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AncientWisdom

We tend to think of AYE as the newest thing in conferences, but In my explorations of ancient wisdom, I often find support for our philosophy and practices. Here's one example from Chinese philosophy. Can you supply more?

If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain.

If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees.

If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.

- JerryWeinberg 2002.07.28

"the number of entities used to explain phenomena should not be increased unnecessarily"

An appropriate paraphrase: look to yourself first to begin to understand

Another bit of wisdom springs to mind - for sure not ancient - from The Timeless Way of Building, by Christopher Alexander:

"It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it."

- BobKing 2002.07.28

But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, "We did this ourselves."

--BobLee 2002.07.28

There ain't no answer.
There ain't going to be any answer.
There never has been an answer.
That's the answer.
--Gertrude Stein

- BeckyWinant 2002.07.30

It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers.
--James Thurber

- BeckyWinant 2002.07.30

The Wise leave the road and find the Way; fools cling to the Way and lose the road.

SteveSmith 2002.07.30

Place a monkey in a cage, and it is the same as a pig, not because it isn't clever and quick, but because it has no place to freely exercise its capabilities.

SteveSmith 2002.07.30

No matter where you go, there you are.
--Buckaroo Banzai.

KeithRay 2002.07.30

One of my very favorites, Keith. Thanks. BeckyWinant 2002.07.31

"The only thing all your failed relationships have in common is you."

KeithRay 2002.07.30

When you point your finger at someone,
Look who the other three fingers point at.

[Ancient Chinese were not afraid to end sentences with prepositions.] - JerryWeinberg 2002.07.31

"It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things, and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable".
--William Penn

- BeckyWinant 2002.07.31

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power
--Abraham Lincoln

or play golf with him BobKing 2002.08.02

- MarieBenesh 2002.07.31

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

BobKing 2002.08.02

http://www.inch.it/index.php/SeasonsOfChangeMetaphor, where ancient wisdom is used in projecting a mandala architecture for developing open source change artistry workshops. -- NynkeFokma, 3 Augustus 2002

"Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend." Albert Camus

BobKing 2002.08.05

"The journey of a single step starts with a thousand miles."
"Don't just do something ... Stand there." - From "The View from An Alternate Reality."

DonGray 2002.08.18, 08.22

Said by the narrator in Tom Jones (the 1963 movie), might also be in the book.

KeithRay 2002.08.18

My goal in life is to be half the man my dogs think I am.
(and AYE helps me do that). - JerryWeinberg 2002.08.18

History, Schmistory:

• Custer, at Little Big Horn: "Indians, schmindians!"
• Crockett, at The Alamo: "Mexicans, schmexicans!"
• Castle guards in full armor: "Genghis, schmengis!"
• Two Mastodons: "Neanderthals, schmeanderthals!"

--BobLee 2002.08.19

Nothing is permanent except change. - Heraclitus

- BeckyWinant 2002.08.19

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. -- Henry David Thoreau, "Walden", 1854

KeithRay 2002.08.20

"The fact that you know more today, and are more capable today, is good news about today, not bad news about yesterday." -- Ron Jeffries

KeithRay 2002.08.21

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. --Mark Twain

BobLee 2002.08.26

# 2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

# 6. You should not confuse your career with your life.

#8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.

- BeckyWinant 2002.08.31

It is very wrong for people to feel deeply sad when they lose some money, yet when they waste precious moments of their lives they do not have the slightest feelings of repentance. - Dalai Lama

- KenEstes 2002.09.09

Hexagram: Settledwater above, fire below
"Settlement is successful, even in small matters. It is beneficial to be correct; otherwise there is good fortune at first but confusion in the end."

other tidbits from the analysis of this hexagram:

• "only in this hexagram are the firm and flexible lines all in place; hense it is correct"
• "the second yin's flexibility is in proper balance, as the main element of fire. When this is used to treat water, the water becomes usable. Therefore at first it is auspicious. However, if you think that once everything is settled you can finally stop, you will surely bring on the 'confusion' of the water boiling over to extinguish the fire, or the fire getting too hot and evaporating the water. You let the fire go out or the water evaporate--therefore the path reaches an impasse."
• "Developed people consider problems and prevent them."

The moving yin leads to Waiting which is a hexagram that also carries information about this year's conference.
"Waiting with truthfulness lights up success in correct orientation toward good. It is beneficial to cross a great river."

"The way to educate the ignorant cannot be rushed; it is necessary to await the appropriate times and conditions. If the time comes, the truth becomes self-evident.
But it is important that the cause be true, so the effect is right; therefore it is when the waiting has truthfulness that it lights the way to success that is correctly oriented toward good.
In the beginning the text speaks of waiting, but in the end one can cross the great river of birth and death, and climb up onto the shore beyond, which is great ultimate nirvana.

BobKing 2002.09.21

-BobLee 2002.09.21

"The first job of any leader is to define reality, and you can't do that if you are obscure...." Harvey Golub, former CEO American Express

-LynnMarieHill 2002.10.07

Wow! Another Harvey Golub, from Golub's Laws & Lore of Computerdom:

• Law # 8: "A carelessly planned project will take three times longer to complete than expected. A carefully planned project will take only twice as long."

--BobLee 2002.10.07

--BobLee 2002.10.09

Jerry I found who you should credit in your quote:

  German animal behavior specialist 
  Konrad Lorenz once said, 
  "My goal in life 
   is to be half the man
   my dog thinks I am."
   

-- KenEstes 2002.10.16

One of my favorites -- Hofstadter's Law, created by physicist and computer scientist Doug Hofstadter:

    "It always take longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law."
    

--NaomiKarten 2002.10.17

There is no one out there, there is only one of us here
From the Passage with William Spear, www.fortunateblessings.org
-- CherDevey 2002.10.21

Eric Mintz of ooarchitect.com taught me a great new saying.

The Bottleneck Is At the Top of the Bottle.

KenEstes 2003.03.13

Anyone want to discuss WorkplaceWisdom ? --DaveLiebreich 2003.09.02

This also fits for the discussion on WhyWeDoNotUsePowerPoint.

-BeckyWinant 2003.09.08

Or Our Amplified Foolishness (OAF). Opportunity for a really different kind of conference! - BeckyWinant 2003.09.11

(Perhaps that's where Watts Humphreys got his idea for his A map won't help you if you don't know where you're starting from malarkey!)

And: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana reminded me of my other favorite:

Time's fun when you're having flies - Kermit the Frog

RobWyatt 2003.9.18

PhilippeBenitez 2003.10.27

One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything. DonGray 2003.10.27

Dave, how do you reconcile this with your position as a director of QA, which in my mind is an inherently skeptical and pessimistic function? --DaveLiebreich 2003.10.28

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
~Andr� Gide

If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done.
-Dilbert newsletter 3.0 1994
-Scott Adams

KenEstes 2004.03.07

MikeMelendez 2004.08.04

- JerryWeinberg 2004.08.04 (and thanks, Mike, for reawakening this great thread topic)

I went looking for the author of "It’s not what you don’t know that kills you; it’s what you know that isn’t so." and I found Lao-Tzu, which leads me to my next one.

"there is nothing new under the sun" Ecclesiastes 1:9

To which I add my favorite variant on Lao-Tzu

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." - Will Rogers

MikeMelendez 2005.02.15

MikeMelendez 2005.08.10

Don't smoke nor drink nor chew,
and don't date girls who do.

- From the pulpit

and

Bad company corrupts good character 

- 1 Corinthians 15:33

DwaynePhillips 10 August 2005

But I say, "Lie down with dogs, take a licking." (The Weinberg household version.) - JerryWeinberg 2005.08.10

ThomRossi 11 August 2005

"Don't just do something...sit there." - Thich Nhat Hahn, providing a koan for activists

RobMyers 2005.08.15

 If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood,
 divide the work and give orders.  Instead teach them to yearn for
 the vast and endless sea
 -Antoine De Saint-Exupery
 Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever,
 to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money,
 propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, 
 help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness.
 -Thich Nhat Hanh
 

Ken Estes 2005.08.17

  Taste is a matter of choice,
  Quality is a matter of fact.
  Slogan on a bag from Grace's Marketplace NYC
  

Ken Estes 2005.08.23

KeithRay 2005.08.22 [I wonder what he meant? - JerryWeinberg 2005.08.22]

I just ran into this ... it is a reminder that makes me smile.

"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."

Andrew J. Holmes

DianeGibson 2005.08.26

"It's like deja vu all over again."

Lawrence Peter Berra (American Philosopher of the 20th Century)

EarlEverett 2005.11.11

Some of my favorites:

Heraclitus (circa 540-480 BC): "On those who enter the same rivers, ever different waters flow." or "You cannot step into the same river twice."

Blaise Pascal: "I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short."

Lao Tzu: "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." (for the Ps in the crowd)

Niccolo Machiavelli: "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."

Petronius Arbiter, 210 BC: "We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized ... I was to learn later in life that we meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

Walt Kelly: "Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent."

and some more recent:

Dale Emery: "Integrity and courage are contagious. But they can have a long incubation period."

Laurent Bossavit: "Treat people as ends not means. In business situations, however, this attitude is far from the norm. It is IMHO at the heart of what separates 'management' from 'leadership'."

and finally:

Law of the Jungle: "He who hesitates is lunch."

-- GeorgeDinwiddie 2005.11.16

"A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion … One must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves . . . He must have a mind disposed to adapt itself according to the wind, and as the variations of fortune dictate, and, as I said before, not deviate from what is good if possible, but be able to do evil if constrained." - Niccolo Machiavelli

- TroyAzmoon 2005.11.16

Ha! Some pertinent and amusing quotes. Since Ockham and Taoist thinking spring to mind but have already been featured, here are three little ditties (rather less ancient I'm afraid) regarding 'measurement':

"Measure twice, cut once" Unknown source (but in an effort to make this ancient wisdom I reckon it is probably attributable to Noah's carpenter or an Egyptian architect..)

"A man with one watch believes he knows what time it is; a man with two watches can never be certain" Segal's law (refined)

"They couldn't hit an elephant a this distance" General John Sedgwick, who was promptly dispatched soon after

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted" Albert Einstein

RobertFitzmaurice 2005.11.17

"Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens. [...] The path of [...] progress is often made impassable for a long time by such errors. Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analyzing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience." - Albert Einstein, 1916

-- StephenNorrie 2005.12.07

I suppose the quote may be too modern for some people to consider it ancient, so let me make it more ancient like...

That's not writing -- that's calligraphy. -Middle Age Sage

or

That's not singing -- that's rap. -Ancient village sage

SteveSmith ;-) 2006.01.25

• A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.
• An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a very narrow field.
• How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.
• Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.

From Harry S Truman:

• In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.

CharlesAdams 2006.02.13

• A specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
  
• A jack-of-all-trades is someone who knows less and less about more and more until they know nothing about everything.

No idea who said it originally.

DonGray 2006.02.13

This is from our learned and playful king Alfonso X of Castile, the Wise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_X_of_Castile

May you burn old logs,
may you drink old wines,
may you read old books,
may you have old friends.
- JerryWeinberg 2006.02.15

• An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions. --Robert A. Humphrey
• Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right. --Ezra Taft Benson
• You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know. --Rene Daumal (Sounds like he's talking about AYE there :).)

- DavidPickett 2006.02.16

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronius_Arbiter

Fake quotation

The following quotation, or variants of it, is frequently attributed to Petronius:

"We trained hard … but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

This quotation is not by Petronius; the earliest reference to it dates only to 1970. There are references to it originating among disgruntled British occupying forces in post-1945 Germany (Petronian Society Newsletter, May 1981). The true author is unknown.

His own sole surviving work, the Satyricon, a wildly exaggerated, sordid, and often obscene tale, tells us nothing directly of his fortunes, position, or even century.

http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/petronius_a001.htm

PETRONIUS (CAIUS PETRONIUS ARBITER) Some real quotes.

"The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet." - Ann Landers (1918-2002) [Esther Pauline Friedman] American Advice Columnist

DennisCadena 2006.06.22

No matter how many mean things you say or do to someone,
they still aren't going to like you for it.

- J.E
- As qoted in Aikido Exercises for teaching and training
-By C.M Shifflett

KenEstes 2006.06.21

I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel,
- Maya Angelou

BeckyWinant 2006.06.26