Re: Lisp, Jazz, Aikido
- From: "Rob Thorpe" <robert.thorpe@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 27 Sep 2006 13:19:12 -0700
Didier Verna wrote:
Majorinc, Kazimir <kazimir@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <muxk66st8hh.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
didier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
I like Aikido because it's more than a martial art: it's a way of
approaching all martial arts. The philosophy behind Aikido applies to all
aspects of life. The Aikido community is nice and friendly, perhaps because
there are few of us, but we know we're right.
I like Jazz because it's more than a style of music: it's a way of
approaching all styles of music. The philosophy behind Jazz applies to all
aspects of life. The Jazz community is nice and friendly, perhaps because
there are few of us, but we know we're right.
I like Lisp because it's more than a programming language: it's a way of
approaching all programming languages. The philosophy behind Lisp applies
to all aspects of life. The Lisp community is nice and friendly, perhaps
because there are few of us, but we know we're right.
Bit late to this, but hey, what is the philosophy behind Lisp
and how it applies on all aspects of life?
Sorry for the delay. I'm just back on usenet after a while. I'll tell
you what's my philosophy anyway, and why it applies to Lisp, Jazz and Aikido:
it's about beauty, fun and freedom.
1/ There's beauty in evolving as best as possible within a set of constraints
or rules.
2/ There's fun, however, in breaking those rules as much as possible.
3/ The corollary being that real freedom is not to have no limit, but to know
your limits so well that you can either evolve at will within them, or
break them at will.
Why does this apply to Lisp ?
1/ There's beauty in writing code in any language (there's even beauty in
writing shell code). The beauty lies in your ability to adapt your concepts
to the constraints of the language you're using.
2/ However, Lisp allows you to break the rules of traditionnal languages
because you can adapt the language to your concepts as much as you can
adapt your concepts to the language. And that's fun.
3/ As a corollary, it can become so common to break the rules, that what you
do is really pushing the limits farther away, making a rule of what was not
before.
Why does this apply to Jazz ?
1/ There's beauty in playing a song, in any style of music. The beauty lies in
your ability to adapt your personal musical ideas to the constraints of the
song (the rythmic style, the pitch, the harmony etc).
2/ However, Jazz (specifically improvisation) allows you to break this, by
playing "out", both rythmically and harmonically, in the best case with the
other musicians following you. That way, you're adapting the tune to your
musical concepts as much as you're adapting your playing to the tune. And
that's HUGE fun.
3/ As a corollary, it has become so common to break established musical rules
in Jazz, that new rules actually emerge, that were considered errors
before. For instance, when Miles Davis started to play an E on a C- or the
other way around (mixing major and minor harmony), or simply began his
electric period, some people wanted to burn the heretic alive. Now, all of
this is well known, and you can learn actual techniques for playing "out"
in schools.
Why does this apply to Aikido ?
1/ There's beauty in practicing any martial art (as long that it has not
become just sports). The beauty lies in executing the techniques that
define your martial art perfectly.
2/ However, Aikido lets you break this, because the techniques are less
important than what's behind (the budo, the kokyu). Aikido contains ideas
and techniques from many different disciplines (ranging from Judo to Kendo)
because at some point, Morihei Ueshiba (the founder) felt that technique,
wherever it came from, was just a tool to go further (knowing and
controlling oneself to deepest extent). For that reason, Aikido is still
living: techniques might very well evolve, disappear or emerge. The initial
rules can be broken and it's fun.
3/ As a corollary, 7th or 8th dan Aikido masters are so far away beyond
techniques that you can't see them anymore in their practice. The
techniques are gone. All that's left is a "purified" state. They don't even
have to touch their partner anymore. That's where the kokyu lies: the art
of fighting without fighting. Because when you face one of these masters,
you can feel that the battle is lost before it has even begun.
OK, I could write pages about this, but I'm supposed to be working there :-)
Interesting, I can see a few fairly obvious similiarities that you
haven't touched on:-
* All are minority interests within their field. Lisp has a small
place in programming, Jazz a relatively small place in music, Aikido a
relatively small place in martial arts.
* As a result, many people associated with these things are
enthusiastic amateurs. Only a few are professionals and few companies
are involved.
* All of these things are difficult compared to more majority
interests. Jazz is harder to play than Blues and most Rock. Aikido
has more technique than the martial arts made from kicking and punching
even if it requires less fitness, and probably less injuries. Lisp is
more difficult to learn than C even if easier to use to solve hard
problems.
* Some of these things seem to, erm, collect geeks. When I lived in
Cambridge (UK) I visited an Aikido class. By looking at the class I
would judge that the languages I had in common with them were at least
English and C. Jazz seems to collect intelligent disaffected youth
more than geeks, but there isn't that much difference.
Lastly, more subtely, those things have a common criticism/commentary,
they make different things looks the same. Because of the parentheses
in lisp everything is expressed in a uniform way, for me this is no
problem but some don't like it. Similarly in Jazz there are a great
many tunes that sound to me almost the same. Even though I enjoy
listening to it I can't discriminate between it much, most of it sounds
like ~5 fairly relaxing chords to me and that's about it. For the one
evening I tried Aikido people showed me lots of moves that seemed to be
all basically the same to me. So, I assume people who like all these
things are good at discriminating between things that are apparently
very similar.
.
- References:
- Re: Lisp, Jazz, Aikido
- From: Didier Verna
- Re: Lisp, Jazz, Aikido
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