Monthly Archives: June 2016

Engleza de joi/ Dither

Dither = to delay taking actions because you are not sure about what to do.

“Anyone who still wants to experience fairytales these days can’t afford to dither when it comes to using their brains.”
Robert Musil – author of The Man Without Qualities.

As fairytales got mentioned, I illustrate with Tim Kirk‘s art for the Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien.

Be human!

“The lesson for the small is: be human! Accept that being human involves
some amount of epistemic arrogance in running your affairs. Do not be
ashamed of that. Do not try to always withhold judgment—opinions are
the stuff of life. Do not try to avoid predicting—yes, after this diatribe
about prediction I am not urging you to stop being a fool. Just be a fool in
the right places.*
What you should avoid is unnecessary dependence on large-scale
harmful predictions—those and only those. Avoid the big subjects that
may hurt your future: be fooled in small matters, not in the large. Do not
listen to economic forecasters or to predictors in social science (they are
mere entertainers), but do make your own forecast for the picnic. By all
means, demand certainty for the next picnic; but avoid government social security
forecasts for the year 2040.
Know how to rank beliefs not according to their plausibility but by the
harm they may cause.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

I illustrate with a beautiful car* (which makes me a fool in the right place as I know nothing of cars) by the British painter Alan Fearnley.

The serpent slayer

She quit pretending she needs a hero.
She is her hero
Her own sun and stars.
She is her sunset above the sea
She is her moon in late twilights
She is her words making pools of smiles
For whom she adores.

She is the serpent slayer
and every day is a day of thunder and love.

 

Water serpents By Gustav Klimt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art – Water snakes by Gustav Klimt.

13 lessons from my father

My father was an amazing person. I love him deeply, and I miss him dearly.

My father was an engineer, and many people reported to him. He was tough and admitted no errors. He was feared and, most of all, respected. His subordinates immediately picked up that he was first tough on himself. Nevertheless, he had an amazing sense of humour, making everybody laugh. He was charming and wise, having the right words for all circumstances and situations. I cannot remember him losing his temper. Maybe once, when I fell off my rookie skates and broke my arm, which ended my career as a rookie skater. My father took them away, saying that if I wasn’t smart enough to skate, I didn’t deserve to have them.

He was able to teach lessons without using many words.

He was always making jokes about my appearance, usually about my big eyes (family trait inherited from him); “Your eyes are so big that they slide down your cheeks” or that “unlike Darwin said in The Origins of Species, my next of kin were the lemurs and not the apes.” At that time I was angry, but later I realised that he was right and we should laugh at our flaws and also turn them into strengths and advantages.

His lessons are as follows:

1. If you don’t work hard, your luck will dwindle. And the better you work and prepare, the luckier you become.

2. Always learn from your mistakes.

3. Always play fair and admit your mistakes. There is nothing to be gained by not admitting failure or defeat, you should acknowledge your shortcomings and become better.

4. Always look your best, be neatly attired and pleasant, and your demeanour should match your words.

5. Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously. I sometimes let myself be a fool, but a fool in the right places.

6. Success comes with a lot of work and very good insight. Hard work is not enough; you need information and a good bird’s-eye view of things.

7. Do not ponder too much over your flaws. I do my best, speak my best, and look my best. If this doesn’t do it, move on.

8. Disorganised people lose half their lives looking for lost things. This is a good one. Now I can find everything with my eyes closed. I am (or have become) very organised.

9. Always have goals and objectives. Small and big. People without goals live plain and boring lives, lose time, and consequently the time their lives are made of.

10. Time is of the essence. Do not squander time. When you see that you are using up your time in activities with no return, stop.

11. Before making a decision, think, but not too much. Use the information you have got but also your common sense.

12. Always have a healthy routine. I try to get enough sleep and go to bed early. I eat properly, and I have a fitness routine. In the evening, I sum up the day and consider if I have done something good (or bad) and if I have created value for others and myself.

13. Always stand your ground and stick to your good ideas. Especially in business. Believe in your work and be prepared to demonstrate your product as often as needed.

When I have a tricky issue on my plate, I ask myself, “What would my father do?”

He was a very talented person. He could draw and paint with both hands; his jokes were witty; and his stories were enthralling. He was the heart and soul of every gathering, and he was passionate about everything.

Julius von Klever

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art by Julius von Klever.

 

 

 

You

I wish I loved you
In the summer
When sun pours down
heavy drops of slumber.
Later in the twilights blue
Soft paced winds
Blow glitter
On the moon.

On pathways
Round lilacs and yews
Nights shuffle on leaves
With you in dreams.

© Iulia Halatz

Daniel F. Gerhartz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art by Daniel F. Gerhartz.

Engleza de joi/ Litmus test

Litmus test = something (such as an opinion about a political or moral issue) that is used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable.

Litmus test = a test in which a single factor (as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive.

 

Faithfulness as beauty reflected is the litmus test for love.

Vladimir Kush

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art by Vladimir Kush.