and a young person as companions. For anyone trying to make sense of ‘what is objective’ and ‘what is subjective’ or ‘what makes truth, truth’ and parse the binary nature of partisanship, where one side is right (objective), the other is just ephemeral (subjective), this book helps us understand...

 As long as one can go back to when humans started to live in groups, clans, and tribes, they gathered around log fires, told stories and shared real or imagined experiences, strengthening camaraderie, forming bonds, and creating collectivism. This oral tradition was aided and abetted by rhythm and form (poetic), which was easy to memorise and passed on from generation to generation. The stories morphed and changed to suit the period in which they were told, with memories altered to account for the mores of the time. Added, removed, deformed on a collective basis, so much so that to name a single source of ‘who created it’ was no longer relevant – the stories became our stories, a collective. The faculties developed to sustain this required effort differed; repetition and rote ability were the most valued. This was long before the invention of the script to codify the sounds that represent speech, poetry, and stories, which was developed as an offshoot of recording quantities, ...

  This writing is based on my understanding of T Chi Nyugen’s work, "Game: Art as Agency." Games motivate players by making play entertaining and engaging. Players aim to achieve temporary goals, like scoring in football or winning in chess, by overcoming arbitrary obstacles (rules). This motivation inversion makes games fun. However, applying this concept to real life can be problematic. Games have simple rules, clear motives, and scoring systems, while real life is more complex and fluid. The problem arises when we intentionally use gamification in real-life activities. We try to map the pleasures of games onto our daily lives by mimicking game-like rules and scoring. For example, academic research quality is often measured by the number of citations, turning a subjective measure into an objective fact. Similarly, school exams focus on grades rather than actual learning, and performance scoring systems in organisations can obscure the true quality of work. In games, w...

Thebes at War , the third instalment of the Ancient Egypt Novels, Naguib introduces us to the vagaries of war, avenging, deceit, suppression, death, love and suffering…. The musicality of Naguib can be heard in the sentences that he pens…. ‘The sun, high in the sky, sent out beams of light that quivered where they drenched the vegetation and sparkled where they touched the water…’ ‘It is the spirit of a master dictating to his slave, of a king incriminating his own people…the latter strives to enslave the former, while the former struggles to hold on to its independence by all the means at its disposal.’ ‘Once they had despaired of gaining anything further by continuing the battle, life lost its meaning for the soldiers, who determined to seek martyrdom on the spot that they brave sovereign had watered with his blood.’ ‘A battle that will be remembered forever has taken place, in which pain and glory alike took part.’ ‘I’m very afraid of them, sir, because, the only ones allowed to ste...

Naguib Mahfouz’s sonata continues with his second novel, Rhadopis of Nubi a. Here are some of Naguib’s Motifs… ‘Death is as natural as life. What is the value of eternity as long as we eat our fill after going hungry, grow old after being young, and know despair after joy?’ ‘You may be lucky enough to see her, may the gods protect your hearts from harm….Those fortunate enough to be near her caught glimpses of her jet-black hair adorned with threads of shining silk as it fell about the radiant orb of her face and cascaded onto her shoulders in a halo of night, as though it were a divine crown. Her cheeks were like fresh roses, and her delicate mouth was parted slightly to reveal teeth like jasmine petals in the sunlight set in a ring of cloves.’ ‘Reasonableness is a false and insincere garment in which the weak masquerade.’ ‘Is it not possible that two people disagree and both are right?’ ‘Whoever thinks you beautiful is blind, without vision. You are ugly because you are dead, and ther...

 I just finished reading the first of three novels of ancient Egypt, Khufu’s Wisdom by Naguib Mahfouz. And what a treat this was.  Just a few snippets of music that Naguib composes….. ‘And what is divinity…. ’Tis nothing if power.’ ‘Who should give up their life for the benefit of the other:  the people for Pharaoh, or Pharaoh for the people?’ ‘You rule according to the wish of the gods, not by the will of men. It is up to you to govern the people as you desire, not to ask yourself what you should do when they ask you!’ ‘If Fate really was as people say, then creation itself would be absurd. The wisdom of life would be negated, the nobility of man would be debased. Diligence and the mere appearance of it would be the same; so would labour and laziness, wakefulness and sleep, strength and weakness, rebellion, and obedience. No, Fate is a false belief to which the strong are not fashioned to submit.’ ‘O Lord! What was the wisdom of making a woman then? What is a woman with...