[마이리뷰] The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success

The Formula (Paperback)
ALBERT-LASZLO BARABA / HACHETTE USA / 2018년 11월

What a great experience! This book instantly reminded me of where I was in high school, where so many book shelves were standing in line. I don’t recall who brought up the idea of putting them on the corridor where the students’ walking through, but it is the idea. I never seen like this before in my life. You could borrow any books you want. No supervisor, no penalty. The only thing you do was just wrote down the name of the book you borrowed. But that is something not happened as much as the school manager expected. I didn’t know it while I have been around. After graduation, I heard that the school lost books a lot. It’s a shame. Because that means we were not the ones who deserve the self-ruled library. Anyways, the time I was in, the idea hasn’t gave in.

 

Babarasi, am I correct?, the author of the book is well known as an author of his another book ‘The Link’. I read it in high school, from the corridor library. I wasn’t and still am not an IT guy so network theory is definitely not my thing. But for some reason that I didn’t know, I picked up the book and read it through. The book came to me like a flood of new world, it was like discovering totally uncharted area of human intelligence. I wasn’t and still am not able to understand the details of what he said in the book. But it was a great amusement. It gave me some idea or feelings that I might knew more than I thought, which is hard to say if it’s true.

 

Maybe it’s because the author, Babarasi has a talent to convince others to believe that they know more than they actually do. We think we know the truth, who did what to whom, but sometimes it’s confusing. There is a word for this. Backwards causation. As it said on its words, you often ( I’d say always but) see the cause before the result, in that order. But the term means there is possibility that you see the result first and then see the cause. I can’t explain this properly, but if it’s true, I’d say I kind of feel like that before. I can’t prove it. but “feel like” I experienced it. let me put it this way. Isn’t there a time like when you look back, it’s just happened the way it has to be. I’m not saying that everything has determined and there’s nothing you can change. There ‘is’ something (well, lots of things) you can change, but ‘still’ there’s something you can’t change. Like a Constant in math. No matter how much you change the others, the one that related to your determined future won’t change. Some people might called it a fate but it’s little bit far from it. it’s more flexible concept. I can’t fully explain how it’s gonna work but I can say it’s rooted in your genetic traits.

 

The minute you hear the word genetic, you think it has to be something to do with DNA, which is innate. I think there must be some sort of widely accepted misunderstanding of this word. I don’t think we can figure out how much we’ve been affected by our DNA. Because DNA is not some miniature version of us. it is very complicated description of future-ourselves. So to function properly, DNA has to be interact with the environment, and in the process of it, some DNA turn on and some don’t. so it’s not just because of your DNA or environment. It’s both of them. without knowing how they co-work in the process, a struggle to find a source of the result could be meaningless.

 

In summary, our DNA interact with the environment we are in, and it produces a different kind of DNA patterns and environment. Mathematically saying, there would be a handful of possibility someone can have, that’s what I am thinking. When you’re born, quite lots of things just determined without your consent. The place you have to live in, the parents and siblings you live with, the language that will make your thought process, the culture you accept or resist etc. please don’t take me wrong. I’m not saying you’re the one who doesn’t have a free will. We all know we have it (do we?) what I’m trying to say is the concept of ‘free will’ it self is very confusing. Sam Harris once tried to explain it, I didn’t read his work yet, but it takes him to write ‘a book’! so I am very cautious to say that I know what free will is.

 

Then what’d we do? I don’t know the answer of it. I just do something makes me feel good whatever it takes. I know some stuff from my life experiences but I can’t tell it’s also true to yours. I just hope that I’m not that wrong about myself and the community that I live in. sometimes the possibility that the future might be determined long before is terrifying me, but also gives me a comfort that I don’t have to do something that I can’t do. No matter what you do you’ll always be as you are supposed to be. Maybe the same thing goes with everything. Be grateful what you have, be nice to others, be positive to come.

 

[마이리뷰] We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter

We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter (Paperback) - '말센스' 원서
Celeste Headlee / Harperwave / 2018년 9월

Highly recommended. This is a well written book for those who has been struggling with the way of communication with others but has no chance so far to figure out the concrete way to do it. But not just the fact that I mentioned above, but there is more. Going through the whole book, I felt like hearing her voice right from in front of me as vivid as it gives an image of something she said. I came to realize what she’s done in the book is not just giving you the information that you may need.

The way she’s talking, ‘not writing’, is making the perfect sample for what she’s been saying. When you say something, you should consider the person who listen to it. I’m not saying that you should tried to be a brown noser or something, what I meant by it is that you should think more about how to talk than what to talk. Apparently we do know what we want to say, what we do not know or often miss out is how we deliver it. It’s the matter of practicality. That is nothing to do with polite gestures or political correctness, in some sense that would matter though.

I reviewing and correcting the writing from others as a job at the office and what I learned from the years of experience is simple. We all suck at writing. We are not good enough at communicating in general. At least not as good as we think we are or should be. There are some accidents with miscommunications, often things go really ugly, but maybe the fact that we are able to use the language to show what we feel or think is incredible. So lower the bar, satisfied with what we’ve got, and just live with that. That can be the other option.

But I think there would be other way around it, and I sort of believe that the journey to look into it is A mission of our species. Over the thousands of years, we’ve been through this massive events like the Great Extinctions, Ice Ages, World Wars and Global Warming(not sure if it’s over but). I am grateful for what I have, and I am going to live with it. We can make it better tool or disastorous weapon for us. It’s all up to us.

[마이리뷰] 데라히바 주짓수 테크닉 170

데라히바 주짓수 테크닉 170
히카르도 데라히바.이정우 지음 / 혜성출판사 / 2018년 1월

본인이 표지에 나오다니 엄청나다고 할 밖에. 주짓수에서 자기 이름을 딴 기술을 가지고 있는 사람은 거의 없는데다 데라히바 가드를 뺀 주짓수를 상상할 수 없는 것처럼 그가 표지에 등장한 것만으로도 포스 작렬. 초창기라서 가능한 일이었겠지만 당시에 처음 데라히바가드를 접한 사람들이 얼마나 놀랐을지..처음 베림보로 보던 그런 기분이려나..

암튼 클래식이 되면 모두가 참조가능하고 그래서 뻔하다는 생각이 드는 건 어쩔 수 없는 인지상정일듯. 사진을 보기 좋게 잘찍어 좋은데 일본어를 병기해놓은 부분이 쪼금 완성도가 떨어져보인다. 일본에서도 팔아야 하니까 어쩔 수 없었을테지만..좀 아쉽

진짜 비전이라할 부분(무게중심, 타이밍, 속도 등)은 역시 설명이 없다. 역시 아쉽

[마이리뷰] 누구나 쉽게 배우는 주짓수 입문

누구나 쉽게 배우는 주짓수 입문
한진우 지음 / 지북(g-book) / 2016년 8월

아마도 (한국에서) 가장 많이 보는 주짓수 서적. 최근까지는 거의 유일한..스탠다드를 노리고 만든 거고 그에 맞게 깔끔하다. 그래서 조금 지루한 느낌도 있는데 이건 외국도 크게 다르지 않은 듯.

주짓수는 여전히 많은 수련인들에 의해 발전 중인 무술이라 논쟁적인 부분도 있고(경우에 따라서는 정반대의 해법을 제시하기도 한다) 그런 부분이 좀더 재밌게 느껴질 수 있다고 생각한다. 약간 나도 참여 가능하다 라는 느낌?

개인적인 아이디어로 주짓수를 문제풀이 같은 형식으로 옛날에 추리퀴즈 풀듯이 만들면 재밌겠다는 생각을 한다. 이렇게 써두면 누가 만들어주지 않으려나?

김소연 작가는 나와 아주 약간의 인연이 있다. 그가 ...

김소연 작가는 나와 아주 약간의 인연이 있다. 그가 웹진 ‘문장‘의 산문 부문 심사위원으로 활동할 때, 내가 올린 글을 우수작으로 뽑아주었던 덕에 ‘어라 나 글좀쓰나‘ 하고 생각하게 되어 몇 년을 글을 쓰며 지내게 된 터라(결국 잘 안되긴 했어도), 고마운 마음이 조금 있다. 당선 선물로 그로부터 ˝마음사전˝이라는 책도 받았는데 담백해서 좋았더랬다. 당시의 내 글이 지향하는 방향과도 겹치는 부분이 있었던 것 같다.

그 뒤에 나도 문장을 떠나고 그도 떠나고(순서가 맞나), 다시는 만날 일이 없을 거라 생각했는데 그는 시인에서 산문가로 꾸준히 글을 쓰고 있었고 이번엔 내가 그의 글을 읽는 처지가 되어 만났다. 물론 나의 평가 같은 걸 신경쓸 것 같진 않지만 그때의 기분 좋았던 심사평(정확히 기억은 안나는데 암튼 꽤 우쭐했다)을 떠올라 나도 좋은 말을 해주고 싶다는 생각이 든다.

인생도 문장도 주짓수도 덧셈이냐 뺄셈이냐 크게 보면 그런 것 같은데, 그는 뺄셈 쪽이었던 것 같다. 당시 나의 글이 그의 눈에 흡족했던 이유도 그랬던 것 같다. 나는 빼고 또 빼서 더 이상 뺄 게 없는 문장을 늘어놓는 연습을 하고 있었으니까. 생각해보니 그땐 사는 방식도 그랬던 것 같다. 별로 가진 것도 없는 주제에 하나를 얻으면 뭘 버려야 할지 고민했던 기억이 난다.

아무튼 그의 뺄셈이 덜다 덜다 이제 세상으로부터 자신을 덜어내게 되었다는 소식에 그 꾸준함에 가슴 찡하다. 내가 이리저리 뒤뚱거리며 돌아다니는 사이 누군가는 예전에 가슴에 품었던 이상을 놓지 않고 있었다.

반가워요 김소연 씨.