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Posts Tagged ‘zen’
Garr Reynolds on presentation Zen
A great video about the zen of presentations, from the point of view of Garr Reynolds.
Garr lives in Japan, and the place seems to inspire him a lot. He’s also a Jazz enthusiast, worked for Apple, and wrote a book I have in Luxembourg (but didn’t read yet): the name, of course, is Presentation Zen.
I think that in my new role of AWS Evangelist, I’ll need to hear his advices and try to deliver good presentations around.
The video of Garr Reynold’s presentation is more than an hour long, so I’d like to point out the main things or concepts I liked:
- Zen: it reminds me of simplicity, effectiveness, purity, art.
- Involving his audience, thus making his presentation even better than it already was.
- TED (ideas worth spreading), an annual meeting for great minds in California, as an inspiring source. I already knew TED, and I’d love to attend in the future… who knows :-)- An unforgettable photo of jazz player Dizzy Gillespie. He reminded me how much I love good jazz, and from that moment on, I sticked to Garr’s jazz quotations.
- Other interesting quotations from persons that I respect, such as:
“Eat like a bird, poop like an elephant.” - Guy Kawasaki
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo da Vinci
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” - Ken robinson (watch him here)
- And another one, from a jazz player I didn’t know:
“If you’re not appearing, you’re disappearing” - Art Blakey
Well, I think that I’ll try to get some inspiration from Garr!
Do you have anything to suggest? Good presentations? Hints? Experiences?
Thanks!
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Today is May 1st, 2008, and here in Italy (yes, I’m here for 17 more days) it’s Labour’s Day Holiday.
Since tomorrow is friday, many people took the chance to go away (sea, mountain, lake, whatever).
Instead, I’m still here, in my small apartment near Assisi (enjoy my Creative-Commons photos here on Flickr).
Surfing the internet, I stumbled upon this 1974 book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. (see what Wikipedia has to say, or read the full text online).
Robert Pirsig, the author, explains his own concept of Quality: non-intellectualizing, non-conceptualizing, Zen-like direct viewing of the universe. Logic, and Reason, still have an important role in seeking awareness and understanding, differently from the Asian “Zen” philosophy.
In the words of Wikipedia:
“… He understands that technology and the “dehumanised world” it carries with it appear ugly and repulsive to a romantic person. He is, however, capable of seeing the beauty of technology and feels good about mechanical work. The author demonstrates that the cycle maintenance may be dull and tedious drudgery or an exciting and pleasurable pastime; it all depends on the inner attitude and peace of mind, or lack thereof…”
And again:
“Pirsig attempts to reveal rationality’s pretense to be the ultimate and sole source of knowledge and argues for an approach to knowledge that is more varied and inclusive. He seeks a perception of the world that also encompasses “irrational” sources of wisdom and knowledge - in particular, the bursts of creativity and intuition that seemingly come from nowhere and are apparently not rationally explainable. Pirsig seeks to demonstrate that rationality and zen-like irrationality can harmoniously coexist. He suggests such a combination of rationality and mysticism can potentially bring a higher quality of life.”
I’ve read some excerpts of the book in the past, but I’ll definitively read it very soon.
There is a very important reason why, on the title of this blog, you read “Zen and Life of Simone Brunozzi”.
Zen, in my case, is an attitude, a search, an answer, a target.
This book will help me in seeing things more clearly.
I also suggest you to take a look at this blog, Zen Habits. He seems on a path very similar to mine :-)
