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Do not oppose the way of the universe

11 points by lionhearted ↗ HN
From Eiji Yoshikawa's "Musashi" - hit me very profoundly at this point in my life. I'd tried to bend reality to my will often - sometimes it worked, often not. Musashi, a wandering swordsman, went to take up farming to learn discipline, and his crops/farmland kept getting washed away every rain. From page 663 in the hardcover edition:

"Then it dawned on him suddenly. Unconsciously, he had been trying to create a neat, square field like those common in other parts of the Kanto Plain, but this was not what the terrain called for. Here, despite the general flatness, there were slight variations in the lay of the land and the quality of the soil that argued for an irregular shape.

"What a fool I've been," he exclaimed aloud. "I tried to to make the water flow where I thought it ought to be. But it didn't work. How could it? Water's water, dirt's dirt. I can't change their nature. What I've got to do is learn to be a servant to the water and a protector of the land."

...

"The same rules must apply to governing people," he said to himself. In his notebook, he wrote: "Do not attempt to oppose the way of the universe. But first make sure you know the way of the universe."

3 comments

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lionhearted
It really staggered me. I put the book down and thought for a couple hours after reading that chapter.

How many things have I banged my head against the wall fighting the way things are? I've always felt that people should be more courteous, more into thinking and philosophy, less rash and impulsive. I've tried to combat human nature so often - trying to brute force human nature into something I considered better.

Maybe I had noble ideals, but even on small things. On HN, I downvote those snippy clever sarcastic comments. Because I reckon they may be the beginning of the end. But maybe "the way" is that sites like HN will be born, improve until they hit their zenith, and die slowly until it happens again.

I'd fought "hype hype HYPE BUT IT NOW" marketing to the extent of costing myself some wealth and growing a lot slower in business than I could have.

I'd enjoyed being an idealist. There's some sort of wholeness and peace to be taken from it. But it can certainly be aggravating, and I haven't accomplished anything near what I could. Who serves humanity better - the idealist whose ideals never diffuse, or the man who serves water and protects the land?

bobz44
What a great parable for programmers.

At the core of all hacking, and in fact the root word hack itself, is the fine art of knowing when to hold firm to principle, and knowing when good enough is good enough.

From the Jargon File: http://catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

'The word hack doesn't really have 69 different meanings', according to MIT hacker Phil Agre. 'In fact, hack has only one meaning, an extremely subtle and profound one which defies articulation...'

Hacking might be characterized as ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity’. Whether the result is a quick-and-dirty patchwork job or a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness that went into it.