I’ve been reflecting that a divided will halves your power. I’ve been trying it at work, if I do something else while waiting for calls, then I find that I can easily be off balance when they arrive. Whereas if I try not to surf or do anything not strictly work related, I find that I react much better. Even if it is work related, I find that it’s better to set time aside to concentrate on it fully.

This is another reason I dislike multitasking, I always think of it as the ability to do two things half as well.

What the hell, it’s Friday….

Your results:
You are Qui-Gon Jinn

Qui-Gon Jinn 67% Chewbacca 64% Obi-Wan Kenobi 63% R2-D2 60% Yoda 60% Lando Calrissian 55% Luke Skywalker 54% An Ewok 54% C-3PO 52% Boba Fett 52%

Overall, you’re a pretty well balanced person. But maybe you focus a little too much on the here and now. Think about the future before its too late.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)

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I’ve been coming to the conclusion just recently that there’s really no such thing as an expert.

Think about it, the only thing that is constant is change, so that must mean that whatever knowledge anyone has is always going out of date. In Taijiquan, all the people I’ve seen are constantly learning and developing their skills, surely the definition of expert is someone who knows everything about their field? In my chosen field of IT, change is quite rapid and constant, it can be a constant game of catch up.

I’ve said before that in my opinion, if you can get a very solid mastery of the basics in any field you’re sorted, and you can easily build on that in the moment. One of the things I’ve learned from Tai Chi practice is that it’s pointless to try and remember lists of moves.

Get the basics right, build on them, react from them. I don’t think you can go too far wrong.

The question that seems to be bubbling under the surface of things right now is the role of faith in society.

Now, in general they mean religious faith, but it’s a question that can be aimed at spirituality as well. The separation of Church and State is a must for modern Britain, we’re a multifaith society and one faith mustn’t have the ear of the government to the exclusion of all others. Also, decisions made by the Government should not be influenced by religious doctrine.

The role of Atheism is an interesting one, as some of the Atheists I see these days resemble evangelical fundamentalists, I see also an element of kicking apart a dolls house there. Fair enough, if they try to get creationism into schools and pass religious doctrine off as scientific fact, but the counter attack can go too far.

Trying to eliminate Religion from society, is certain to fail, the Chinese tried state enforced atheism and it really didn’t work. Spirituality is a different beast, for me it’s about working with reality, and trying to understand that all our different views are just roads up the same mountain, thinking less about the rules and more about the people.

We also need to remember, science can be a source of spirituality as well, it certainly has been for me

I was thinking about knowing the other day.

Here in the west it’s sometimes practically a crime not to know it all, in my job I’m expected to be a fount of all knowledge, though truthfully a lot of it comes from a database. I was looking at science, but also at the antagonism between science and religion after reading Richard Dawkins recent article in the times.

I have to say I find the Taoist method more comforting, simply truthfully admitting that we don’t know and might never know can be a very liberating experience. Of course, the Taoist view as I see it is that the important question is, do we really need to know, from a practical viewpoint does it really add anything to be like a bull at a gate after knowledge for the sake of knowing it all?

I give much Kudos to the Buddha for simply remaining silent on many issues, he knew better than to appear all knowing. Too many religions are in the business of trying to provide all the answers, which is dishonest in my view.

It’s OK not to know.