§11. Deming on Method

Automating a process that produces junk just allows you to produce more junk faster [W. Edwards Deming].

§13. Schopenhauer on Method

The advice here given is on a par with a rule recommended by Pythagoras,—to review, every night before going to sleep, what we have done during the day. To live at random, in the hurly-burly of business or pleasure, without ever reflecting upon the past,—to go on, as it were, pulling cotton off the reel of life,—is to have no clear idea of what we are about; and a man who lives in this state will have chaos in his emotions and certain confusion in his thoughts; as is soon manifest by the abrupt and fragmentary character of his conversation, which becomes a kind of mincemeat. A man will be all the more exposed to this fate in proportion as he lives a restless life in the world, amid a crowd of various impressions and with a correspondingly small amount of activity on the part of his own mind.

gutenberg.org

§25. McCloud on Method

What it comes down to, really, is four basic principles: learn from everyone, follow no one, watch for patterns, and work like hell. I think these are the four principles that go into this. And it's that third one, especially, where visions of the future begin to manifest themselves. What's interesting is that this particular way of looking at the world, is, I think, only one of four different ways that manifest themselves in different fields of endeavor. In comics, I know that it results in sort of a formalist attitude towards trying to understand how it works. Then there's another, more classical, attitude which embraces beauty and craft. Another one which believes in the pure transparency of content. And then another which emphasizes the authenticity of human experience -- and honesty, and rawness.

[Scott Mc Cloud]

§31. Bruce Lee On Method

Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.

§34. Collidge on Method

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

[Calvin Coolidge]

§43. William Zinsser on Method

How to solve most of your writing problems:

You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?

-- William Zinsser

§47. Andrew Hunt on Method

Simple rules, as with the birds simulation, lead to complex behavior. Complex rules, as with the tax law in most countries, lead to stupid behavior.

[Andrew Hunt, **The Pragmatic Programmers**]

Benjamin Franklin on Method

> Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Inner Path

T.S. Eliot asks good questions in **Choruses from The Rock** :

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

These questions will make me change the destiny of this very blog. Was a bit tiresome, lately. It always was, quite frankly, but I thought it was normal.

This blog will become something else. Stay tuned, dear reader, if you do exist.