Comments on: Am I just reading fortune cookie riddles?

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 22:43:41 +0000

Indeed, I've mentioned Hazel's leadership style before. It is surprisingly deep for a book about rabbits. Richard Adams passed away last year, by the way. The book is definitely a classic.

By: Rollory

Rollory — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 21:03:19 +0000

Dune is massively overrated by third-rate minds. If you want to understand leadership, read Watership Down.

By: Albion

Albion — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 15:00:13 +0000

The one thing I learned from the I Ching (having learned of it from reading The Man In The High Castle) was that wisdom doesn't come the way you think it does. Both the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching can tell you things that can surprise because they don't use symbols or approaches or even offer insights in the way a western mind is accustomed to receiving. There is no "If I were you I'd do this (or that)" but more the idea that everything at all sorts of levels follows well-worn tracks, and they always have done. The trick for westerners is to see that these tracks aren't going to be changed or influenced by desire, ambition or status, and so it really helps to learn to accept the essentials that underlie everything we have.

By: Faze

Faze — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 23:20:37 +0000

Read this as a teenager and it clicked immediately. It settled a lot of philosophical and religious hash and inoculated me against some the nonsense my peers fell for in subsequent years. Thinking back on it, I realize the ground for my receptiveness was prepared by reading lots of Kerouac and and bit of pop zen.

Like the other “manuals of life” mentioned in the post, including Montaigne, Pascal’s “Pensees”, the book of Ecclesiastes, the Tao does indeed have more than a few slips of fortune cookie filling.