diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-cd.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-cd.yml index d8d7d6243..02ac8716c 100644 --- a/.github/workflows/ci-cd.yml +++ b/.github/workflows/ci-cd.yml @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -# Copyright Jiaqi Liu +# Copyright Jiaqi Wang --- name: CI/CD diff --git a/src/assets/images/avatar.png b/src/assets/images/avatar.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..32a147b8a Binary files /dev/null and b/src/assets/images/avatar.png differ diff --git a/src/assets/images/banner-1.png b/src/assets/images/banner-1.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8581a455a Binary files /dev/null and b/src/assets/images/banner-1.png differ diff --git a/src/assets/images/banner-2.png b/src/assets/images/banner-2.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..34903f569 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/assets/images/banner-2.png differ diff --git a/src/assets/images/banner-3.png b/src/assets/images/banner-3.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6956781eb Binary files /dev/null and b/src/assets/images/banner-3.png differ diff --git a/src/assets/images/demo-avatar.png b/src/assets/images/demo-avatar.png deleted file mode 100644 index 84320d4c5..000000000 Binary files a/src/assets/images/demo-avatar.png and /dev/null differ diff --git a/src/assets/images/demo-banner.png b/src/assets/images/demo-banner.png deleted file mode 100644 index f8c031065..000000000 Binary files a/src/assets/images/demo-banner.png and /dev/null differ diff --git a/src/config.ts b/src/config.ts index a2b58f130..c0b1a23ef 100644 --- a/src/config.ts +++ b/src/config.ts @@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ import type { import { LinkPreset } from './types/config' export const siteConfig: SiteConfig = { - title: 'Fuwari', - subtitle: 'Demo Site', + title: 'Jack\'s Leadership Blog', + subtitle: 'Leadership is, at root, about Influencing Others', lang: 'en', // 'en', 'zh_CN', 'zh_TW', 'ja' themeColor: { hue: 250, // Default hue for the theme color, from 0 to 360. e.g. red: 0, teal: 200, cyan: 250, pink: 345 @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ export const siteConfig: SiteConfig = { }, banner: { enable: true, - src: 'assets/images/demo-banner.png', // Relative to the /src directory. Relative to the /public directory if it starts with '/' + src: 'assets/images/banner-1.png', // Relative to the /src directory. Relative to the /public directory if it starts with '/' position: 'center', // Equivalent to object-position, defaults center }, favicon: [ // Leave this array empty to use the default favicon @@ -35,33 +35,33 @@ export const navBarConfig: NavBarConfig = { LinkPreset.About, { name: 'GitHub', - url: 'https://github.com/saicaca/fuwari', // Internal links should not include the base path, as it is automatically added - external: true, // Show an external link icon and will open in a new tab + url: 'https://github.com/Qubitpi', // Internal links should not include the base path, as it is automatically added + external: true, // Show an external link icon and will open in a new tab }, ], } export const profileConfig: ProfileConfig = { - avatar: 'assets/images/demo-avatar.png', // Relative to the /src directory. Relative to the /public directory if it starts with '/' - name: 'Lorem Ipsum', - bio: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.', + avatar: 'assets/images/avatar.png', // Relative to the /src directory. Relative to the /public directory if it starts with '/' + name: 'Jiaqi Wang', + bio: 'Leadership is, at root, about Influencing Others.', links: [ { - name: 'Twitter', - icon: 'fa6-brands:twitter', // Visit https://icones.js.org/ for icon codes + name: 'Paion Data', + icon: 'fa6-brands:bluesky', // Visit https://icones.js.org/ for icon codes // You will need to install the corresponding icon set if it's not already included // `pnpm add @iconify-json/` - url: 'https://twitter.com', + url: 'https://github.com/paion-data', }, { - name: 'Steam', - icon: 'fa6-brands:steam', - url: 'https://store.steampowered.com', + name: 'Nexus Graph', + icon: 'fa6-brands:ubuntu', + url: 'https://nexusgraph.com', }, { name: 'GitHub', - icon: 'fa6-brands:github', - url: 'https://github.com/saicaca/fuwari', + icon: 'fa6-brands:github-alt', + url: 'https://github.com/Qubitpi', }, ], } diff --git a/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/cover.png b/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..315a149ba Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/declaration-of-independence.png b/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/declaration-of-independence.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7fb645ed9 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/declaration-of-independence.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/index.md b/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..20acb4d11 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/declaration-of-independence/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: Infinite Game - Declaration of Independence +published: 2024-08-01 +description: | + Being for or being against is a subtle but profound difference that the writers of the Declaration of Independence + intuitively understood. +image: './cover.png' +tags: [ "Leadership" ] +category: 'Leadership' +draft: false +--- + +![Error loading declaration-of-independence.png](./declaration-of-independence.png) + +A Just Cause is something we stand for and believe in, not something we oppose. Leaders can rally people _against_ +something quite easily. They can whip them into a frenzy, even. For our emotions can run hot when we are angry or +afraid. Being _for_ something, in contrast, is about feeling inspired. Being _for_ ignites the human spirit and fills us +with hope and optimism. Being against is about vilifying, demonizing or rejecting. Being _for_ is about inviting all to +join in common cause. Being _against_ focuses our attention on the things we can see in order to elicit reactions. Being +for focuses our attention on the unbuilt future in order to spark our imaginations. + +Imagine if instead of fighting _against_ poverty, for example, we fought _for_ the right of every human to provide for +their own family. The first creates a common enemy, something we are against. It sets up the Cause as if it is +“winnable,” i.e., a finite game. It leads us to believe that we can defeat poverty once and for all. The second gives us +a cause to advance. The impact of the two perspectives is more than semantics. It affects how we view the problem/vision +that affects our ideas on how we can contribute. Where the first offers us a problem to solve, the second offers a +vision of possibility, dignity and empowerment. We are not inspired to “reduce” poverty, we are inspired to “grow” the +number of people who are able to provide for themselves and their families. Being for or being against is a subtle but +profound difference that the writers of the Declaration of Independence intuitively understood. + +Those who led America toward independence stood _against_ Great Britain in the short term. Indeed the American colonists +were deeply offended by how they were treated by England. Over 60 percent of the Declaration of Independence is spent +laying out specific grievances against the king. However, the Cause they were fighting _for_ was the true source of +lasting inspiration, and in the Declaration of Independence it came before anything else. It is the first idea we read +in the document. It sets the context for the rest of the Declaration and the direction for moving forward. It is the +ideal to which we personally relate and that we have easily committed to memory. Few Americans, except for scholars and +the most zealous of history buffs, can rattle off even one of the complaints listed later in the document, things like: +“He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for naturalization +of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new +Appropriations of Lands.” In contrast, most Americans can recite with ease “all men are created equal” and can usually +rattle off the three tenets of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These words are indelibly marked on the +cultural psyche. Invoked by patriots and politicians alike, they remind Americans of who we strive to be and the ideals +upon which our nation was founded. They tell us what we stand _for_. diff --git a/src/content/posts/draft.md b/src/content/posts/draft.md deleted file mode 100644 index 77aba5aa0..000000000 --- a/src/content/posts/draft.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,22 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Draft Example -published: 2022-07-01 -tags: [Markdown, Blogging, Demo] -category: Examples -draft: true ---- - -# This Article is a Draft - -This article is currently in a draft state and is not published. Therefore, it will not be visible to the general audience. The content is still a work in progress and may require further editing and review. - -When the article is ready for publication, you can update the "draft" field to "false" in the Frontmatter: - -```markdown ---- -title: Draft Example -published: 2024-01-11T04:40:26.381Z -tags: [Markdown, Blogging, Demo] -category: Examples -draft: false ---- diff --git a/src/content/posts/good-leaders-make-you-feel-safe/cover.png b/src/content/posts/good-leaders-make-you-feel-safe/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..578ba8738 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/good-leaders-make-you-feel-safe/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/good-leaders-make-you-feel-safe/index.md b/src/content/posts/good-leaders-make-you-feel-safe/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3e0417c2c --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/good-leaders-make-you-feel-safe/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ +--- +title: Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe +published: 2024-08-01 +description: | + What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it's someone who makes their employees feel + secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety -- especially in an uneven economy -- + means taking on big responsibility. +image: './cover.png' +tags: [ "Leadership" ] +category: 'Leadership' +draft: false +--- + +TED Talk by Simon +----------------- + + + +### Video Transcript + +There's a man by the name of Captain William Swenson who recently was awarded the congressional Medal of Honor for his +actions on September 8, 2009. + +On that day, a column of American and Afghan troops were making their way through a part of Afghanistan to help protect +a group of government officials, a group of Afghan government officials, who would be meeting with some local village +elders. The column came under ambush, and was surrounded on three sides, and amongst many other things, Captain Swenson +was recognized for running into live fire to rescue the wounded and pull out the dead. One of the people he rescued was +a sergeant, and he and a comrade were making their way to a medevac helicopter. + +And what was remarkable about this day is, by sheer coincidence, one of the medevac medics happened to have a GoPro +camera on his helmet and captured the whole scene on camera. It shows Captain Swenson and his comrade bringing this +wounded soldier who had received a gunshot to the neck. They put him in the helicopter, and then you see Captain Swenson +bend over and give him a kiss before he turns around to rescue more. + +I saw this, and I thought to myself, where do people like that come from? What is that? That is some deep, deep emotion, +when you would want to do that. There's a love there, and I wanted to know why is it that I don't have people that I +work with like that? You know, in the military, they give medals to people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so +that others may gain. In business, we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain. We +have it backwards. Right? So I asked myself, where do people like this come from? And my initial conclusion was that +they're just better people. That's why they're attracted to the military. These better people are attracted to this +concept of service. But that's completely wrong. What I learned was that it's the environment, and if you get the +environment right, every single one of us has the capacity to do these remarkable things, and more importantly, others +have that capacity too. I've had the great honor of getting to meet some of these, who we would call heroes, who have +put themselves and put their lives at risk to save others, and I asked them, "Why would you do it? Why did you do it?" +And they all say the same thing: "Because they would have done it for me." It's this deep sense of trust and +cooperation. So trust and cooperation are really important here. The problem with concepts of trust and cooperation is +that they are feelings, they are not instructions. I can't simply say to you, "Trust me," and you will. I can't simply +instruct two people to cooperate, and they will. It's not how it works. It's a feeling. + +So where does that feeling come from? If you go back 50,000 years to the Paleolithic era, to the early days of Homo +sapiens, what we find is that the world was filled with danger, all of these forces working very, very hard to kill us. +Nothing personal. Whether it was the weather, lack of resources, maybe a saber-toothed tiger, all of these things +working to reduce our lifespan. And so we evolved into social animals, where we lived together and worked together in +what I call a circle of safety, inside the tribe, where we felt like we belonged. And when we felt safe amongst our own, +the natural reaction was trust and cooperation. There are inherent benefits to this. It means I can fall asleep at night +and trust that someone from within my tribe will watch for danger. If we don't trust each other, if I don't trust you, +that means you won't watch for danger. Bad system of survival. + +The modern day is exactly the same thing. The world is filled with danger, things that are trying to frustrate our lives +or reduce our success, reduce our opportunity for success. It could be the ups and downs in the economy, the uncertainty +of the stock market. It could be a new technology that renders your business model obsolete overnight. Or it could be +your competition that is sometimes trying to kill you. It's sometimes trying to put you out of business, but at the very +minimum is working hard to frustrate your growth and steal your business from you. We have no control over these forces. +These are a constant, and they're not going away. + +The only variable are the conditions inside the organization, and that's where leadership matters, because it's the +leader that sets the tone. When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the +organization first, to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel +safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen. + +I was flying on a trip, and I was witness to an incident where a passenger attempted to board before their number +was called, and I watched the gate agent treat this man like he had broken the law, like a criminal. He was yelled +at for attempting to board one group too soon. So I said something. I said, "Why do you have to treat us like cattle? +Why can't you treat us like human beings?" And this is exactly what she said to me. She said, "Sir, if I don't follow +the rules, I could get in trouble or lose my job." All she was telling me is that she doesn't feel safe. All she was +telling me is that she doesn't trust her leaders. The reason we like flying Southwest Airlines is not because they +necessarily hire better people. It's because they don't fear their leaders. + +You see, if the conditions are wrong, we are forced to expend our own time and energy to protect ourselves from each +other, and that inherently weakens the organization. When we feel safe inside the organization, we will naturally +combine our talents and our strengths and work tirelessly to face the dangers outside and seize the opportunities. + +The closest analogy I can give to what a great leader is, is like being a parent. If you think about what being a great +parent is, what do you want? What makes a great parent? We want to give our child opportunities, education, discipline +them when necessary, all so that they can grow up and achieve more than we could for ourselves. Great leaders want +exactly the same thing. They want to provide their people opportunity, education, discipline when necessary, build their +self-confidence, give them the opportunity to try and fail, all so that they could achieve more than we could ever +imagine for ourselves. + +Charlie Kim, who's the CEO of a company called Next Jump in New York City, a tech company, he makes the point that if +you had hard times in your family, would you ever consider laying off one of your children? We would never do it. Then +why do we consider laying off people inside our organization? Charlie implemented a policy of lifetime employment. If +you get a job at Next Jump, you cannot get fired for performance issues. In fact, if you have issues, they will coach +you and they will give you support, just like we would with one of our children who happens to come home with a C from +school. It's the complete opposite. + +This is the reason so many people have such a visceral hatred, anger, at some of these banking CEOs with their +disproportionate salaries and bonus structures. It's not the numbers. It's that they have violated the very definition +of leadership. They have violated this deep-seated social contract. We know that they allowed their people to be +sacrificed so they could protect their own interests, or worse, they sacrificed their people to protect their own +interests. This is what so offends us, not the numbers. Would anybody be offended if we gave a $150 million bonus to +Gandhi? How about a $250 million bonus to Mother Teresa? Do we have an issue with that? None at all. None at all. Great +leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the +people. + +Bob Chapman, who runs a large manufacturing company in the Midwest called Barry-Wehmiller, in 2008 was hit very hard by +the recession, and they lost 30 percent of their orders overnight. Now in a large manufacturing company, this is a big +deal, and they could no longer afford their labor pool. They needed to save 10 million dollars, so, like so many +companies today, the board got together and discussed layoffs. And Bob refused. You see, Bob doesn't believe in head +counts. Bob believes in heart counts, and it's much more difficult to simply reduce the heart count. And so they came up +with a furlough program. Every employee, from secretary to CEO, was required to take four weeks of unpaid vacation. They +could take it any time they wanted, and they did not have to take it consecutively. But it was how Bob announced the +program that mattered so much. He said, it's better that we should all suffer a little than any of us should have to +suffer a lot, and morale went up. They saved 20 million dollars, and most importantly, as would be expected, when the +people feel safe and protected by the leadership in the organization, the natural reaction is to trust and cooperate. +And quite spontaneously, nobody expected, people started trading with each other. Those who could afford it more would +trade with those who could afford it less. People would take five weeks so that somebody else only had to take three. + +Leadership is a choice. It is not a rank. I know many people at the seniormost levels of organizations who are +absolutely not leaders. They are authorities, and we do what they say because they have authority over us, but we would +not follow them. And I know many people who are at the bottoms of organizations who have no authority and they are +absolutely leaders, and this is because they have chosen to look after the person to the left of them, and they have +chosen to look after the person to the right of them. This is what a leader is. + +I heard a story of some Marines who were out in theater, and as is the Marine custom, the officer ate last, and he let +his men eat first, and when they were done, there was no food left for him. And when they went back out in the field, +his men brought him some of their food so that he may eat, because that's what happens. We call them leaders because +they go first. We call them leaders because they take the risk before anybody else does. We call them leaders because +they will choose to sacrifice so that their people may be safe and protected and so their people may gain, and when we +do, the natural response is that our people will sacrifice for us. They will give us their blood and sweat and tears to +see that their leader's vision comes to life, and when we ask them, "Why would you do that? Why would you give your +blood and sweat and tears for that person?" they all say the same thing: "Because they would have done it for me." And +isn't that the organization we would all like to work in? + +Thank you very much. + +Thank you. (Applause) + +Thank you. (Applause) diff --git a/src/content/posts/guide/cover.jpeg b/src/content/posts/guide/cover.jpeg deleted file mode 100644 index 66104c33f..000000000 Binary files a/src/content/posts/guide/cover.jpeg and /dev/null differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/guide/index.md b/src/content/posts/guide/index.md deleted file mode 100644 index 8db1e3d2b..000000000 --- a/src/content/posts/guide/index.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,51 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Simple Guides for Fuwari -published: 2024-04-01 -description: "How to use this blog template." -image: "./cover.jpeg" -tags: ["Fuwari", "Blogging", "Customization"] -category: Guides -draft: false ---- - -> Cover image source: [Source](https://image.civitai.com/xG1nkqKTMzGDvpLrqFT7WA/208fc754-890d-4adb-9753-2c963332675d/width=2048/01651-1456859105-(colour_1.5),girl,_Blue,yellow,green,cyan,purple,red,pink,_best,8k,UHD,masterpiece,male%20focus,%201boy,gloves,%20ponytail,%20long%20hair,.jpeg) - -This blog template is built with [Astro](https://astro.build/). For the things that are not mentioned in this guide, you may find the answers in the [Astro Docs](https://docs.astro.build/). - -## Front-matter of Posts - -```yaml ---- -title: My First Blog Post -published: 2023-09-09 -description: This is the first post of my new Astro blog. -image: ./cover.jpg -tags: [Foo, Bar] -category: Front-end -draft: false ---- -``` - -| Attribute | Description | -|---------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| -| `title` | The title of the post. | -| `published` | The date the post was published. | -| `description` | A short description of the post. Displayed on index page. | -| `image` | The cover image path of the post.
1. Start with `http://` or `https://`: Use web image
2. Start with `/`: For image in `public` dir
3. With none of the prefixes: Relative to the markdown file | -| `tags` | The tags of the post. | -| `category` | The category of the post. | -| `draft` | If this post is still a draft, which won't be displayed. | - -## Where to Place the Post Files - - - -Your post files should be placed in `src/content/posts/` directory. You can also create sub-directories to better organize your posts and assets. - -``` -src/content/posts/ -├── post-1.md -└── post-2/ - ├── cover.png - └── index.md -``` diff --git a/src/content/posts/history-of-management/cover.png b/src/content/posts/history-of-management/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b24184d02 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/history-of-management/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/history-of-management/index.md b/src/content/posts/history-of-management/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..079b9c9ef --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/history-of-management/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +--- +title: History of Management +published: 2024-07-21 +description: 'History of Management' +image: './cover.png' +tags: ["Management"] +category: 'Management' +draft: false +--- + +My background of Physics told me to truly master a concept, one cannot ignore its origin. If I teach you Maxwell +equations now you would end up with a blank mind. You need to start with "what is an electric charge", "what is a +field", and "how a moving charge could produce magnetic field" so on and so forth. At the end of the day, you will be +making a perfect sense of what Maxell equations mean. It it only through this way you can start applying Maxwell's +equations and solve real-worl problems. + +Management, and everything else in our live, goes like this. + +[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management#History) +----------- + +The field of management originated in ancient China, including possibly the first highly centralized bureaucratic state, +and the earliest (by the second century BC) example of an administration based on merit through testing. Some theorists +have cited ancient military texts as providing lessons for civilian managers. For example, Chinese general Sun Tzu in +his 6th-century BC work The Art of War recommends[citation needed] (when re-phrased in modern terminology) being aware +of and acting on strengths and weaknesses of both a manager's organization and a foe's. + +:::note[《孙子兵法，孙膑兵法》下载] +[中华经典藏书.中华书局·电子书· PDF合集](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/386890361) +::: + +The writings of influential Chinese Legalist philosopher Shen Buhai (申子) may be considered to embody a rare premodern example +of abstract theory of administration. + +:::note[Key Takeaway] +[多读一读诸子百家的书籍](https://forum.freemdict.com/t/topic/24650/3)，发掘里面的管理学经验 +::: + +Various ancient and medieval civilizations produced +"[mirrors for princes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirrors_for_princes)" books, which aimed to advise new monarchs on +how to govern. Examples includes _The Prince_ by Italian author Niccolò Machiavelli + +[Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3jk7uk/is_there_any_management_theory_literature_that_we/) +-------- + +in the [De Administrando Imperio](https://trello.com/c/cKS8d0bp) of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Constantine had this +written/compiled as advice to his son, Romanus. It functions as a practical manual, with a heavy foreign policy +emphasis, on how to be a good emperor. Unlike some advice written by emperors and historians, this one is not a +panegyric or solely praise; rather, it is candid and informative policy. Furthermore, it is (mostly) secular and +research-based; though, the bit on the "obscene" and "blasphemous" Mohammed is obviously biased. + +R.J.H. Jenkins, in his introduction to the De Administrando Imperio, describes Constantine’s attempt at teaching +"practical wisdom" to his son by: + +:::important[Scrutiny of the historical documents] +writing or causing to be written histories of recent events and manuals of technical instruction on the various +departments of business and administration… Documents from the files of every branch of the administration, from the +foreign ministry, the treasury, the offices of ceremonial, were scrutinized and abstracted. +::: + +One of its key elements was a "summary of the recent internal history, politics, and organization within the borders of +the empire." Far from being a piece of rhetoric or self-absorbed thought, the document contains enormous, albeit +intermittently erroneous, research and careful analysis. This is “no partial document of propaganda… to impress domestic +or foreign circles." + +From Jenkins, + +> Provincial governors and imperial envoys wrote historical and topographical reports on the areas of their jurisdiction +> or assignment. Foreign ambassadors were diligently questioned as to the affairs of their respective countries. + +One of the interesting things to note about the Administrando was its secret nature, having been written as advice for +Constantine's son, Romanus; it acts as part succession letter, part compilation, and part "confidential" +advice/information. + +As the emperor puts it, + +:::tip[On "Knowing the difference between being-managed"] +it is not for those who wish to govern lawfully to copy and emulate what has been ill done by some out of ignorance or +arrogance, but rather to have the glorious deeds of those who have ruled lawfully and righteously as noble pictures set +up for an example to be copied, and after their pattern to strive himself also to direct all that he does... it may +greatly advantage you… [to know] the difference between other nations, their origins and customs and manner of life, and +the position and climate of the land they dwell in... +::: diff --git a/src/content/posts/inspire-action/cover.GIF b/src/content/posts/inspire-action/cover.GIF new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e4a364d9b Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/inspire-action/cover.GIF differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/inspire-action/index.md b/src/content/posts/inspire-action/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..073b94fdf --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/inspire-action/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,204 @@ +--- +title: How Great Leaders Inspire Action +published: 2024-07-31 +description: | + Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the + question: "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers ... +image: './cover.GIF' +tags: [ "Leadership" ] +category: 'Leadership' +draft: false +--- + +TED Talk by Simon +----------------- + + + +### Video Transcript + +How do you explain when things don't go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve +things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, +they're more innovative than all their competition. And yet, they're just a computer company. They're just like everyone +else. They have the same access to the same talent, the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media. Then why is +it that they seem to have something different? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement? He +wasn't the only man who suffered in pre-civil rights America, and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day. +Why him? And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure out controlled, powered man flight when there were +certainly other teams who were better qualified, better funded -- and they didn't achieve powered man flight, and the +Wright brothers beat them to it. There's something else at play here. + +About three and a half years ago, I made a discovery. And this discovery profoundly changed my view on how I thought the +world worked, and it even profoundly changed the way in which I operate in it. As it turns out, there's a pattern. As it +turns out, all the great inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it's Apple or Martin Luther King or +the Wright brothers, they all think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it's the complete opposite to everyone +else. All I did was codify it, and it's probably the world's simplest idea. I call it the golden circle. + +Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others +aren't. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what +they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your +proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by "why" +I don't mean "to make a profit." That's a result. It's always a result. By "why," I mean: What's your purpose? What's +your cause? What's your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why +should anyone care? As a result, the way we think, we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in, it's obvious. +We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations -- +regardless of their size, regardless of their industry -- all think, act and communicate from the inside out. + +Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Apple were like +everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: "We make great computers. They're beautifully +designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?" "Meh." That's how most of us communicate. That's how most +marketing and sales are done, that's how we communicate interpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we're different +or better and we expect some sort of a behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here's our new law firm: We +have the best lawyers with the biggest clients, we always perform for our clients. Here's our new car: It gets great gas +mileage, it has leather seats. Buy our car. But it's uninspiring. + +Here's how Apple actually communicates. "Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in +thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use +and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?" Totally different, right? You're ready to +buy a computer from me. I just reversed the order of the information. What it proves to us is that people don't buy what +you do; people buy why you do it. + +This explains why every single person in this room is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But we're also +perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple, or a DVR from Apple. As I said before, +Apple's just a computer company. Nothing distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors. Their +competitors are equally qualified to make all of these products. In fact, they tried. A few years ago, Gateway came out +with flat-screen TVs. They're eminently qualified to make flat-screen TVs. They've been making flat-screen monitors for +years. Nobody bought one. Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs, and they make great quality products, and they can +make perfectly well-designed products -- and nobody bought one. In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine +buying an MP3 player from Dell. Why would you buy one from a computer company? But we do it every day. People don't buy +what you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is +to do business with people who believe what you believe. + +Here's the best part: None of what I'm telling you is my opinion. It's all grounded in the tenets of biology. Not +psychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, from the top down, the human brain is actually +broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our Homo sapien +brain, our neocortex, corresponds with the "what" level. The neocortex is responsible for all of our rational and +analytical thought and language. The middle two sections make up our limbic brains, and our limbic brains are +responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behavior, all +decision-making, and it has no capacity for language. + +In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated +information like features and benefits and facts and figures. It just doesn't drive behavior. When we can communicate +from the inside out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior, and then we allow people to +rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from. Sometimes you can give +somebody all the facts and figures, and they say, "I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel +right." Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right? Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making +doesn't control language. The best we can muster up is, "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right." Or sometimes you say +you're leading with your heart or soul. I hate to break it to you, those aren't other body parts controlling your +behavior. It's all happening here in your limbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not +language. + +But if you don't know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will you ever get +people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is +that you do. The goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have; the goal is to sell to people who believe +what you believe. The goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it's to hire people who believe what you believe. +I always say that, you know, if you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they +believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. Nowhere else is there a better example +than with the Wright brothers. + +Most people don't know about Samuel Pierpont Langley. And back in the early 20th century, the pursuit of powered man +flight was like the dot com of the day. Everybody was trying it. And Samuel Pierpont Langley had, what we assume, to be +the recipe for success. Even now, you ask people, "Why did your product or why did your company fail?" and people always +give you the same permutation of the same three things: under-capitalized, the wrong people, bad market conditions. It's +always the same three things, so let's explore that. Samuel Pierpont Langley was given 50,000 dollars by the War +Department to figure out this flying machine. Money was no problem. He held a seat at Harvard and worked at the +Smithsonian and was extremely well-connected; he knew all the big minds of the day. He hired the best minds money could +find and the market conditions were fantastic. The New York Times followed him around everywhere, and everyone was +rooting for Langley. Then how come we've never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley? + +A few hundred miles away in Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, they had none of what we consider to be the recipe +for success. They had no money; they paid for their dream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop. Not a single person +on the Wright brothers' team had a college education, not even Orville or Wilbur. And The New York Times followed them +around nowhere. + +The difference was, Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that if they +could figure out this flying machine, it'll change the course of the world. Samuel Pierpont Langley was different. He +wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous. He was in pursuit of the result. He was in pursuit of the riches. And lo +and behold, look what happened. The people who believed in the Wright brothers' dream worked with them with blood and +sweat and tears. The others just worked for the paycheck. They tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers went +out, they would have to take five sets of parts, because that's how many times they would crash before supper. + +And, eventually, on December 17th, 1903, the Wright brothers took flight, and no one was there to even experience it. We +found out about it a few days later. And further proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing: the day the Wright +brothers took flight, he quit. He could have said, "That's an amazing discovery, guys, and I will improve upon your +technology," but he didn't. He wasn't first, he didn't get rich, he didn't get famous, so he quit. + +People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who +believe what you believe. + +But why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe? Something called the law of diffusion of +innovation, if you don't know the law, you know the terminology. The first 2.5% of our population are our innovators. +The next 13.5% of our population are our early adopters. The next 34% are your early majority, your late majority and +your laggards. The only reason these people buy touch-tone phones is because you can't buy rotary phones anymore. + +(Laughter) + +We all sit at various places at various times on this scale, but what the law of diffusion of innovation tells us is +that if you want mass-market success or mass-market acceptance of an idea, you cannot have it until you achieve this +tipping point between 15 and 18 percent market penetration, and then the system tips. I love asking businesses, "What's +your conversion on new business?" They love to tell you, "It's about 10 percent," proudly. Well, you can trip over 10% +of the customers. We all have about 10% who just "get it." That's how we describe them, right? That's like that gut +feeling, "Oh, they just get it." + +The problem is: How do you find the ones that get it before doing business versus the ones who don't get it? So it's +this here, this little gap that you have to close, as Jeffrey Moore calls it, "Crossing the Chasm" -- because, you see, +the early majority will not try something until someone else has tried it first. And these guys, the innovators and the +early adopters, they're comfortable making those gut decisions. They're more comfortable making those intuitive +decisions that are driven by what they believe about the world and not just what product is available. These are the +people who stood in line for six hours to buy an iPhone when they first came out, when you could have bought one off the +shelf the next week. These are the people who spent 40,000 dollars on flat-screen TVs when they first came out, even +though the technology was substandard. And, by the way, they didn't do it because the technology was so great; they did +it for themselves. It's because they wanted to be first. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it and what +you do simply proves what you believe. In fact, people will do the things that prove what they believe. The reason that +person bought the iPhone in the first six hours, stood in line for six hours, was because of what they believed about +the world, and how they wanted everybody to see them: they were first. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do +it. + +So let me give you a famous example, a famous failure and a famous success of the law of diffusion of innovation. First, +the famous failure. It's a commercial example. As we said before, the recipe for success is money and the right people +and the right market conditions. You should have success then. Look at TiVo. From the time TiVo came out about eight or +nine years ago to this current day, they are the single highest-quality product on the market, hands down, there is no +dispute. They were extremely well-funded. Market conditions were fantastic. I mean, we use TiVo as verb. I TiVo stuff on +my piece-of-junk Time Warner DVR all the time. + +(Laughter) + +But TiVo's a commercial failure. They've never made money. And when they went IPO, their stock was at about 30 or 40 +dollars and then plummeted, and it's never traded above 10. In fact, I don't think it's even traded above six, except +for a couple of little spikes. + +Because you see, when TiVo launched their product, they told us all what they had. They said, "We have a product that +pauses live TV, skips commercials, rewinds live TV and memorizes your viewing habits without you even asking." And the +cynical majority said, "We don't believe you. We don't need it. We don't like it. You're scaring us." + +What if they had said, "If you're the kind of person who likes to have total control over every aspect of your life, +boy, do we have a product for you. It pauses live TV, skips commercials, memorizes your viewing habits, etc., etc." +People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it, and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe. + +Now let me give you a successful example of the law of diffusion of innovation. In the summer of 1963, 250,000 people +showed up on the mall in Washington to hear Dr. King speak. They sent out no invitations, and there was no website to +check the date. How do you do that? Well, Dr. King wasn't the only man in America who was a great orator. He wasn't the +only man in America who suffered in a pre-civil rights America. In fact, some of his ideas were bad. But he had a gift. +He didn't go around telling people what needed to change in America. He went around and told people what he believed. "I +believe, I believe, I believe," he told people. And people who believed what he believed took his cause, and they made +it their own, and they told people. And some of those people created structures to get the word out to even more people. +And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up on the right day at the right time to hear him speak. + +How many of them showed up for him? Zero. They showed up for themselves. It's what they believed about America that got +them to travel in a bus for eight hours to stand in the sun in Washington in the middle of August. It's what they +believed, and it wasn't about black versus white: 25% of the audience was white. + +Dr. King believed that there are two types of laws in this world: those that are made by a higher authority and those +that are made by men. And not until all the laws that are made by men are consistent with the laws made by the higher +authority will we live in a just world. It just so happened that the Civil Rights Movement was the perfect thing to help +him bring his cause to life. We followed, not for him, but for ourselves. By the way, he gave the "I have a dream" +speech, not the "I have a plan" speech. + +(Laughter) + +Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans. They're not inspiring anybody. Because there are +leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. +Whether they're individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. +We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it's those who start with "why" that have the ability to +inspire those around them or find others who inspire them. + +Thank you very much. diff --git a/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/cover.png b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cecde0d3a Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/index.md b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..84f2ee7b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/john-kennedy-space/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,174 @@ +--- +title: John F. Kennedy Address at Rice University on the Space Effort +published: 2024-07-28 +description: The great speech that inspired thousands of minds for Space Exploration on Sept. 12, 1962 +image: './cover.png' +tags: [Leadership] +category: Leadership +draft: false +--- + +The Great Speech +---------------- + + + +The Speech Transcripts +---------------------- + +President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb. Mr. +Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen: + +I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture +will be very brief. I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion. + +We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in +need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both +knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. + +Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite +the fact that this Nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times +that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished +still far out-strip our collective comprehension. + +No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded +history in a time span of but a half century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, +except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, +under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only 5 years ago man learned to +write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than 2 years ago. The printing press came this year, and then +less than 2 months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of +power. + +Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became +available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new +spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight. + +This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new +problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward. + +So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of +Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished +to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward-and so will space. + +William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions +are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage. + +If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is +determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one +of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay +behind in this race for space. + +Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first +waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the +backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it - we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look +into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag +of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass +destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. + +Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. +In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as +well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and +to become the world's leading space-faring nation. + +We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won +and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience +of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a +position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of +war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go +unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding +the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours. + +There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its +conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, +some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years +ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? + +We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are +easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and +skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we +intend to win, and the others, too. + +It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as +among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the Office of the Presidency. + +In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's +history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times +as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their +accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight +engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new +building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two +lengths of this field. + +Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United +States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than +those of the Soviet Union. + +The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The +accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the +40-yard lines. + +Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented +warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs. + +We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public. + +To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and +in this decade we shall make up and move ahead. + +The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new +techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well +as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains. + +And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, +and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled +personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest +outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, +your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering +community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of +scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to +invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 +billion from this Center in this City. + +To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year's space budget is three times what it was in January +1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous 8 years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million +a year-a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will +soon rise some more from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman, and child in +the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority even though I realize that this is in some +measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. But if I were to say, my fellow +citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more +than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been +invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with +a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, +communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to +earth, reentering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the +temperature of the sun - almost as hot as it is here today - and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before +this decade is out, then we must be bold. + +I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. + +However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to +waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done +while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the terms of office of +some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this +decade. + +I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of +the United States of America. + +Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to +climb it. He said, "Because it is there." + +Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge +and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and +greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. + +Thank you. + +NOTE: The President spoke in the Rice University Stadium at 10 a.m. + +In his opening words he referred to Dr. K. S. Pitzer, President of the University, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, +Governor Price Daniel of Texas, Representative Albert Thomas of Texas, Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, +Representative George P. Miller of California, James E. Webb, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space +Administration., David E. Bell, Director of the Bureau of the Budget. + +Source: [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, v. 1, 1962, pp. 669-670](https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PPP-1962-book1). diff --git a/src/content/posts/kant-view-of-mind-and-consciousness/cover.png b/src/content/posts/kant-view-of-mind-and-consciousness/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..688de2a8f Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/kant-view-of-mind-and-consciousness/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/kant-view-of-mind-and-consciousness/index.md b/src/content/posts/kant-view-of-mind-and-consciousness/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2d2f6695d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/kant-view-of-mind-and-consciousness/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,286 @@ +--- +title: Kant's View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self +published: 2024-07-27 +description: Kant's View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self +image: './cover.png' +tags: ["Theory"] +category: 'Theory' +draft: false +--- + +> Brook, Andrew and Julian Wuerth, +> "[Kant's View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/kant-mind)", +> The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.) + +A Sketch of Kant's View of the Mind +----------------------------------- + +In general structure, Kant's model of the mind was the dominant model in the empirical psychology that flowed from his +work and then again, after a hiatus during which behaviourism reigned supreme (roughly 1910 to 1965), toward the end of +the 20th century, especially in cognitive science. Central elements of the models of the mind of thinkers otherwise as +different as Sigmund Freud and Jerry Fodor are broadly Kantian, for example. + +Three ideas define the basic shape ('cognitive architecture') of Kant's model and one its dominant method. They have all +become part of the foundation of cognitive science. + +1. The mind is a complex set of abilities (functions). (As Meerbote 1989 and many others have observed, Kant held a + functionalist view of the mind almost 200 years before functionalism was officially articulated in the 1960s by + Hilary Putnam and others.) +2. The functions crucial for mental, knowledge-generating activity are spatio-temporal processing of, and application of + concepts to, sensory inputs. Cognition requires concepts as well as percepts. +3. These functions are forms of what Kant called synthesis. Synthesis (and the unity in consciousness required for + synthesis) are central to cognition. + +These three ideas are fundamental to most thinking about cognition now. Kant's most important method, the transcendental +method, is also at the heart of contemporary cognitive science. + +- To study the mind, infer the conditions necessary for experience. Arguments having this structure are called + _transcendental arguments_. + +:::tip +Translated into contemporary terms, the core of this method is inference to the best explanation, the method of +postulating unobservable mental mechanisms in order to explain observed behaviour. +::: + +To be sure, Kant thought that he could get more out of his transcendental arguments than just 'best explanations'. He +thought that he could get _a priori_ (experience independent) knowledge out of them. Kant had a tripartite doctrine of +the _a priori_. He held that some features of the mind and its knowledge had _a priori_ origins, i.e., must be in the +mind prior to experience (because using them is necessary to have experience). That mind and knowledge have these +features are _a priori_ truths, i.e., necessary and universal. And we can come to know these truths, or that they are +_a priori_ at any rate, only by using _a priori_ methods, i.e., we cannot learn these things from experience (B3) (Brook +1993). Kant thought that transcendental arguments were _a priori_ or yielded the _a priori_ in all three ways. +Nonetheless, at the heart of this method is inference to the best explanation. When introspection fell out of favour +about 100 years ago, the alternative approach adopted was exactly this approach. Its nonempirical roots in Kant +notwithstanding, it is now the major method used by experimental cognitive scientists. + +:::important +Other topics equally central to Kant's approach to the mind have hardly been discussed by cognitive science. These +include a kind of synthesis that for Kant was essential to minds like ours and what struck him as the most striking +features of consciousness of self. Far from his model having been superseded by cognitive science, some things central +to the model have not even been assimilated by it. +::: + +Kant's Critical Project and How the Mind Fits Into It +----------------------------------------------------- + +The major works so far as Kant's views on the mind are concerned are the monumental __Critique of Pure Reason (CPR)__ +and his little, late __Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View__, first published in 1798 only six years before his +death. Kant's view of the mind arose from his +[general philosophical project](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-development/) in CPR the following way. Kant +aimed among other things to, + +- Justify our conviction that physics, like mathematics, is a body of necessary and universal truth. +- Insulate religion, including belief in immortality, and free will from the corrosive effects of this very same + science. + +Kant accepted without reservation that “God, freedom and immortality” (1781/7, Bxxx) exist but feared that, if science +were relevant to their existence at all, it would provide reasons to doubt that they exist. As he saw it and very +fortunately, science cannot touch these questions. “I have found it necessary to deny _knowledge_, ... in order to make +room for faith.” (Bxxx, his italics). + +Laying the foundation for pursuit of the first aim, which as he saw it was no less than the aim of showing why physics +is a science, was what led Kant to his views about how the mind works. He approached the grounding of physics by asking: +What are the necessary conditions of experience? Put simply, he held that for our experience, and therefore our minds, +to be as they are, the way that our experience is tied together must reflect the way that, according to physics, says +objects in the world must be tied together. Seeing this connection also tells us a lot about what our minds must be +like. + +In pursuit of the second aim, Kant criticized some arguments of his predecessors that entailed if sound that we can know +more about the mind's consciousness of itself than Kant could allow. Mounting these criticisms led him to some +extraordinarily penetrating ideas about our consciousness of ourselves. + +In CPR, Kant discussed the mind only in connection with his main projects, never in its own right, so his treatment is +remarkably scattered and sketchy. As he put it, “Enquiry … [into] the pure understanding itself, its possibility and the +cognitive faculties upon which it rests ... is of great importance for my chief purpose, ... [but] does not form an +essential part of it” (Axvii). Indeed, Kant offers no sustained, focussed discussion of the mind anywhere in his work +except the popular _Anthropology_. + +In addition, the two chapters of CPR in which most of Kant's remarks on the mind occur, the chapter on the +Transcendental Deduction (TD) and the chapter on what he called Paralogisms (faulty arguments about the mind mounted by +his predecessors) were the two chapters that gave him the greatest difficulty. (They contain some of the most +impenetrable prose ever written.) Kant completely rewrote the main body of both chapters for the second edition +(though not the introductions, interestingly). + +In the two editions of CPR, there are seven main discussions of the mind. The first is in the Transcendental Aesthetic, +the second is in what is usually called the Metaphysical Deduction. Then there are two discussions of it in the +first-edition TD, in parts 1 to 3 of Section 2 and in the whole of Section 3 and two more in the second-edition TD. The +seventh and last is found in the first edition version of Kant's attack on the Paralogisms, in the course of which he +says things of the utmost interest about consciousness of and reference to self. (What little was retained of these +remarks in the second edition was moved to the completely rewritten TD.) For understanding Kant on the mind and +self-knowledge, the first edition of CPR is far more valuable than the second edition. Kant's discussion proceeds +through the following stages. + +### Transcendental Aesthetic + +Kant calls the first stage the Transcendental Aesthetic. It is about what space and time must be like, and how we must +handle them, if our experience is to have the spatial and temporal properties that it has. This question about the +necessary conditions of experience is for Kant a 'transcendental' question and the strategy of proceeding by trying to +find answers to such questions is, as we said, the strategy of transcendental argument. + +Here Kant advances one of his most notorious views: that whatever it is that impinges on us from the mind-independent +world does not come located in a spatial nor even a temporal matrix (A37=B54fn.). Rather, it is the mind that organizes +this 'manifold of raw intuition', as he called it, spatially and temporally. The mind has two pure forms of intuition, +space and time, built into it to allow it to do so. ('Pure' means 'not derived from experience'.) + +### Metaphysical Deduction + +The Aesthetic is about the conditions of experience, Kant's official project. The chapter leading up to the +Transcendental Deduction, The Clue to the Discovery of All Pure Concepts of the Understanding has a very different +starting point. + +Starting from Aristotelian logic (the syllogisms and the formal concepts that Aristotle called _categories_), Kant +proceeds by analysis to draw out the implications of these concepts and syllogisms for the conceptual structure (the +“function of thought in judgment”) within which all thought and experience must take place. The result is what Kant +called the Categories. That is to say, Kant tries to deduce the conceptual structure of experience from the components +of Aristotelian logic. + +**Thus, in Kant's thought about the mind early in CPR, there is not one central movement but two, one in the +Transcendental Aesthetic and the other in the Metaphysical Deduction. The first is a move up from experience (of +objects) to the necessary conditions of such experience. The second is a move down from the Aristotelian functions of +judgment to the concepts that we have to use in judging, namely, the Categories. One is inference up from experience, +the other deduction down from conceptual structures of the most abstract kind.** + +### Transcendental Deduction, 1st Edition + +Then we get to the second chapter of the Transcendental Logic, the brilliant and baffling Transcendental Deduction (TD). +Recall the two movements just discussed, the one from experience to its conditions and the one from Aristotelian +functions of judgment to the concepts that we must use in all judging (the Categories). This duality led Kant to his +famous question of right (_quid juris_): with what right do we apply the Categories, which are not acquired from +experience, to the contents of experience?. Kant's problem here is not as arcane as it might seem. It reflects an +important question: How is it that the world as we experience it conforms to our logic? In briefest form, Kant thought +that the trick to showing how it is possible for the Categories to apply to experience is to show that it is _necessary_ +that they apply. + +TD has two sides, though Kant never treats them separately. He once called them the objective and the subjective +deductions. The objective deduction is about the conceptual and other cognitive conditions of having representations of +objects. It is Kant's answer to the quid juris question. Exactly how the objective deduction goes is highly +controversial, a controversy that we will sidestep here. The subjective deduction is about what the mind, the +“subjective sources” of understanding, must as a consequence be like. The subjective deduction is what mainly interests +us. + +_Kant argues as follows. Our experiences have objects, that is, they are about something. The objects of our experiences +are discrete, unified particulars. To have such particulars available to it, the mind must construct them based on +sensible input. To construct them, the mind must do three kinds of synthesis. It must generate temporal and spatial +structure (Synthesis of Apprehension in Intuition). It must associate spatio-temporally structured items with other +spatio-temporally structured items (Synthesis of Reproduction in the Imagination). And it must recognize items using +concepts, the Categories in particular (Synthesis of Recognition in a Concept)_. This threefold doctrine of synthesis is +one of the cornerstones of Kant's model of the mind. We will consider it in more detail in the next Section. + +The 'deduction of the categories' should now be complete. Strangely enough, the chapter has only nicely got started. In +the first edition version, for example, we have only reached about one-third of the way through the chapter. At this +point, Kant introduces the notion of transcendental apperception for the first time and the unity of such apperception, +the unity of consciousness. Evidently, something is happening (something, moreover, not at all well heralded in the +text) + +We can now understand in more detail why Kant said that the subjective deduction is inessential. Since the objective +deduction is about the conditions of representations having objects, a better name for it might have been 'deduction of +the object'. Similarly, a better name for the subjective deduction might have been 'the deduction of the subject' or +'the deduction of the subject's nature'. The latter enquiry was inessential to Kant's main critical project because the +main project was to defend the synthetic _a priori_ credentials of physics in the objective deduction. From this point +of view, anything uncovered about the nature and functioning of the mind was a happy accident. + +### Attack on the Paralogisms, 1st Edition + +The chapter on the Paralogisms, the first of the three parts of Kant's second project, contains Kant's most original +insights into the nature of consciousness of the self. In the first edition, he seems to have achieved a stable position +on self-consciousness only as late as this chapter. Certainly his position was not stable in TD. Even his famous term +for consciousness of self, 'I think', occurs for the first time only in the introduction to the chapter on the +Paralogisms. His target is claims that we know what the mind is like. Whatever the merits of Kant's attack on these +claims, in the course of mounting it, he made some very deep-running observations about consciousness and knowledge of +self. + +:::tip +To summarize: in the first edition, TD contains most of what Kant had to say about synthesis and unity, but little on +the nature of consciousness of self. The chapter on the Paralogisms contains most of what he has to say about +consciousness of self. +::: + +### The Two Discussions in the 2nd-edition TD and Other Discussions + +In other new material prepared for the second edition, we find a first gloss on the topic of self-consciousness as early +as the Aesthetic (B68). The mind also appears in a new passage called the Refutation of Idealism, where Kant attempts to +tie the possibility of one sort of consciousness of self to consciousness of permanence in something other than +ourselves, in a way he thought to be inconsistent with Berkeleian idealism. This new Refutation of Idealism has often +been viewed as a replacement for the argument against the Fourth Paralogism of the first edition. + +Elsewhere in his work, the only sustained discussion of the mind and consciousness is, as we said, his little, late +__Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View__. By 'anthropology' Kant meant the study of human beings from the point of +view of their (psychologically-controlled) behaviour, especially their behaviour toward one another, and of the things +revealed in behaviour such as character. Though Kant sometimes contrasted anthropology as a legitimate study with what +he understood empirical psychology to be, namely, psychology based on introspective observation, he meant by +anthropology something fairly close to what we now mean by behavioural or experimental psychology. + +Kant's View of the Mind +----------------------- + +### Method + +Turning now to Kant's view of the mind, we will start with a point about method: Kant held surprisingly strong and not +entirely consistent views on the empirical study of the mind. The empirical method for doing psychology that Kant +discussed was introspection. + +Sometimes he held such study to be hopeless. The key text on psychology is in **The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural +Science**. There Kant tell us that “the empirical doctrine of the soul … must remain even further removed than chemistry +from the rank of what may be called a natural science proper”. (In Kant's defence, there was nothing resembling a single +unified theory of chemical reactions in his time.) The contents of introspection, in his terms inner sense, cannot be +studied scientifically for at least 5 reasons. + +1. Having only one universal dimension and one that they are only represented to have at that, namely, distribution in + time, the contents of inner sense cannot be quantified; thus no mathematical model of them is possible. +2. “The manifold of internal observation is separated only by mere thought”. That is to say, only the introspective + observer distinguishes the items one from another; there are no real distinctions among the items themselves. +3. These items “cannot be kept separate” in a way that would allow us to connect them again “at will”, by which Kant + presumably means, according to the dictates of our developing theory. +4. “Another thinking subject does not submit to our investigations in such a way as to be conformable to our purposes” - + the only thinking subject whose inner sense one can investigate is oneself. +5. “Even the observation itself alters and distorts the state of the object observed”. Indeed, introspection can be bad + for the health: it is a road to “mental illness” ('Illuminism and Terrorism', 1798, Ak. VII:133; see 161). + +In these critical passages, it is not clear why he didn't respect what he called anthropology more highly as an +empirical study of the mind, given that he himself did it. He did so elsewhere. In the Anthropology, for example, he +links 'self-observation' and observation of others and calls them both sources of anthropology + +Whatever, no kind of empirical psychology can yield necessary truths about the mind. In the light of this limitation, +how _should_ we study the mind? Kant's answer was: _transcendental method using transcendental arguments_ (notions +introduced earlier). If we cannot observe the connections among the denizens of inner sense to any purpose, we can study +what the mind _must_ be like and what capacities and structures (in Kant's jargon, faculties) it _must_ have if it is to +represent things as it does. With this method we can find universally true, that is to say, 'transcendental' +psychological propositions. We have already seen what some of them are: minds must be able to synthesize and minds must +have a distinctive unity, for example. Let us turn now to these substantive claims. + +### Synthesis and Faculties + +We have already discussed Kant's view of the mind's handling of space and time, so we can proceed directly to his +doctrine of synthesis. As Kant put it in one of his most famous passages, “__Concepts without intuitions are empty, +intuitions without concepts are blind__”. Experience requires both percepts and concepts. As we might say now, to +discriminate, we need information; but for information to be of any use to us, we must organize the information. This +organization is provided by acts of synthesis. + +> By _synthesis_, in its most general sense, I understand the act of putting different representations together, and of +> grasping what is manifold in them in one knowledge + +If the doctrine of space and time is the first major part of his model of the mind, the doctrine of synthesis is the +second. Kant claimed, as we saw earlier, that three kinds of synthesis are required to organize information, namely +apprehending in intuition, reproducing in imagination, and recognizing in concepts. Each of the three kinds of synthesis +relates to a different aspect of Kant's fundamental duality of intuition and concept. Synthesis of apprehension concerns +raw perceptual input, synthesis of recognition concerns concepts, and synthesis of reproduction in imagination allows +the mind to go from the one to the other. + +They also relate to three fundamental faculties of the mind. One is the province of Sensibility, one is the province of +Understanding, and the one in the middle is the province of a faculty that has a far less settled position than the +other two, namely, Imagination + +The first two, apprehension and reproduction, are inseparable; one cannot occur without the other. The third, +recognition, requires the other two but is not required by them. It seems that only the third requires the use of +concepts; this problem of non-concept-using syntheses and their relationship to use of the categories becomes a +substantial issue in the second edition, where Kant tries to save the universality of the objective deduction by arguing +that all three kinds of syntheses are required to represent objects. + +Acts of synthesis are performed on that to which we are passive in experience, namely intuitions (_Anschauungen_). +Intuitions are quite different from sense-data as classically understood; we can become conscious of intuitions only +after acts of synthesis and only by inference from these acts, not directly. Thus they are something more like +theoretical entities (better, events) postulated to explain something in what we do recognize. What they explain is the +non-conceptual element in representations, an element over which we have no control. Intuitions determine how our +representations will serve to confirm or refute theories, aid or impede our efforts to reach various goals. + +#### Synthesis of Apprehension in Intuition \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/src/content/posts/managing-tech-assets-common-lib-or-not/cover.PNG b/src/content/posts/managing-tech-assets-common-lib-or-not/cover.PNG new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e30a68097 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/managing-tech-assets-common-lib-or-not/cover.PNG differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/managing-tech-assets-common-lib-or-not/index.md b/src/content/posts/managing-tech-assets-common-lib-or-not/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c199aadcd --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/managing-tech-assets-common-lib-or-not/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +--- +title: Managing Tech Assets - Is a Common Library a Good Idea? No +published: 2024-07-17 +description: 'Managing Tech Assets - Is a Common Library a Good Idea? No' +image: './cover.PNG' +tags: ["Management", "Technologies"] +category: 'Management' +draft: false +--- + +A Story - A Person Created a Common Library and Then... +------------------------------------------------------- + +"Embarrassingly I introduced a "common" library, named as such, in a team environment a couple of decades back. +I didn't really understand the dynamics back then of what could happen in a loosely-coordinated team setting in just a +matter of months. + +When I introduced it I thought I made it clear and also documented that it's for things we'd all agree we find useful on +a daily basis, that it's intended to be a minimalist library, and that the library should depend on nothing else besides +the standard library so that it's as easy to deploy as possible in new projects. My thinking at the time was that it was +our own little extension to the standard library for things that, in our particular domain, we found useful on a daily +basis. + +And it started off well enough. We started off with a math library (`common/math*`) of routines which we all used on a +daily basis, since we were working on computer graphics which was often heavy on the linear algebra. And since we were +often interoping with C code, we agreed on some useful utility functions like find_index which, unlike std::find in C++, +would return an index to an element found in a sequence instead of an iterator which mimicked how our C functions worked +-- things of this sort -- a little bit eclectic but minimalist and widely used enough to remain familiar and practical +to everyone, and instant familiarity is an extremely important criteria as I see it in trying to make anything that is +"common" or "standard" since if it truly is "common", it should have that familiar quality about it as a result of its +wide adoption and daily usage. + +But over time the design intentions of the library slipped out of my fingers as people started to add things they used +personally that they merely thought might be of use to someone else, only to find no one else using it. And later +someone started adding functions that depended on OpenGL for common GL-related routines. Further on we adopted Qt and +people started adding code that depended on Qt, so already the common library was dependent on two external libraries. +At some point someone added common shader routines which was dependent on our application-specific shader library, and +at that point you couldn't even deploy it in a new project without bringing in Qt, OGL, and our application-specific +shader library and writing a non-trivial build script for your project. So it turned into this eclectic, interdependent +mess. Later on people even added GUI-dependent code to it. + +But I've also found by debating what should and shouldn't go into this library that what is considered "common" can +easily turn into a very subjective idea if you don't set a very hard line rule that what's "common" is what everyone +tends to find useful on a daily basis. Any loosening of the standards and it quickly degrades from things everyone finds +useful on a daily basis to something a single developer finds useful that might have the possibility of being beneficial +to someone else, and at that point the library degrades into an eclectic mess really fast. + +But furthermore when you reach that point, some developers can start adding things for the simple reason that they don't +like the programming language. They might not like the syntax of a for loop or a function call, at which point the +library is starting to get filled with things that's just fighting the fundamental syntax of the language, replacing a +couple of lines of straightforward code which isn't really duplicating any logic down to a single terse line of exotic +code only familiar to the developer who introduced such a shorthand. Then such a developer might start adding more +functionality to the common library implemented using such shorthands, at which point significant sections of the common +library become interwoven with these exotic shorthands which might seem beautiful and intuitive to the developer who +introduced it but ugly and foreign and hard to understand for everyone else. And at that point I think you know that any +hope of making something truly "common" is lost, since "common" and "unfamiliar" are polar opposite ideas. + +So there's all kinds of cans of worms there, at least in a loosely-coordinated team environment, with a library with +ambitions as broad and as generalized as just "commonly-used stuff". And while the underlying problem might have been +the loose coordination above all else, at least multiple libraries intended to serve a more singular purpose, like a +library intended to provide math routines and nothing else, probably wouldn't degrade as significantly in terms of its +design purity and dependencies as a "common" library. So in retrospect I think it would be much better to err on the +side of libraries which have much more clear design intentions. I've also found over the years that narrow in purpose +and narrow in applicability are radically different ideas. Often the most widely applicable things are the narrowest and +most singular in purpose, since you can then say, "aha, this is exactly what I need", as opposed to wading through an +eclectic library of disparate functionality trying to see if it has something you need. + +Also I'm admittedly at least a little bit impractical and care maybe a bit too much about aesthetics, but the way I tend +to perceive my idea of a library's quality (and maybe even "beauty") is judged more by its weakest link than its +strongest, in a similar way that if you presented me the most appetitizing food in the world but, on the same plate, put +something rotting on there that smells really bad, I tend to want to reject the entire plate. And if you're like me in +that regard and make something that invites all sorts of additions as something called "common", you might find yourself +looking at that analogical plate with something rotting on the side. So likewise I think it's good if a library is +organized and named and documented in a way such that it doesn't invite more and more and more additions over time. And +that can even apply to your personal creations, since I've certainly created some rotten stuff here and there, and it +"taints" a lot less if it's not being added to the biggest plate. Separating things out into small, very singular +libraries has a tendency to better decouple code as well, if only by the sheer virtue that it becomes far less +convenient to start coupling everything. + +:::tip +Code deduplication has been hammered into me over the years but I feel like I should try it this time around. +::: + +What I might suggest in your case is to start to take it easy on code deduplication. I'm not saying to copy and paste +big snippets of poorly-tested, error-prone code around or anything of this sort, or duplicating huge amounts of +non-trivial code that has a decent probability of requiring changes in the future. + +But especially if you are of the mindset to create a "common" library, for which I assume your desire is to create +something widely-applicable, highly reusable, and perhaps ideally something you find just as useful today as you do a +decade from now, then sometimes you might even need or want some duplication to achieve this elusive quality. Because +the duplication might actually serve as a decoupling mechanism. It's like if you want to separate a video player from an +MP3 player, then you at least have to duplicate some things like batteries and hard drives. They can't share these +things or else they're indivisibly coupled and cannot be used independently of each other, and at that point people +might not be interested in the device anymore if all they want to do is play MP3s. But some time after you split these +two devices apart, you might find that the MP3 player can benefit from a different battery design or smaller hard drive +than the video player, at which point you're no longer duplicating anything; what initially started out as duplication +to allow this interdependent device to split into two separate, independent devices might later turn out to yield +designs and implementations that are no longer redundant at all. + +It's worth considering things from the perspective of the one using a library. Would you actually want to use a library +that minimizes code duplication? Chances are that you won't because one that does will naturally depend on other +libraries. And those other libraries might depend on other libraries to avoid duplicating their code, and so on, until +you might need to import/link 50 different libraries to just to get some basic functionality like loading and playing an +audio file, and that becomes very unwieldy. Meanwhile if such an audio library deliberately chose to duplicate some +things here and there to achieve its independence, it becomes so much easier to use in new projects, and chances are +that it won't need to be updated nearly as often since it won't need to change as a result of one its dependent external +libraries changing which might be trying to fulfill a much more generalized purpose than what the audio library needs. + +So sometimes it's worth deliberately choosing to duplicate a little bit (consciously, never out of laziness -- actually +out of diligence) in order to decouple a library and make it independent because, through that independence, it achieves +a wider range of practical applicability and even stability (no more afferent couplings). If you want to design the most +reusable libraries possible that will last you from one project to the next and over the years, then on top of narrowing +its scope to the minimum, I would actually suggest considering duplicating a little bit here. And naturally write unit +tests and make sure it's really thoroughly tested and reliable at what it's doing. This is only for the libraries that +you really want to take the time to generalize to a point that goes far beyond a single project." diff --git a/src/content/posts/markdown-extended.md b/src/content/posts/markdown-extended.md deleted file mode 100644 index 258d7ea8f..000000000 --- a/src/content/posts/markdown-extended.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,77 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Markdown Extended Features -published: 2024-05-01 -description: 'Read more about Markdown features in Fuwari' -image: '' -tags: [Demo, Example, Markdown, Fuwari] -category: 'Examples' -draft: false ---- - -## GitHub repository cards -You can add dynamic cards that link to GitHub repositories, on page load, the repository information is pulled from the GitHub API. - -::github{repo="Fabrizz/MMM-OnSpotify"} - -Create a GitHub repository card with the code `::github{repo="/"}`. - -```markdown -::github{repo="saicaca/fuwari"} -``` - -## Admonitions - -Following types of admonitions are supported: `note` `tip` `important` `warning` `caution` - -:::note -Highlights information that users should take into account, even when skimming. -::: - -:::tip -Optional information to help a user be more successful. -::: - -:::important -Crucial information necessary for users to succeed. -::: - -:::warning -Critical content demanding immediate user attention due to potential risks. -::: - -:::caution -Negative potential consequences of an action. -::: - -```markdown -:::note -Highlights information that users should take into account, even when skimming. -::: - -:::tip -Optional information to help a user be more successful. -::: -``` - -The title of the admonition can be customized. - -:::note[MY CUSTOM TITLE] -This is a note with a custom title. -::: - -```markdown -:::note[MY CUSTOM TITLE] -This is a note with a custom title. -::: -``` - -> [!TIP] -> [The GitHub syntax](https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/16925) is also supported. - -``` -> [!NOTE] -> The GitHub syntax is also supported. - -> [!TIP] -> The GitHub syntax is also supported. -``` \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/src/content/posts/markdown.md b/src/content/posts/markdown.md deleted file mode 100644 index 43285c76d..000000000 --- a/src/content/posts/markdown.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,166 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Markdown Example -published: 2023-10-01 -description: A simple example of a Markdown blog post. -tags: [Markdown, Blogging, Demo] -category: Examples -draft: false ---- - -# An h1 header - -Paragraphs are separated by a blank line. - -2nd paragraph. _Italic_, **bold**, and `monospace`. Itemized lists -look like: - -- this one -- that one -- the other one - -Note that --- not considering the asterisk --- the actual text -content starts at 4-columns in. - -> Block quotes are -> written like so. -> -> They can span multiple paragraphs, -> if you like. - -Use 3 dashes for an em-dash. Use 2 dashes for ranges (ex., "it's all -in chapters 12--14"). Three dots ... will be converted to an ellipsis. -Unicode is supported. ☺ - -## An h2 header - -Here's a numbered list: - -1. first item -2. second item -3. third item - -Note again how the actual text starts at 4 columns in (4 characters -from the left side). Here's a code sample: - - # Let me re-iterate ... - for i in 1 .. 10 { do-something(i) } - -As you probably guessed, indented 4 spaces. By the way, instead of -indenting the block, you can use delimited blocks, if you like: - -``` -define foobar() { - print "Welcome to flavor country!"; -} -``` - -(which makes copying & pasting easier). You can optionally mark the -delimited block for Pandoc to syntax highlight it: - -```python -import time -# Quick, count to ten! -for i in range(10): - # (but not *too* quick) - time.sleep(0.5) - print i -``` - -### An h3 header - -Now a nested list: - -1. First, get these ingredients: - - - carrots - - celery - - lentils - -2. Boil some water. - -3. Dump everything in the pot and follow - this algorithm: - - find wooden spoon - uncover pot - stir - cover pot - balance wooden spoon precariously on pot handle - wait 10 minutes - goto first step (or shut off burner when done) - - Do not bump wooden spoon or it will fall. - -Notice again how text always lines up on 4-space indents (including -that last line which continues item 3 above). - -Here's a link to [a website](http://foo.bar), to a [local -doc](local-doc.html), and to a [section heading in the current -doc](#an-h2-header). Here's a footnote [^1]. - -[^1]: Footnote text goes here. - -Tables can look like this: - -size material color - ---- - -9 leather brown -10 hemp canvas natural -11 glass transparent - -Table: Shoes, their sizes, and what they're made of - -(The above is the caption for the table.) Pandoc also supports -multi-line tables: - ---- - -keyword text - ---- - -red Sunsets, apples, and -other red or reddish -things. - -green Leaves, grass, frogs -and other things it's -not easy being. - ---- - -A horizontal rule follows. - ---- - -Here's a definition list: - -apples -: Good for making applesauce. -oranges -: Citrus! -tomatoes -: There's no "e" in tomatoe. - -Again, text is indented 4 spaces. (Put a blank line between each -term/definition pair to spread things out more.) - -Here's a "line block": - -| Line one -| Line too -| Line tree - -and images can be specified like so: - -[//]: # (![example image](./demo-banner.png "An exemplary image")) - -Inline math equations go in like so: $\omega = d\phi / dt$. Display -math should get its own line and be put in in double-dollarsigns: - -$$I = \int \rho R^{2} dV$$ - -And note that you can backslash-escape any punctuation characters -which you wish to be displayed literally, ex.: \`foo\`, \*bar\*, etc. diff --git a/src/content/posts/oliver-twist/cover.png b/src/content/posts/oliver-twist/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a28bd3a1b Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/oliver-twist/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/oliver-twist/index.md b/src/content/posts/oliver-twist/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..63a4f876f --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/oliver-twist/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: Oliver Twist +published: 2024-07-25 +description: Oliver Twist +image: './cover.png' +tags: [Ethics] +category: Theory +draft: false +--- + +The Movie +--------- + + + +[Major Themes and Symbols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist#Major_themes_and_symbols) +-------------------------- + +In Oliver Twist, Dickens mixes grim realism with merciless satire to describe the effects of industrialism on +19th-century England and to criticise the harsh new Poor Laws. __Oliver__, an innocent child, is trapped in a world +where his only options seem to be the workhouse, a life of crime symbolised by Fagin's gang, a prison, or an early +grave. From this unpromising industrial/institutional setting, however, a fairy tale also emerges. In the midst of +corruption and degradation, the essentially passive Oliver _remains pure-hearted; he steers away from evil when those +around him give in to it_, and in proper fairy-tale fashion, he eventually receives his reward - leaving for a peaceful +life in the country, surrounded by kind friends. On the way to this happy ending, Dickens explores the kind of life an +outcast, orphan boy could expect to lead in 1830s London + +__Nancy__, by contrast, redeems herself at the cost of her own life and dies in a prayerful pose. She is one of the few +characters in Oliver Twist to display much ambivalence. Her storyline in the novel strongly reflects themes of domestic +violence and psychological abuse at the hands of Bill. Although Nancy is a full-fledged criminal, indoctrinated and +trained by Fagin since childhood, she retains enough empathy to repent her role in Oliver's kidnapping, and to take +steps to try to atone. As one of Fagin's victims, corrupted but not yet morally dead, she gives eloquent voice to the +horrors of the old man's little criminal empire. She wants to save Oliver from a similar fate; at the same time, she +recoils from the idea of turning traitor, especially to Bill Sikes, whom she loves. When Dickens was later criticised +for giving to a "thieving, whoring slut of the streets" such an unaccountable reversal of character, he ascribed her +change of heart to "the last fair drop of water at the bottom of a dried-up, weed-choked well". + +Leadership is, at root, about Influencing Others +------------------------------------------------ + +At the end of the day, the movie symbolizes the [Golden Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule) + +When dealing with the huge pressure of meeting deadlines or attaining shareholder profitability targets, in most cases, +the Golden Rule tends to be forgotten by employers. In this respect, business leaders need to stop putting corporate +priorities and greed above the needs of employees. I am not arguing for an end of profit, but to prevent businesses from +profiting from employee harm and potential exploitation. Profits should be a product of an organisation’s purpose, but +not the purpose of the organisation. + +> ["Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people"](https://youtu.be/lmyZMtPVodo?si=SeCUkLM0RuFzNvlN) (Simon Sinek) diff --git a/src/content/posts/pro-lege-manilia/cover.png b/src/content/posts/pro-lege-manilia/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..93af3e3ac Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/pro-lege-manilia/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/pro-lege-manilia/index.md b/src/content/posts/pro-lege-manilia/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ea1477cc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/pro-lege-manilia/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,506 @@ +--- +title: Pro Lege Manilia +published: 2024-07-27 +image: './cover.png' +tags: ["Public Speech"] +category: 'Leadership' +draft: false +--- + +Quamquam mihi semper frequens conspectus vester multo iucundissimus, hic autem locus ad agendum amplissimus, ad dicendum +ornatissimus est visus, Quirites, tamen hoc aditu laudis, qui semper optimo cuique maxime patuit, non mea me voluntas +adhuc, sed vitae meae rationes ab ineunte aetate susceptae prohibuerunt. Nam cum antea per aetatem nondum huius +auctoritatem loci attingere auderem, statueremque nihil huc nisi perfectum ingenio, elaboratum industria adferri +oportere, omne meum tempus amicorum temporibus transmittendum putavi. + +Ita neque hic locus vacuus umquam fuit ab eis qui vestram causam defenderent, et meus labor, in privatorum periculis +caste integreque versatus, ex vestro iudicio fructum est amplissimum consecutus. Nam cum propter dilationem comitiorum +ter praetor primus centuriis cunctis renuntiatus sum, facile intellexi, Quirites, et quid de me iudicaretis, et quid +aliis praescriberetis. Nunc cum et auctoritatis in me tantum sit, quantum vos honoribus mandandis esse voluistis, et ad +agendum facultatis tantum, quantum homini vigilanti ex forensi usu prope cotidiana dicendi exercitatio potuit adferre, +certe et si quid auctoritatis in me est, apud eos utar qui eam mihi dederunt, et si quid in dicendo consequi possum, eis +ostendam potissimum, qui ei quoque rei fructum suo iudicio tribuendum esse duxerunt. + +Atque illud in primis mihi laetandum iure esse video, quod in hac insolita mihi ex hoc loco ratione dicendi causa talis +oblata est, in qua oratio deesse nemini possit. Dicendum est enim de Cn. Pompei singulari eximiaque virtute: huius autem +orationis difficilius est exitum quam principium invenire. Ita mihi non tam copia quam modus in dicendo quaerendus est. + +Atque,--ut inde oratio mea proficiscatur, unde haec omnis causa ducitur,--bellum grave et periculosum vestris +vectigalibus ac sociis a duobus potentissimis regibus infertur, Mithridate et Tigrane, quorum alter relictus, alter +lacessitus, occasionem sibi ad occupandam Asiam oblatam esse arbitrantur. Equitibus Romanis, honestissimis viris, +adferuntur ex Asia cotidie litterae, quorum magnae res aguntur in vestris vectigalibus exercendis occupatae: qui ad me, +pro necessitudine quae mihi est cum illo ordine, causam rei publicae periculaque rerum suarum detulerunt: + +Bithyniae, quae nunc vestra provincia est, vicos exustos esse compluris; regnum Ariobarzanis, quod finitimum est vestris +vectigalibus, totum esse in hostium potestate; L. Lucullum, magnis rebus gestis, ab eo bello discedere; huic qui +successerit non satis esse paratum ad tantum bellum administrandum; unum ab omnibus sociis et civibus ad id bellum +imperatorem deposci atque expeti, eundem hunc unum ab hostibus metui, praeterea neminem. + +Causa quae sit videtis: nunc quid agendum sit considerate. Primum mihi videtur de genere belli, deinde de magnitudine, +tum de imperatore deligendo esse dicendum. Genus est belli eius modi, quod maxime vestros animos excitare atque +inflammare ad persequendi studium debeat: in quo agitur populi Romani gloria, quae vobis a maioribus cum magna in +omnibus rebus tum summa in re militari tradita est; agitur salus sociorum atque amicorum, pro qua multa maiores vestri +magna et gravia bella gesserunt; aguntur certissma populi Romani vectigalia et maxima, quibus amissis et pacis ornamenta +et subsidia belli requiretis; aguntur bona multorum civium, quibus est a vobis et ipsorum et rei publicae causa +consulendum. + +Et quoniam semper appetentes gloriae praeter ceteras gentis atque avidi laudis fuistis, delenda est vobis ill macula +Mithridatico bello superiore concepta, quae penitus iam insedit ac nimis inveteravit in populi Romani nomine,--quod is, +qui uno die, tota in Asia, tot in civitatibus, uno nuntio atque una significatione [litterarum] civis Romanos necandos +trucidandosque denotavit, non modo adhuc poenam nullam suo dignam scelere suscepit, sed ab illo tempore annum iam +tertium et vicesimum regnat, et ita regnat, ut se non Ponti neque Cappadociae latebris occultare velit, sed emergere ex +patrio regno atque in vestris vectigalibus, hoc est, in Asiae luce versari. + +Etenim adhuc ita nostri cum illo rege contenderunt imperatores, ut ab illo insignia victoriae, non victoriam +reportarent. Triumphavit L. Sulla, triumphavit L. Murena de Mithridate, duo fortissimi viri et summi imperatores; sed +ita triumpharunt, ut ille pulsus superatusque regnaret. Verum tamen illis imperatoribus laus est tribuenda quod egerunt, +venia dandaquod reliquerunt, propterea quod ab eo bello Sullam in Italiam res publica, Murenam Sulla revocavit. + +Mithridates autem omne reliquum tempus non ad oblivionem veteris belli, sed ad comparationem novi contulit: qui [postea] +cum maximas aedificasset ornassetque classis exercitusque permagnos quibuscumque ex gentibus potuisset comparasset, et +se Bosporanis finitimis suis bellum inferre similaret, usque in Hispaniam legatos ac litteras misit ad eos duces +quibuscum tum bellum gerebamus, ut, cum duobus in locis disiunctissimis maximeque diversis uno consilio a binis hostium +copiis bellum terra marique gereretur, vos ancipiti contentione districti de imperio dimicaretis. + +Sed tamen alterius partis periculum, Sertorianae atque Hispaniensis, quae multo plus firmamenti ac roboris habebat, Cn. +Pompei divino consilio ac singulari virtute depulsum est; in altera parte ita res a L. Lucullo summo viro est +administrata, ut initia illa rerum gestarum magna atque praeclara non felicitati eius, sed virtuti, haec autem extrema, +quae nuper acciderunt, non culpae, sed fortunae tribuenda esse videantur. Sed de Lucullo dicam alio loco, et ita dicam, +Quirites, ut neque vera laus ei detracta oratione mea neque falsa adficta esse videatur: + +de vestri imperi dignitate atque gloria--quoniam is est exorsus orationis meae-- videte quem vobis animum suscipiendum +putetis. Maiores nostri saepe mercatoribus aut naviculariis nostris iniuriosius tractatis bella gesserunt: vos, tot +milibus civium Romanorum uno nuntio atque uno tempore necatis, quo tandem animo esse debetis? Legati quod erant +appellati superbius, Corinthum patres vestri totius Graeciae lumen exstinctum esse voluerunt: vos eum regem inultum esse +patiemini, qui legatum populi Romani consularem vinculis ac verberibus atque omni supplicio excruciatum necavit? Illi +libertatem imminutam civium Romanorum non tulerunt: vos ereptam vitam neglegetis? ius legationis verbo violatum illi +persecuti sunt: vos legatum omni supplicio interfectum relinquetis? + +Videte ne, ut illis pulcherrimum fuit tantam vobis imperi gloriam tradere, sic vobis turpissimum sit, id quod accepistis +tueri et conservare non posse. Quid? quod salus sociorum summum in periculum ac discrimen vocatur, quo tandem animo +ferre debetis? Regno est expulsus Ariobarzanes rex, socius populi Romani atque amicus; imminent duo reges toti Asiae non +solum vobis inimicissimi, sed etiam vestris sociis atque amicis; civitates autem omnes cuncta Asia atque Graecia vestrum +auxilium exspectare propter periculi magnitudinem coguntur; imperatorem a vobis certum deposcere, cum praesertim vos +alium miseritis, neque audent, neque se id facere sine summo periculo posse arbitrantur. + +Vident et sentiunt hoc idem quod vos,--unum virum esse, in quo summa sint omnia, et eum propter esse, quo etiam carent +aegrius; cuius adventus ipso atque nomine, tametsi ille ad maritimum bellum venerit, tamen impetus hostium repressos +esse intellegunt ac retardatos. His vos, quoniam libere loqui non licet, tacite rogant, ut se quoque, sicut ceterarum +provinciarum socios, dignos existimetis, quorum salutem tali viro commendetis; atque hoc etiam magis, quod ceteros in +provinciam eius modi homines cum imperio mittimus, ut etiam si ab hoste defendant, tamen ipsorum adventus in urbis +sociorum non multum ab hostili expugnatione differant. Hunc audiebant antea, nunc praesentem vident, tanta temperantia, +tanta mansuetudine, tanta humanitate, ut ei beatissimi esse videantur, apud quod ille diutissime commoratur. + +Qua re si propter socios, nulla ipsi iniuria lacessiti, maiores nostri cum Antiocho, cum Philippo, cum Aetolis, cum +Poenis bella gesserunt, quanto vos studio convenit iniuriis provocatos sociorum salutem una cum imperi vestri dignitate +defendere, praesertim cum de maximis vestris vectigalibus agatur? Nam ceterarum provinciarum vectigalia, Quirites, tanta +sunt, ut eis ad ipsas provincias tutandas vix contenti esse possimus: Asia vero tam opima est ac fertilis, ut et +ubertate agrorum et varietate fructuum et magnitudine pastionis et multitudine earum rerum quae exportantur, facile +omnibus terris antecellat. Itaque haec vobis provincia, Quirites, si et belli utilitatem et pacis dignitatem retinere +voltis, non modo a calamitate, sed etiam a metu calamitatis est defenda. + +Nam in ceteris rebus cum venit calamitas, tum detrimentum accipitur; at in vectigalibus non solum adventus mali, sed +etiam metus ipse adfert calamitatem. Nam cum hostium copiae non longe absunt, etiam si inruptio nulla facta est, tamen +pecuaria relinquitur, agri cultura deseritur, mercatorum navigatio conquiescit. Ita neque ex portu neque ex decumis +neque ex scriptura vectigal conservari potest: qua re saepe totius anni fructus uno rumore periculi atque uno belli +terrore amittitur. + +Quo tandem igitur animo esse existimatis aut eos qui vectigalia nobis pensitant, aut eos qui exercent atque exigunt, cum +duo reges cum maximis copiis propter adsint? cum una excursio equitatus perbrevi tempore totius anni vectigal auferre +possit? cum publicani familias maximas, quas in saltibus habent, quas in agris, quas in portubus atque custodiis, magno +periculo se habere arbitrentur? Putatisne vos illis rebus frui posse, nisi eos qui vobis fructui sunt conservaritis non +solum (ut ante dixi) calamitate, sed etiam calamitatis formidine liberatos? + +Ac ne illud quidem vobis neglegendum est, quod mihi ego extremum proposueram, cum essem de belli genere dicturus, quod +ad multorum bona civium Romanorum pertinet, quorum vobis pro vesta sapientia, Quirites, habenda est ratio diligenter. +Nam et publicani, homines honestissimi atque ornatissimi, suas rationes et copias in illam provinciam contulerunt, +quorum ipsorum per se res et fortunae vobis curae esse debent. Etenim si vectigalia nervos esse rei publicae semper +duximus, eum certe ordinem, qui exercet illa, firmamentum ceterorum ordinum recte esse dicemus. + +Deinde ex ceteris ordinibus homines gnavi atque industrii partim ipsi in Asia negotiantur, quibus vos absentibus +consulere debetis, partim eorum in ea provincia pecunias magnas conlocatas habent. Est igitur humanitatis vestrae magnum +numerum eorum civium calamitate prohibere, sapientiae videre multorum civium calamitatem a re publica seiunctam esse non +posse. Etenim primum illud parvi refert, vos publicanis amissa vectigalia postea victoria recuperare; neque enim isdem +redimendi facultas erit propter calamitatem, neque aliis voluntas propter timorem. + +Deinde quod nos eadem Asia atque idem iste Mithridates initio belli Asiatici docuit, id quidem certe calamitate docti +memoria retinere debemus. Nam tum, cum in Asia res magnas permulti, amiserant, scimus Romae, solutione impedita, fidem +concidisse. Non enim possunt una in civitate multi rem ac fortunas amittere, ut non plures secum in eandem trahant +calamitatem. A quo periculo prohibete rem publicam, et mihi credite id quod ipsi videtis: haec fides atque haec ratio +pecuniarum, quae Romae, quae in foro versatur, implicata est cum illis pecuniis Asiaticis et cohaeret. Ruere illa non +possunt, ut haec non eodem labefacta motu concidant. Qua re videte num dubitandum vobis sit omni studio ad id bellum +incumbere, in quo gloria nominis vestri, salus sociorum, vectigalia maxima, fortunae plurimorum civium coniunctae cum re +publica defendantur. + +Quoniam de genere belli dixi, nunc de magnitudine pauca dicam. Potest hoc enim dici, belli genus esse ita necessarium ut +sit gerendum, non esse ita magnum ut sit pertimescendum. In quo maxime elaborandum est, ne forte ea vobis quae +diligentissime providenda sunt, contemnenda esse videantur. Atque ut omnes intellegant me L. Lucullo tantum impertire +laudis, quantum forti viro et sapienti homini et magno imperatori debeatur, dico eius adventu maximas Mithridati copias +omnibus rebus ornatus atque instructas fuisse, urbemque Asiae clarissimam nobisque amicissimam, Cyzicenorum, obsessam +esse ab ipso rege maxima multitudine et oppugnatam vehementissime, quam L. Lucullus virtute, adsiduitate, consilio, +summis obsidionis periculis liberavit: + +ab eodem imperatore classem magnam et ornatam, quae ducibus Sertorianis ad Italiam studio atque odio inflammata +raperetur, superatam esse atque depressami magnas hostium praeterea copias multis proeliis esse deletas, patefactumque +nostris legionibs esse Pontum, qui antea populo Romano ex omni aditu clausus fuisset; Sinopen atque Amisum, quibus in +oppidis erant domicilia regis, omnibus rebus ornatus ac refertas, ceterasque urbis Ponti et Cappadociae permultas, uno +aditu adventuque esse captas; regem, spoliatum regno patrio atque avito, ad alios se reges atque ad alias gentis +supplicem contulisse; atque haec omnia salvis populi Romani sociis atque integris vectigalibus esse gesta. Satis opinor +haec esse laudis, atque ita, Quirites, ut hoc vos intellegatis, a nullo istorum, qui huic obtrectant legi atque causae, +L. Lucullum similiter ex hoc loco esse laudatum. + +Requiretur fortasse nunc quem ad modum, cum haec ita sint, reliquum possit magnum esse bellum. Cognoscite, Quirites. Non +enim hoc sine causa quaeri videtur. Primum ex suo regno sic Mithridates profugit, ut ex eodem Ponto Medea illa quondam +profugisse dicitur, quam praedicant in fuga fratris sui membra in eis locis, qua se parens persequeretur, dissipavisse, +ut eorum conlectio dispersa, maerorque patrius, celeritatem persequendi retardaret. Sic Mithridates fugiens maximam vim +auri atque argenti pulcherrimarumque rerum omnium, quas et a maioribus acceperat et ipse bello superiore ex tota Asia +direptas in suum regnum congesserat, in Ponto omnem reliquit. Haec dum nostri conligunt omnia diligentius, rex ipse e +manibus effugit. Ita illum in persequendi studio maeror, hos laetitia tardavit. + +Hunc in illo timore et fuga Tigranes rex Armenius excepit, diffidentemque rebus suis confirmavit, et adflictum erexit, +perditumque recreavit. Cuius in regnum postea quam L. Lucullus cum exercitu venit, plures etiam gentes contra +imperatorem nostrum concitatae sunt. Erat enim metus iniectus eis nationibus, quas numquam populus Romanus neque +lacessendas bello neque temptandas putavit: erat etiam alia gravis atque vehemens opinio, quae animos gentium barbarum +pervaserat, fani locupletissimi et religiosissimi diripiendi causa in eas oras nostrum esse exercitum adductum. Ita +nationes multae atque magnae novo quodam terrore ac metu concitabantur. Noster autem exercitus, tametsi urbem ex Tigrani +regno ceperat, et proeliis usus erat secundis, tamen nimia longinquitate locorum ac desiderio suorum commovebatur. + +Hic iam plura non dicam. Fuit enim illud extremum ut ex eis locis a militibus nostris reditus magis maturus quam +processio longior quaereretur. Mithridates autem et suam manum iam confirmarat, [et eorum] qui se ex ipsius regno +conlegerant, et magnis adventiciis auxiliis multorum regum et nationum iuvabatur. iam hoc fere sic fieri solere +accepimus, ut regem adflictae fortunae facile multorum opes adliciant ad misericordiam, maximeque eorum qui aut reges +sunt aut vivunt in regno, ut eis nomen regale magnum et sanctum esse videatur. + +Itaque tantum victus efficere potuit, quantum incolumis numquam est ausus optare. Nam cum se in regnum suum recepisset, +non fuit eo contentus, quod ei praeter spem acciderat,--ut illam, postea quam pulsus erat, terram umquam +attingeret,--sed in exercitum nostrum clarum atque victorem impetum fecit. Sinite hoc loco, Quirites, sicut poetae +solent, qui res Romanas scribunt, praeterire me nostram calamitatem, quae tanta fuit, ut eam ad auris [Luculli] +imperatoris non ex proelio nuntius, sed ex sermone rumor adferret. + +Hic in illo ipso malo gravissimaque belli offensione, L. Lucullus, qui tamen aliqua ex parte eis incommodis mederi +fortasse potuisset, vestro iussu coactus,--qui imperi diuturnitati modum statuendum vetere exemplo putavistis,--partem +militum, qui iam stipendiis confecti erant, dimisit, partem M'. Glabrioni tradidit. Multa praetereo consulto, sed ea vos +coniectura perspicite, quantum illud bellum factum putetis, quod coniungant reges potentissimi, renovent agitatae +nationes, suscipiant integrae gentes, novus imperator noster accipiat, vetere exercitu pulso. + +Satis mihi multa verba fecisse videor, qua re esset hoc bellum genere ipso necessarium, magnitudine periculosum. Restat +ut de imperatore ad id bellum delingendo ac tantis rebus praeficiendo dicendum esse videatur. Utinam, Quirites, virorum +fortium atque innocentium copiam tantam haberetis, ut haec vobis deliberatio difficilis esset, quemnam potissimum tantis +rebus ac tanto bello praeficiendum putaretis! Nunc vero--cum sit unus Cn. Pompeius, qui non modo eorum hominum qui nunc +sunt gloriam, sed etiam antiquitatis memoriam virtute superarit--quae res est quae cuiusquam animum in hac causa dubium +facere possit? + +Ego enim sic existimo, in summo imperatore quattuor has res inesse oportere,--scientiam rei militaris, virtutem, +auctoritatem, felicitatem. Quis igitur hoc homine scientior umquam aut fuit aut esse debuit? qui e ludo atque e +pueritiae disciplinis bello maximo atque acerrimis hostibus ad patris exercitum atque in militiae disciplinam profectus +est; qui extrema pueritia miles in exercitu fuit simmi imperatoris, ineunte adulescentia maximi ipse exercitus +imperator; qui saepius cum hoste conflixit quam quisquam cum inimice concertavit, plura bello gessit quam ceteri +legerunt, plures provincias confecit quam alii concupiverunt; cuius adulescentia ad scientiam rei militaris non alienis +praeceptis sed suis imperiis, non offensionibus belli sed victoriis, non stipendiis sed triumphis est erudita. Quod +denique genus esse belli potest, in quo illum non exercuerit fortuna rei publicae? Civile, Africanum, Transalpinum, +Hispaniense [mixtum ex civitatibus atque ex bellicosissimis nationibus], servile, navale bellum, varia et diversa genera +et bellorum et hostium, non solum gesta ab hoc uno, sed etiam confecta, nullam rem esse declarant in usu positam +militari, quae huius viri scientiam fugere possit. + +iam vero virtuti Cn. Pompei quae potest oratio par inveniri? Quid est quod quisquam aut illo dignum aut vobis novum aut +cuiquam inauditum possit adferre? Neque enim illae sunt solae virtutes imperatoriae, quae volgo existimantur,--labor in +negotiis, fortitudo in periculis, industria in agendo, celeritas in conficiendo, consilium in providiendo: quae tanta +sunt in hoc uno, quanta in omnibus reliquis imperatoribus, quos aut vidimus aut audivimus, non fuerunt. + +Testis est Italia, quam ille ipse victor L. Sulla huius virtute et subsidio confessus est liberata. Testis est Sicilia, +quam multis undique cinctam periculis non terrore belli, sed consili celeritate explicavit. Testis est Africa, quae, +magnis oppressa hostium copiis, eorum ipsorum sanguine redundavit. Testis est Gallia, per quam legionibus nostris iter +in Hispaniam Gallorum internecione patefactum est. Testis est Hispania, quae saepissime plurimos hostis ab hoc superatos +prostratosque conspexit. Testis est iterum et saepius Italia, quae cum servili bello taetro periculosoque premeretur, ab +hoc auxilium absente expetivit: quod bellum exspectatione eius attentuatum atque imminutum est, adventu sublatum ac +sepultum. + +Testes nunc vero iam omnes orae atque omnes exterae gentes ac nationes, denique maria omnia cum universa, tum in +singulis oris omnes sinus at portus. Quis enim toto mari locus per hos annos aut tam firmum habuit praesidium ut tutus +esset, aut tam fuit abditus ut lateret? Quis navigavit qui non se aut mortis aut servitutis periculo committeret, cum +aut hieme aut referto praedonum mari navigaret? Hoc tantum belum, tam turpe, tam vetus, tam late divisum atque +dispersum, quis umquam arbitraretur aut ab omnibus imperatoribus uno anno aut omnibus annis ab uno imperatore confici +posse? + +Quam provinciam tenuistis a praedonibus liberam per hosce annos? quod vectigal vobis tutum fuit? quem socium +defendistis? cui praesidio classibus vestris fuistis? quam multas existimatis insulas esse desertas? quam multas aut +metu relictas aut a praedonibus captas urbis esse sociorum? Sed quid ego longinqua commemoro? Fuit hoc quondam, fuit +proprium populi Romani, longe a domo bellare, et propugnaculis imperi sociorum fortunas, non sua tecta defendere. Sociis +ego nostris mare per hos annos clausum fuisse dicam, cum exercitus vestri numquam a Brundisio nisi hieme summa +transmiserint? Qui ad vos ab exteris nationibus venirent captos querar, cum legati populi Romani redempti sint? +Mercatoribus tutum mare non fuisse dicam, cum duodecim secures in praedonum potestatem pervenerint? + +Cnidum aut Colophonem aut Samum, nobilissimas urbis, innumerabilisque alias captas esse commemorem, cum vestros portus, +atque eos portus quibus vitam ac spiritum ducitis, in praedonum fuisse potestatem sciatis? An vero ignoratis portum +Caietae celeberrimum ac plenissimum navium inspectante praetore a praedonibus esse direptum? ex Miseno autem eius ipsius +liberos, qui cum praedonibus antea ibi bellum gesserat, a praedonibus esse sublatos? Nam quid ego Ostiense incommodum +atque illam labem atque ignominiam rei publicae querar, cum, prope inspectantibus vobis, classis ea, cui consul populi +Romani praepositus esset, a praedonibus capta atque oppressa est? Pro di immortales! tantamne unius hominis incredibilis +ac divina virtus tam brevi tempore lucem adferre rei publicae potuit, ut vos, qui modo anti ostium Tiberinum classem +hostium videbatis, ei nunc nullam intra Oceani ostium praedonum navem esse audiatis? + +Atque haec qua celeritate gesta sint quamquam videtis, tamen a me in dicendo praetereunda non sunt. Quis enim umquam aut +obeundi negoti aut consequendi quaestus studio tam brevi tempore tot loca adire, tantos cursus conficere potuit, quam +celeriter Cn. Pompeio duce tanti belli impetus navigavit? Qui nondum tempestivo ad navigandum mari Siciliam adiit, +Africam exploravit; inde Sardiniam cum classe venit, atque haec tria frumentaria subsidia rei publicae firmissimis +praesidiis classibusque munivit; + +inde cum se in Italiam recepisset, duabus Hispanis et Gallia [transalpina] praesidiis ac navibus confirmata, missis item +in oram Illyrici maris et in Achaiam omnemque Graeciam navibus, Italiae duo maria maximis classibus firmissimisque +praesidiis adornavit; ipse autem ut Brundisio profectus est, undequinquagesimo die totam ad imperium populi Romani +Ciliciam adiunxit; omnes, qui ubique praedones fuerunt, partim capti interfectique sunt, partim unius huius se imperio +ac potestati dediderunt. Idem Cretensibus, cum ad eum usque in Pamphyliam legatos deprecatoresque misissent, spem +deditionis non ademit, obsidesque imperavit. Ita tantum bellum, tam diuturunum, tam longe lateque dispersum, quo bello +omnes gentes ac nationes premebantur, Cn. Pompeius extrema hieme apparavit, ineunte vere susceptit, media aestate +confecit. + +Est haec divina atque incredibilis virtus imperatoris. Quid ceterae, quas paulo ante commemorare coeperam, quantae atque +quam multae sunt? Non enim bellandi virtus solum in summo ac perfecto imperatore quaerenda est, sed multae sunt artes +eximiae huius administrae comitesque virtutis. Ac primum, quanta innocentia debent esse imperatores? quanta deinde in +omnibus rebus temperantia? quanta fide? quanta facilitate? quanto ingenio? quanta humanitate? Quae breviter qualia sint +in Cn. Pompeio consideremus: summa enim omnia sunt, Quirites, sed ea magis ex aliorum contentione quam ipsa per sese +cognosci atque intellegi possunt. + +Quem enim imperatorem possumus ullo in numero putare, cuius in exercitu centuriatus veneant atque venierint? Quid hunc +hominem magnum aut amplum de re publica cogitare, qui pecuniam, ex aerario depromptam ad bellum administrandum, aut +propter cupiditatem provinciae magistratibus diviserit, aut propter avaritiam Romae in quaestu reliquerit? Vestra +admurmuratio facit, Quirites, ut agnoscere videamini qui haec fecerint: ego autem nomino neminem; qua re irasci mihi +nemo poterit, nisi qui ante de se voluerit confiteri. Itaque propter hanc avaritiam imperatorum quantas calamitates, +quocumque ventum est, nostri exercitus ferant quis ignorat? + +Itinera quae per hosce annos in Italia per agros atque oppida civium Romanorum nostri imperatores fecerint recordamini: +tum facilius statuetis quid apud exteras nationes fieri existimetis. Utrum pluris arbitramini per hosce annos militum +vestrorum armis hostium urbis, an hibernis sociorum civitates esse deletas? Neque enim potest exercitum is continere +imperator, qui se ipse non continet, neque severus esse in iudicando, qui alios in se severos esse iudices non volt. + +Hic miramur hunc hominem tantum excellere ceteris, cuius legiones sic in Asiam pervenerint, ut non modo manus tanti +exercitus, sed ne vestigium quidem cuiquam pacato nocuisse dicatur? iam vero quem ad modum milites hibernent cotidie +sermones ac litterae perferuntur: non modo ut sumptum faciat in militem nemini vis adfertur, sed ne cupienti quidem +cuiquam permittitur. Hiemis enim, non avaritiae perfugium maiores nostri in sociorum atque amicorum tectis esse +voluerunt. + +Age vero: ceteris in rebus quali sit temperantia considerate. Unde illam tantam celeritatem et tam incredibilem cursum +inventum putatis? Non enim illum eximia vis remigum aut ars inaudita quaedam gubernandi aut venti aliqui novi tam +celeriter in ultimas terras pertulerunt; sed eae res quae ceteros remorari solent, non retardarunt: non avaritia ab +instituto cursu ad praedam aliquam devocavit, non libido ad voluptatem, non amoenitas ad delectationem, non nobilitas +urbis ad cognitionem, non denique labor ipse ad quietem; postremo signa et tabulas ceteraque ornamenta Graecorum +oppidorum, quae ceteri tellenda esse arbitrantur, ea sibi ille ne visenda quidem existimavit. + +Itaque omnes nunc in eis locis Cn. Pompeium sicut aliquem non ex hac urbe missum, sed de caelo delapsum intuentur. Nunc +denique incipiunt credere fuisse homines Romanos hac quondam continentia, quod iam nationibus exteris incredibile ac +falso memoriae proditum videbatur. Nunc imperi vestri splendor illis gentibus lucem adferre coepit. Nunc intellegunt non +sine causa maiores suos, tum cum ea temperantia magistratus habebamus, servire populo Romano quam imperare aliis +maluisse. iam vero ita faciles aditus ad eum privatorum, ita liberae querimonia de aliorum iniuriis esse dicuntur, ut +is, qui dignitate principibus excellit, facilitate infimis par esse videatur. + +iam quantum consilio, quantum dicendi gravitate et copia valeat,--in quo ipso inest quaedam dignitas imperatoria,--vos, +Quirites, hoc ipso ex loco saepe cognovistis. Fidem vero eius quantam inter socios existimari putatis, quam hostes omnes +omnium generum sanctissimam iudicarint? Humanitate iam tanta est, ut difficile dictu sit utrum hostes magis virtutem +eius pugnantes timuerint, an mansuetudinem victi dilexerint. Et quisquam dubitabit quin huic hoc tantum bellum +transmittendum sit, qui ad omnia nostrae memoriae bella conficienda divino quodam consilio natus esse videatur? + +Et quoniam auctoritas quoque in bellis administrandis multum atque in imperio militari valet, certe nemini dubium est +quin ea re idem ille imperator plurimum possit. Vehementer autem pertinere ad bella administranda quid hostes, quid +socii de imperatoribus nostris existiment quis ignorat, cum sciamus homines in tantis rebus, ut aut contemnant aut +metuant aut oderint aut ament, opinione non minus et fama quam aliqua ratione certa commoveri? Quod igitur nomen umquam +in orbe terrarum clarius fuit? cuius res gestae pares? de quo homine vos,--id quod maxime facit auctoritatem,--tanta et +tam praeclara iudicia fecistis? + +An vero ullam usquam esse oram tam desertam putatis, quo non illius diei fama pervaserit, cum universus populus Romanus, +referto foro completisque omnibus templis ex quibus hic locus conspici potest, unum sibi ad commune omnium gentium +bellum Cn. Pompeium imperatorem deposcit? Itaque--ut plura non dicam, neque aliorum exemplis confirmem quantum [huius] +auctoritas valeat in bello--ab eodem Cn. Pompeio omnium rerum egregiarum exempla sumantur: qui quo die a vobis maritimo +bello praepositus est imperator, tanta repente vilitas annonae ex summa inopia et caritate rei frumentariae consecuta +est unius hominis spe ac nomine, quantum vix in summa ubertate agrorum diuturna pax efficere potuisset. + +iam accepta in Ponto calamitate ex eo proelio, de quo vos paulo ante invitus admonui,--cum socii pertimuissent, hostium +opes animique crevissent, satis firmum praesidium provincia non haberet,--amisissetis Asiam, Quirites, nisi ad ipsum +discrimen eius temporis divinitus Cn. Pompeium ad eas regiones fortuna populi Romani attulisset. Huius adventus et +Mithridatem insolita inflammatum victoria continuit, et Tigranem magnis copiis minitantem Asiae retardavit. Et quisquam +dubitabit quid virtute perfecturus sit, qui tantum auctoritate perfecerit? aut quam facile imperio atque exercitu socios +et vectigalia conservaturus sit, qui ipso nomine ac rumore defenderit? + +Age vero, illa res quantam declarat eiusdem hominis apud hostis populi Romani autoritatem, quod ex locis tam longinquis +tamque diversis tam brevi tempore omnes huic se uni dediderunt? quod a communi Cretensium legati, cum in eorum insula +noster imperator exercitusque esset, ad Cn. Pompeium in ultimas prope terras venerunt, eique se omnis Cretensium +civitates dedere velle dixerunt? Quid? idem iste Mithridates nonne ad eundem Cn. Pompeium legatum usque in Hispaniam +misit? eum quem Pompeius legatum semper iudicavit, ei quibus erat [semper] molestum ad eum potissimum esse missum, +speculatorem quam legatum iudicari maluerunt. Potestis igitur iam constituere, Quirites, hanc auctoritatem, multis +postea rebus gestis magnisque vestris iudiciis amplificatam, quantum apud illos reges, quantum apud exteras nationes +valituram esse existimetis. + +Reliquum est ut de felicitate (quam praestare de se ipso nemo potest, meminisse et commemorare de altero possumus, sicut +aequum est homines de potestate deorum) timide et pauca dicamus. Ego enim sic existimo: Maximo, Marcello, Scipioni, +Mario, et ceteris magnis imperatoribus non solum propter virtutem, sed etiam propter fortunam saepius imperia mandata +atque exercitus esse commissos. Fuit enim profecto quibusdam summis viris quaedam ad amplitudinem et ad gloriam et ad +res magnas bene gerendas divinitus adiuncta fortuna. De huius autem hominis felicitate, de quo nunc agimus, hac utar +moderatione dicendi, non ut in illius potestate fortunam positam esse dicam, sed ut praeterita meminisse, reliqua +sperare videamur, ne aut invisa dis immortalibus oratio nostra aut ingrata esse videatur. + +Itaque non sum praedicaturus quantas ille res domi militiae, terra marique, quantaque felicitate gesserit; ut eius +semper voluntatibus non modo cives adsenserint, socii obtemperarint, hostes obedierint, sed etiam venti tempestatesque +obsecundarint: hoc brevissime dicam, neminem umquam tam impudentem fuisse, qui ab dis immortalibus tot et tantas res +tacitus auderet optare, quot et quantas di immortales ad Cn. Pompeium detulerunt. Quod ut illi proprium ac perpetuum +sit, Quirites, cum communis solutis atque imperi tum ipsius hominis causa, sicuti facitis, velle et optare debetis. + +Qua re,--cum et bellum sit ita necessarium ut neglegi non possit, ita magnum ut accuratissime sit administrandum; et cum +ei imperatorem praeficere possitis, in quo sit eximia belli scientia, singularis virtus, clarissima auctoritas, egregia +fortuna,--dubitatis Quirites, quin hoc tantum boni, quod vobis ab dis immortalibus oblatum et datum est, in rem publicam +conservandam atque amplificandam conferatis? + +Quod si Romae Cn. Pompeius privatus esset hoc tempore, tamen ad tantum bellum is erat deligendus atque mittendus: nunc +cum ad ceteras summas utilitates haec quoque opportunitas adiungatur, ut in eis ipsis locis adsit, ut habeat exercitum, +ut ab eis qui habent accipere statim possit, quid exspectamus? aut cur non dicibus dis immortalibus eidem, cui cetera +summa cum salute rei publicae commissa sunt, hoc quoque bellum regium committamus? + +At enim vir clarissimus, amantissimus rei publicae, vestris beneficiis amplissimis adfectus, Q. Catulus, itemque summis +ornamentis honoris, fortunae, virtutis, ingeni praeditus, Q. Hortensius, ab hac ratione dissentiunt. Quorum ego +auctoritatem apud vos multis locis plurimum valuisse et valere oportere confiteor; sed in hac causa, tametsi cognoscitis +auctoritates contrarias virorum fortissimorum et clarissimorum, tamen omissis auctoritatibus ipsa re ac ratione +exquirere possumus veritatem, atque hoc facilius, quod ea omnia quae a me adhuc dicta sunt, eidem isti vera esse +concedunt,--et necessarium bellum esse et magnum, et in uno Cn. Pompeio summa esse omnia. + +Quid igitur ait Hortensius? Si uni omnia tribuenda sint, dignissimum esse Pompeium, sed ad unum tamen omnia deferri non +oportere. Obsolevit iam ista oratio, re multo magis quam verbis refutata. Nam tu idem, Q. Hortensi, multa pro tua summa +copia ac singulari facultate dicendi et in senatu contra virum fortem, A. Gabinium, graviter ornateque dixisti, cum is +de uno imperatore contra praedones constituendo legem promulgasset, et ex hoc ipso loco permuta item contra eam legem +verba fecisti. + +Quid? tum (per deos immortalis!) si plus apud populum Romanum auctoritas tua quam ipsius populi Romani salus et vera +causa valuisset, hodie hanc gloriam atque hoc orbis terrae imperium teneremus? An tibi tum imperium hoc esse videbatur, +cum populi Romani legati quaestores praetoresque capiebantur? cum ex omnibus provinciis commeatu et privato et publico +prohibebamur? cum ita clausa nobis erant maria omnia, ut neque privatam rem transmarinam neque publicam iam obire +possemus? + +Quae civitas antea umquam fuit,--non dico Atheniensium, quae satis late quondam mare tenuisse dicitur; non +Karthaginiensium, qui permultum classe ac maritimis rebus valuerunt; non Rhodiorum, quorum usque ad nostram memoriam +disciplina navalis et gloria remansit,--sed quae civitas umquam antea tam tenuis, quae tam parva insula fuit, quae non +portus suos et agros et aliquam partem regionis atque orae maritimae per se ipsa defenderet? At (hercule) aliquot annos +continuos ante legem Gabiniam ille populus Romanus, cuius usque ad nostram memoriam nomen invictum in navalibus pugnis +permanserit, magna ac multo maxima parte non modo utilitatis, sed dignitatis atque imperi caruit. + +Nos, quorum maiores Antiochum regem classe Persenque superarunt, omnibus navalibus pugnis Karthaginiensis, homines in +maritimis rebus exercitatissimos paratissimosque, vicerunt, ei nullo in loco iam praedonibus pares esse poteramus: nos, +qui antea non modo Italiam tutam habebamus, sed omnis socios in ultimis oris auctoritate nostri imperi salvos praestare +poteramus,--tum cum insula Delos, tam procul a nobis in Aegaeo mari posita, quo omnes undique cum mercibus atque +oneribus commeabant, referta divitiis, parva, sine muro, nihil timebat,--eidem non modo provinciis atque oris Italiae +maritimis ac portubus nostris, sed etiam Appia iam via carebamus; et eis temporibus non pudebat magistratus populi +Romani in hunc ipsum locum escendere, cum eum nobis maiores nostri exuviis nauticis et classium spoliis ornatum +reliquissent. + +Bono te animo tum, Q. Hortensi, populus Romanus et ceteros qui erant in eadem sententia, dicere existimavit ea quae +sentiebatis: sed tamen in salute communi idem populus Romanus dolori suo maluit quam auctoritati vestrae obtemperare. +Itaque una lex, unus vir, unus annus non modo nos illa miseria ac turpitudine liberavit, sed etiam effecit, ut aliquando +vere videremur omnibus gentibus ac nationibus terra marique imperare. + +Quo mihi etiam indignius videtur obtrectatum esse adhuc,--Gabinio dicam anne Pompeio, an utrique, id quod est +verius?--ne legaretur A. Gabinius Cn. Pompeio expetenti ac postulanti. Utrum ille, qui postulat ad tantum bellum legatum +quem velit, idoneus non est qui impetret, cum ceteri ad expilandos socios diripiendasque provincias quos voluerunt +legatos eduxerint; an ipse, cuius lege salus ac dignitas populo Romano atque omnibus gentibus constituta est, expers +esse debet gloriae eius imperatoris atque eius exercitus, qui consilio ipsius ac periculo est constitutus? + +An C. Falcidius, Q. Metellus, Q. Caelius Latiniensis, Cn. Lentulus, quos omnis honoris causa nomino, cum tribuni plebi +fuissent, anno proximo legati ese potuerunt: in uno Gabinio sunt tam diligentes, qui in hoc bello, quod lege Gabinia +geritur, in hoc imperatore atque exercitu, quem per vos ipse constituit, etiam praecipuo iure esse deberet? De quo +legando consules spero ad senatum relaturos. Qui si dubitabunt aur gravabuntur, ego me profiteor relaturum. Neque me +impediet cuiusquam inimicum edictum, quo minus vobis fretus vestrum ius beneficiumque defendam; neque praeter +intercessionem quicquam audiam, de qua (ut arbitror) isti ipsi, qui minantur, etiam atque etiam quid liceat +considerabunt. Mea quidem sentenia, Quirites, unus A. Gabinius belli maritimi rerumque gestarum Cn. Ponpeio socius +ascribitur, propterea quod alter uni illud bellum suscipiendum vestris suffragiis detulit, alter delatum susceptumque +confecit. + +Reliquum est ut de Q. Catuli auctoritate et sententia dicendum esse videatur. Qui cum ex vobis quaereret, si in uno Cn. +Pompeio omnia poneretis, si quid eo factum esset, in quo spem essetis habituri,--cepit magnum suae virtutis fructum ac +dignitatis, cum omnes una prope voce in [eo] ipso vos spem habituros esse dixistis. Etenim talis est vir, ut nulla res +tanta sit ac tam difficilis, quam ille non et consilio regere et integritate tueri et virtute conficere possit. Sed in +hoc ipso ab eo vehementissime dissentio; quod, quo minus certa est hominum ac minus diuturna vita, hoc magis res +publica, dum per deos immortalis licet, frui debet summi viri vita atque virtute. + +'At enim ne quid novi fiat contra exempla atque instituta maiorum.' Non dicam hoc loco maiores nostros semper in pace +consuetudini, in bello utilitati paruisse; semper ad novos casus temporum novorom consiliorum rationes adcommodasse: non +dicam duo bella maxima, Punicum atque Hispaniense, ab uno imperatore esse confecta, duasque urbis potentissimas, quae +huic imperio maxime minitabantur, Karthaginem atque Numantiam, ab eodem Scipione esse deletas: non commemorabo nuper ita +vobis patribusque vestris esse visum, ut in uno C. Mario spes imperi poneretur, ut idem cum iugurtha, idem cum Cimbris, +idem cum Teutonis bellum administraret. + +In ipso Cn. Pompeio, in quo novi constitui nihil volt Q. Catulus, quam multa sint nova summa Q. Catuli voluntate +constituta recordamini. Quid tam novum quam adulescentulum privatum exercitum difficili rei publicae temporare +conficere? Confecit. Huic praeesse? Praefuit. Rem optime ductu suo gerere? Gessit. Quid tam praeter consuetudinem quam +homini peradulescenti, cuius aetas a senatorio gradu longe abesset, imperium atque exercitum dari, Siciliam permitti, +atque Africam bellumque in ea provincia administrandum? Fuit in his provinciis singulari innocentia, gravitate, virtute: +bellum in Africa maximum confecit, victorem exercitum deportavit. Quid vero tam inauditum quam equitem Romanum +triumphare? At eam quoque rem populus Romanus non modo vidit, sed omnium etiam studio visendam et concelebrandam +putavit. + +Quid tam inusitatum quam ut, cum duo consules clarissimi fortissimique essent, eques Romanus ad bellum maximum +formidolosissimumque pro consule mitteretur? Missus est. Quo quidem tempore, cum esset non nemo in senatu qui diceret ' +non oportere mitti hominem privatum pro consule,' L. Philippus dixisse dicitur non se illum sua sententia pro consule, +sed pro consulibus mittere. Tanta in eo rei publicae bene gerendae spes constituebatur, ut duorum consulum munus unius +adulescentis virtuti committeretur. Quid tam singulare quam ut ex senatus consuto legibus solutus consul ante fieret, +quam ullum alium magistratum per leges capere licuisset? quid tam incredibile quam ut iterum eques Romanus ex senatus +consulto triumpharet? Quae in omnibus hominibus nova post hominum memoriam constituta sunt, ea tam multa non sunt quam +haec, quae in hoc uno homine videmus. + +Atque haec tot exempla, tanta ac tam nova, profecta sunt in eundem hominem a Q. Catuli atque a ceterorum eiusdem +dignitatis amplissimorum hominum auctoritate. Qua re videant ne sit periniquum et non ferundum, illorum auctoritatem de +Cn. Pompei dignitate a vobis comprobatam semper esse, vestrum ab illis de eodem homine iudicium populique Romani +auctoritatem improbari; praesertim cum iam suo iure populus Romanus in hoc homine suam auctoritatem vel contra omnis qui +dissentiunt possit defendere, propterea quod, isdem istis reclamantibus, vos unum illum ex omnibus delegistis quem bello +praedonum praeponeretis. + +Hoc si vos temere fecistis, et rei publicae parum consuluistis, recte isti studia vestra suis consiliis regere conantur. +Sin autem vos plus tum in re publica vidistis, vos eis repugnantibus per vosmet ipsos dignitatem huic imperio, salutem +orbi terrarum attulistis, aliquando isti principes et sibi et ceteris populi Romani universi auctoritati parendum esse +fateantur. Atque in hoc bello Asiatico et regio non solum militaris illa virtus, quae est in Cn. Pompeio singularis, sed +aliae quoque virtutes animi magnae et multae requiruntur. Difficile est in Asia, Cilicia, Syria regnisque interiorum +nationum ita versari nostrum imperatorem, ut nihil nisi de hoste ac de laude cogitet. Deinde etiam si qui sunt pudore ac +temperantia moderatiores, tamen eos esse talis propter multitudinem cupidiorum hominum nemo arbitratur. + +Difficile est dictu, Quirites, quanto in odio simus apud exteras nationes propter eorum, quos ad eas per hos annos cum +imperio misimus, libidines et iniurias. Quod enim fanum putatis in illis terris nostris magistratibus religiosum, quam +civitatem sanctam, quam domum satis clausam ac munitam fuisse? Urbes iam locupletes et copiosae requiruntur, quibus +causa belli propter diripiendi cupiditatem inferatur. + +Libenter haec coram cum Q. Catulo et Q. Hortensio, summis et clarissimis viris, disputarem. Noverunt enim sociorum +volnera, vident eorum calamitates, querimonias audiunt. Pro sociis vos contra hostis exercitum mittere putatis, an +hostium simulatione contra socios atque amicos? Quae civitas est in Asia quae non modo imperatoris aut legati, sed unius +tribuni militum animos ac spiritus capere possit? Qua re, etiam si quem habetis qui conlatis signis exercitus regios +superare posse videatur, tamen nisi erit idem, qui se a pecuniis sociorum, qui ab eorum coniugibus ac liberis, qui ab +ornamentis fanorum atque oppidorum, qui ab auro gazaque regia manus, oculos, animum cohibere possit, non erit idoneus +qui ad bellum Asiaticum regiumque mittatur. + +Ecquam putatis civitatem pacatam fuisse quae locuples sit? ecquam esse locupletem quae istis pacata esse videatur? Ora +maritima, Quirites, Cn. Pompeium non solum propter rei militaris gloriam, sed etiam propter animi continentiam +requisivit. Videbat enim praetores locupletari quot annis pecunia publica praeter paucos; neque eos quicquam aliud +adsequi, classium nomine, nisi ut detrimentis accipiendis maiore adfici turpitudine videremur. Nunc qua cupiditate +homines in provincias, quibus iacturis et quibus condicionibus proficiscantur, ignorant videlicet isti, qui ad unum +deferenda omnia esse non arbitrantur? Quasi vero Cn. Pompeium non cum suis virtutibus tum etiam alienis vitiis magnum +esse videamus. + +Qua re nolite dubitare quin huic uni credatis omnia, qui inter tot annos unus inventus sit, quem socii in urbis suas cum +exercitu venisse gaudeant. Quod si auctoritatibus hanc causam, Quirites, confirmandam putatis, est vobis auctor vir +bellorum omnium maximarumque rerum peritissimus, P. Servilius, cuius tantae res gestae terra marique exstiterunt, ut cum +de bello deliberetis, auctor vobis gravior nemo esse debeat; est C. Curio, summis vestris beneficiis maximisque rebus +gestis, summo ingenio et prudentia praeditus; est Cn. Lentulus, in quo omnes pro amplissimis vestris honoribus summum +consilium, summam gravitatem esse cognovistis; est C. Cassius, integritate, virtute, constantia singulari. Que re videte +ut horum auctoritatibus illorum orationi qui dissentiunt, respondere posse videamur. + +Que cum ita sint, C. Manlili, primum istam tuam et legem et voluntatem et sententiam laudo vehementissimeque comprobo: +deinde te hortor, ut auctore populo Romano maneas in sententia, neve cuiusquam vim aut minas pertimescas. Primum in te +satis esse animi perseverantiaeque arbitror: deinde cum tantam multitudinem cum tanto studio adesse videamus, quantam +iterum nunc in eodem homine praeficiendo videmus, quid est quod aut de re aut de perficiendi facultate dubitemus? Ego +autem quicquid est in me studi, consili, laboris, ingeni, quicquid hoc beneficio populi Romani atque hac potestate +praetoria, quicquid auctoritate, fide, constantia possum, id omne ad hanc re conficiendam tibi et populo Romano +polliceor ac defero: + +testorque omnis deos, et eos maxime qui huic loco temploque praesident, qui omnium mentis eorum qui ad rem publicam +adeunt maxime perspiciunt, me hoc neque rogatu facere cuiusquam, neque quo Cn. Pompei gratiam mihi per hanc causam +conciliari putem, neque quo mihi ex cuiusquam amplitudine aut praesidia periculis aut adiumenta honoribus quaeram; +propterea quod pericula facile, ut hominem praestare oportet, innocentia tecti repellemus, honorem autem neque ab uno +neque ex hoc loco, sed eadem illa nostra laboriosissima ratione vitae, si vestra voluntas feret, consequemur. + +Quam ob rem quicquid in hac causa mihi susceptum est, Quirites, id ego omne me rei publicae causa suscepisse confirmo; +tantumque abest ut aliquam mihi bonam gratiam quaesisse videar, ut multas me etiam simultates partim obscuras, partim +apertas intellegam mihi non necessarias, vobis non inutilis suscepisse. Sed ego me hoc honore praeditum, tantis vestris +beneficiis adfectum statui, Quirites, vestram voluntatem et rei publicae dignitatem et salutem provinciarum atque +sociorum meis omnibus commodis et rationibus praeferre oportere. diff --git a/src/content/posts/reading-notes-critique-of-pure-reason/cover.png b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-critique-of-pure-reason/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c79b6c230 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-critique-of-pure-reason/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/reading-notes-critique-of-pure-reason/index.md b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-critique-of-pure-reason/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..625520e6a --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-critique-of-pure-reason/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +title: Reading Notes of "Critique of Pure Reason" +published: 2024-07-29 +description: A Masterpiece of Idealism of Anti-Idealism - Transcendental Idealism +image: './cover.png' +tags: [ "Theory" ] +category: 'Philosophy' +draft: false +--- + +Kant argues that our mathematical, physical, and quotidian knowledge of nature requires certain judgments that are +"synthetic" rather than "analytic," that is, going beyond what can be known solely in virtue of the contents of the +concepts involved in them and the application of the logical principles of identity and contradiction to these concepts, +and yet also knowable _a priori_, that is, independently of any particular experience since no particular experience +could ever be sufficient to establish the universal and necessary validity of these judgments. + +Kant agrees with Locke that we have no innate knowledge, that is, no knowledge of any particular propositions +implanted in us by God or nature prior to the commencement of our individual experience. I2 But experience is the +product both of external objects affecting our sensibility and of the operation of our cognitive faculties in response +to this effect, and Kant's claim is that we can have "pure" or a priori cognition of the contributions to experience +made by the operation of these faculties themselves, rather than of the effect of external objects on us in experience. +Kant divides our cognitive capacities into our receptivity to the effects of external objects acting on us and giving us +sensations, through which these objects are given to us in empirical intuition, and our active faculty for relating the +data of intuition by thinking them under concepts, which is called understanding, and forming judgments about them. This +division is the basis for Kant's division of the "Transcendental Doctrine of Elements" into the +"Transcendental Aesthetic," which deals with sensibility and its pure form, and the "Transcendental Logic," which +deals with the operations of the understanding and judgment as well as both the spurious and the legitimate activities +of theoretical reason. + +Transcendental Aesthetic +------------------------ + +Kant attempts to distinguish the contribution to cognition made by our receptive faculty of sensibility from that made +solely by the objects that affect us, and argues that space and time are pure forms of all intuition contributed by our +own faculty of sensibility, and therefore forms of which we can have a priori knowledge. + +This is the basis for Kant's resolution of the debate about space and time that had raged between the Newtonians, who +held space and time to be self-subsisting entities existing independently of the objects that occupy them, and the +Leibnizians, who held space and time to be systems of relations, conceptual constructs based on non-relational +properties inhering in the things we think of as spatiotemporally related + +:::tip[Further Reading] + +The classical presentation of this dispute is in the correspondence between Leibniz and the Newtonian Samuel Clarke, +published by Clarke in 1717 after Leibniz's death the previous year; see H. G . Alexander, ed.,[_The Leibniz-Clarke +Correspondence_](https://archive.org/details/leibnizclarkecor00clar/mode/2up) (Manchester: Manchester University +Press, 1956). + +::: + +Kant's alternative to both of these positions is that space and time are neither subsistent beings nor inherent in +things as they are in themselves, but are rather only forms of our sensibility, hence conditions under which objects of +experience can be given at all and the fundamental +principle of their representation and individuation + +Kant's thesis that space and time are pure forms of intuition leads him to the paradoxical conclusion that although +space and time are _empirically real_, they are _transcendentally ideal_, and so are the objects given in them. Although +the precise meaning of this claim remains subject to debate, in general terms it is the claim that it is only from +the human standpoint that we can speak of space, time, and the spatiotemporality of the objects of experience, thus +that we cognize these things not as they are in themselves but only as they appear under the conditions of our +sensibility. This is Kant's famous doctrine of __transcendental idealism__ + +### Kant's Transcendental Idealism + +:::tip[Source] + +Henry E . Allison, [_Kant's Transcendental Idealism_](https://archive.org/details/professor-henry-e.-allison-kants-transcendental-idealism-an-interpretation-and-defense/mode/2up), +New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983 (CPR, Cambridge, p.706, +[Book Review](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80331.Kant_s_Transcendental_Idealism)) + +::: + +- Transcendental idealism is a metaphysical theory that affirms the uncognizability of the "real" (__things in + themselves__) and relegates cognition to the purely subjective realm of representations (appearances). +- The basic assumption is simply that the mind can acquire these materials only as aresult of being "affected" + by things in themselves. diff --git a/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/cover.png b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/cover.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3309a7d36 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/cover.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/easter-roman-empire.png b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/easter-roman-empire.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..430d296d5 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/easter-roman-empire.png differ diff --git a/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/index.md b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..56015b30b --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/reading-notes-de-administrando-imperio/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: Πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Ῥωμανὸν +published: 2024-07-21 +description: 'Reading Notes of "De Administrando Imperio"' +image: './cover.png' +tags: ["Management"] +category: 'Management' +draft: false +--- + +![Error loading easter-roman-empire.png](./easter-roman-empire.png) + +> [1715 map of the Eastern Roman Empire under Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus's reign in the 10th Century by Guillaume De L'Isle](https://www.reddit.com/r/Map_Porn/comments/81ren9/1715_map_of_the_eastern_roman_empire_under/) + +### Περί τών Πατζινακιτών, καί προς πόσα συμβάλλονται μετά τοΰ βασιλέως 'Ρωμαίων είρηνεύοντες. + +'Ψπολαμβάνω γάρ κατά πολύ συμφέρειν αεί τω βασιλεΐ 'Ρωμαίων ειρήνην έ&έλειν έχειν μετά τοΰ έ&νους τών Πατζινακιτών καί +φιλικάς προς αύτούς ποιεΐσ&αι συνθήκας τε καί σπονδάς καί άποστέλλειν κα&* έκαστον χρόνον έντεΰ&εν προς αύτούς +άποκρισιάριον μετά ξενίων άρμο6νΡ ζόντων ] καί πρός τό έ&νος επιτηδείων καί άναλαμβάνεσ&αι έκεΐθεν 20 ομήρους, ήτοι +δψιδας καί άποκρισιάριον, οΐτινες έν τη &εοφυλάκτω ταύτη πόλει μετά τοΰ καθ-υπουργοΰντος εις ταΰτα συνελεύσονται, καί +βασιλικών εύεργεσιών καί φιλοτιμιών τών επαξίων πάντων τοΰ βασι λεύοντος άπολαύσουσιν. + +### Περί τών πατζινακιτών καί τών 'Ρώς. + +'Ότι καί οί 'Ρώς διά σπουδής έχουσιν ειρήνην έχειν μετά τών Πατζινακιτών. diff --git a/src/content/posts/video.md b/src/content/posts/video.md deleted file mode 100644 index 4d53a9526..000000000 --- a/src/content/posts/video.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,28 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Include Video in the Posts -published: 2023-08-01 -description: This post demonstrates how to include embedded video in a blog post. -tags: [Example, Video] -category: Examples -draft: false ---- - -Just copy the embed code from YouTube or other platforms, and paste it in the markdown file. - -```yaml ---- -title: Include Video in the Post -published: 2023-10-19 -// ... ---- - - -``` - -## YouTube - - - -## Bilibili - - diff --git "a/src/content/posts/\353\202\230\354\235\230-\354\225\204\354\240\200\354\224\250/cover.png" "b/src/content/posts/\353\202\230\354\235\230-\354\225\204\354\240\200\354\224\250/cover.png" new file mode 100644 index 000000000..97c58b3c2 Binary files /dev/null and "b/src/content/posts/\353\202\230\354\235\230-\354\225\204\354\240\200\354\224\250/cover.png" differ diff --git "a/src/content/posts/\353\202\230\354\235\230-\354\225\204\354\240\200\354\224\250/index.md" "b/src/content/posts/\353\202\230\354\235\230-\354\225\204\354\240\200\354\224\250/index.md" new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7b6e7f96e --- /dev/null +++ "b/src/content/posts/\353\202\230\354\235\230-\354\225\204\354\240\200\354\224\250/index.md" @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: 드라마 '나의 아저씨' +published: 2024-07-25 +description: 회사는 기계들이 다니는 뎁니까? 인간이 다나는 뎁니다! +image: './cover.png' +tags: [Ethics] +category: Theory +draft: false +--- + +드라마 '나의 아저씨'에 +이런 장면과 이런 말이 있다. + +이력서에 적힌 건, 장점 '달리기' 하나뿐이고 +무죄 판결이 나서 전과조회는 되지 않지만, +정당방위로 사람을 죽인 적이 있는 +한 직원을 왜 뽑았냐고 비난하는 장면이다. + +그리고 이런 말, 대화가 나온다. +'법이 그 아이를 보호해 주려고 전과조회도 +안 잡히게 해 놨는데, 왜 그걸 들춰냅니까 +내가 내 과거를 잊고 싶듯 다른 사람의 과거도 +잊어주고 덮어주는 게 인간 아닙니까.' + +'여기 회사야!!!' + +'회사는 기계가 다니는 뎁니까? 인간이 다니는 뎁니다!' + + + +살다 보면 참 잊기 쉬운 말이다. '인간'. 신기하게 인간이 살고 있는 세상이고 인간을 위해 쌓아 올린 세상인데 인간이 없다. 아니, 정확하게는 +인간성이 없다. 도로 위에 수많은 난폭, 폭력 운전자들. 직장, 일이라는 이유로 인간다움을 마음 한편에 접어두라는 사람들. 돈 없고 힘없으면 +무시당해도 되고 서러워도 아무도 신경 쓰지 않는 사람들. 다수가 불편하면 외면당해도 되는 소수들. 어리고 학생이면 선택할 수 없고 저항하면 +안 되는. + +아무런 의욕도 없이 억지로 살아가는 중년 남자와 태어날 때부터 불행한 운명을 짊어지고 살아온 젊은 여자의 이야기가 이를 본 많은 이들에게 +어떻게 '인생의 드라마'가 되었는지 궁금할 것입니다. 놀랍게도 그랬습니다. 박동훈과 이지안은 서로를 인간 대 인간으로 완전히 이해했고, +서로에게 큰 위로가 되었습니다. 이지안을 돕는 과정을 통해 박동훈 역시 자신의 내면에서 다른 것을 발견하고, 자신을 더 사랑하는 것에서 +벗어나 더 적극적으로 살아갈 수 있었고, 이지안은 다른 사람들과 달리 자신에게 '4배 이상' 잘해주는 박동훈 같은 사람을 만난 이후 '처음 +살아보는 삶'을 살게 되었습니다. 이 둘이 어둠 속에서 서로에게 빛이 되고 마침내 터널을 벗어나면, 시청자들은 이 힘들고 외로운 삶 속에서 +희망을 볼 수 있는 것처럼 경험합니다. + +우울한 사람들을 보지만, 어쩐지 희망적인 느낌을 줍니다. 슬픈 사람들을 보지만, 어쩐지 미소를 짓게 만듭니다. 배경에는 추운 겨울날이지만, +여러분의 마음은 한없이 따뜻해질 것입니다. 사회적으로 소외되고 외로운 사람들이 모여서 이야기하는 것 같습니다. "괜찮아요. 이 세상은 여전히 +살 가치가 있어요." 무엇보다도, 여러분의 삶에서 진정한 사람들을 만나거나, 그들 중 한 명이 되고 싶다는 생각을 하게 만듭니다. 어떤 판단도 +없이 힘든 시기를 겪고 있는 그 사람을 볼 때, 여러분은 그 사람의 편이 될 수 있는 사람으로 성장하고 싶습니다. 더 중요한 것은, 그런 +방식으로, 여러분은 인간이 할 수 있는 최고의 가치를 실천하는 것이 여러분의 삶에서 더 많은 의미를 찾을 수 있기 때문에 더 많은 것을 얻을 +수 있습니다. + +> "어떻게 보면 인생은 외적인 힘과 내적인 힘의 싸움이고, 어떤 일이 있어도 내적인 힘이 있으면 견딜 수 있습니다. (박동훈)"