Lessons From The Eccentrics
No one and nothing is weird, only misunderstood or not well understood
I met a few unusual people. They kept away from the common crowd and gave me a few insights once hidden within their minds. These people are usually considered as “eccentrics”, and likely social outcasts because they poses questions to the way and comfortable status quo the usual, average people we think and believe in, and therefore mostly very much abjured upon. Eccentrics are not the usual people and through their anomaly, they bring with themselves another dimension of thinking or doing. Some serendipity come from the people we meet accidentally.
I am not dysfunctional, I have functions that you do not understand. — Ursa
1. The Living Untaken and The Life Unlived
2. On The Road of The Strong
3. The Ghost Whisperer
4. The Wizard Among Men
5. Timely Rain
6. The Goblins
7. The Butterfly That Crosses The Ocean
8. The General From The Ghost Valley
9. The Reader Of Tomorrow’s Newspaper
小隐隐于野，大隐隐于市 《反招隐诗》: The secret or exclusive lore Sconce ("guardian of knowledge") hidden in plain sight or crowd.A capable person hopes to hide away from the society and indulge his work. This is referred as the 'minor reclusion'. The astute and skilled are hiding within the crowd at plain sight. This is referred as the 'mid reclusion'. The formidably astute and skilled among the foolish elites, amidst the turmoil and commotion, yet never revealing their lore.
The Living Untaken and The Life Unlived
A few wealth seeking friends set out on a lore quest for the alchemy of riches. One of them got wind of a middle-aged eccentric who frequented an alfresco prawn fishing park. He was a lesser known and anchorite merchant who spent his days on stock broking. He was asked — “how can I earn a million?” A million dollars 25 years ago was a deal, but now it may seem lesser.
The eccentric invited a few of us to his place, he had no one working for him, but a series of computers guessing on numbers. My childhood friend asked, “is this it?”
He replied with a resolute — “no”, and answered with a riddle: “Why do some people earn a million (in dollars), and bankrupted; then earned a 2nd million, and bankrupted again, and recovered a 3rd million, while most people never seen a million all their lives?”
At that time, I was involved in some pugilist community, and was participating in meeting hostile pugilists. Some of those meet-ups were deeply disappointing as exchanging learning points can turn into dangerous duels when one party turns into predatory mode. I thought of leaving the community, but thought to myself that all the pursuits will end there, and all further developments will regrettably end. Martial arts had been my lifelong obsession, and I was caught at a moral pressing juncture. A few days later, I went to him and said:
“Why do some people when they get punched in the face, stand up and continue; then get struck down again, and get up again, and braced for a 3rd round, while most people never dared to step into the ring all their lives?”
I confessed to him, “there were years I really did not want to train anymore, but when I got into fights, I got hit, I collapsed, and got hit again, and collapsed, yet I I got up, but most people ran away after getting the 1st punch.”
The middle-aged man smiled faintly, nodded his head, rested down his fishing rod, and answered, “most people 输不起 (shū bù qǐ, “do not have the heart and hence not willing to take hardships, hard knocks and bitter defeats”), the heart must be strong, the heart must be wide to embrace everything, the heart must be tough”.
I understood what he was trying to say. It is not just about empty bravado, but deep, clear thinking with the mindset of 扛得起, 输得起 (able to bear, able to take the beatings and loss).
His words explained to us why he was alone, and it set some of us on the lonely search into the forest of knowledge that few would dare to seek. He should have warned us that breaking that puzzle would be a curse.
Later, I asked my friend along the way, “赌神和赌鬼有什么区别?” (What is the difference between a god of gamblers and a gambling loser?). He was very puzzled at that time with the riddles that old man was fiddling us, and gave up. I replied “赌神会收手 (The god of gamblers know when to stop.).
Years later, it did not make most of us any richer, but it brought us a wealth of courage that set us to move deep into some untreaded forests in life. Some of us became social workers, a few became merchants, and indeed, several bankrupted, but remained spiritedly unbowed, while some others went into teaching. I became a scientist, and remained a recluse martial artist.
You require skeptics and cynics to test your own faith. - 2011-09.25On The Road of The Strong
There were 2 routes at a reservoir, my friend and I decided to take another jogging route which few had taken. It was quickly regretted as we realized it was a one-way path, and to return, we have to take the same route back. There is no alternate path out as the other shorter route which is a circuit where we can take an exit at multiple points.
After the exercise, we met an elderly man around his 70’s. He pointed to us that he and a few friends of his created a group to path that route. It was a test route to see who could run it in under 25 minutes. Those who are able are given a membership to their club. We found a newspaper clipping on his claim later. I turned to my friend and reminisced, “do you recall the joggers we met on that path?”.
“They are stronger runners, and it is quite explicit on the way they conduct themselves. You can sense confidence and proactiveness immediately. They greet you openly, firmly and warmly, as if they all belong to a cadre of disciplined elites”, answered my friend.
The comparison on the 2 routes taught us that people are on different kinds of routes for some reasons. Whether they chose it or not, the routes they are on tell much about them. The road of the strong may have different stories, yet only on the road of the strong, by meeting the strong, we match to their definitions. We are the average of the people around us, beware of how and the level we are normalized to.
It matters not if you are normal or abnormal, but if the abnormality is supranormal, not subnormal. In fact, normality denotes the lack of evolution, anomaly may connote preponderance. - Ursa to Felicia Lim, 1996There's no such thing as strange ... only imperceptible. - Ursa to Felicia Lim, 1996
“Only on the path of the strong, you may get to meet the strong.”
“Remember your friends when you are rising up the hill.”
— Mikail, 2002–12.15
遇强则强 (yù qiáng zé qiáng): You learn and forge strengths by encountering the strong. The greater the challenge demonstrated, the more it stimulates one to meet to the demand.The Ghost Whisperer
Eric, the magician, may be no Randi, the Great, but if you want to vanish an elephant in the room*, you know he is the one you will have to speak to.
“Elephant in the room”: a metaphorical idiom for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable or is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous. It is based on the idea/thought that something as conspicuous as an elephant can appear to be overlooked in codified social interactions and that the sociology/psychology of repression also operates on the macro scale.Eric was the quiet IT manager sitting at the corner in a remote room. No one knows he sat on a box of magic with numerous tricks up his sleeves. The humble, quiet magician was selective with who he disclosed his trades with, and he taught the selected few of us during corporate tea-breaks. Usually, he will show us the routine and gets us to think about it before the reveal.
Once the secret is revealed, the spell is broken and the magic is lost. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. You will not see magic the same way again.
The solution of a maze can be reduced to a single open loop. If you trace 1 side of the walls and reach a dead-end, you can continue until eventually reaching the exit. If you return to the same point, closing the loop, it could only mean there is no exit.Eric showed us that magic is not just an entertainment, it is both science and art. It helped us to understand ourselves as a limited human, and exposes how flawed mortally we all are. Magic is fundamentally a way of thinking and ‘seeing things’. Everything in life is a puzzle, but not everyone can ‘see’ the trapdoor solution. Some trapdoors lead to the lifting of the Pandora lid. At the end of the day, he made us realize that — magic never exists. The science of creating illusion and mentalism was the end goal of education, Theatrics is merely a misdirection.
Positioning For Magic
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If the woman stands 4 inches from the boxer, then the boxer can lift her. If she stands 8 inches away, then the force required to lift her doubles. It is the physics of levers or principle of moment. Nobody notices that she moves a few inches back or forth, but the results are dramatic. Once you know what to look for, it is obvious.Planting The Death Note
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The mentalist selected his 10 cards carefully - 3 aces, 3 kings, 3 7's and a queen. This combination ensures that whoever has the queen will always lose the game. Imagine you have the queen - the best hand you can possibly have is 3 of a kind (3 aces, a king and the queen). Not bad, but you will still lose because the mentalist will have 3 of a kind and a pair (3 7's and 2 kings). At the start of the game, the mentalist merely has to deal the queen to his opponent, and then he will win no matter what cards his opponent chooses.
Painting Mental Images
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When the mentalist was telling the participant to draw a picture, he instructed the mark to "let some ideas sail into your mind" and not to go "overboard on detail". The mark drew a boat on the waters. Human responses can be conditioned like a magnet under manipulative suggestions. In the same way, when the mentalist instructs the subject to ”relax and see where your mind takes you”. The subject probably settled on the first images that came into mind that had been implanted for a trigger later. The answers the mentalist gave were those that were the most likely to have been their immediate thoughts – given the framework, wording and conditioning that the mentalist built into each of the leading questions. And, because most people feel pressured by the slightly complicated wording of the questions, it was likely that the subject(s) would not choose to change their mind from those initial decisions.Sense and Sensibility Jamming
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Mentalists are trained to distract with intense, focused fixation on the peculiar stimuli that they were momentarily entranced so they did not hear what was said. The attention jamming becomes a form of cognitive masking. Mentalists could create momentary memory glitches that the mark is not able to recall his task at hand. This is not hypnosis, and part of the lie is to create a myth that hypnosis exists. The Lingering Phantasm
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Illusionists may draw the mark to a house, and at the corner leading into a room with an opened door down the corridor, a glass pane, not visible from the position, is placed like a 1/2-closed door. A faint lamp lies near the edge of the doorway. A person pretending to be an apparition stands in wait for the right moment for the mark to arrive. He steps lightly forward with the lamp reflecting his image on the glass. The marks froze appalled to the witnessing of the sight of a translucent reflection on the glass. The ghost actor steps back slowly giving the illusion of vanishing as he steps back into the darkness.* Caveat: Do not do this as some people have a weak heart.
No matter how smart you are, or how educated you are, you can be deceived. — James Randi (August 7, 1928 — October 20, 2020)
The Wizard Among Men
Not all eccentrics are aloft and grumpy, some are ebullient, and others may perceive them as exceptionally high-spirited, though they do label them as socially awkward. However he is an archetype of a genius. Ask him almost anything, and he can give you a solution on the spot, as if he is drawing Mona Lisa or Picasso diagrams on the napkin. If ideas can ‘flow’ on the paper, it would be via the hands from someone like Dr Yew.
Every dinner meeting with him was indigestible. We wrestled on mathematics and logic on papers, and dinner ended up as the cold side dish. There were times I was nonplussed by this middle-aged scientist. I fell back on the chair and demanded how he thought of it.
“I give you an example”, answered Dr Yew, “say, you are working on the Manhattan project, everyday, you go to the laboratory, and you kick over a pebble. You keep making the mistake over and over again. One day after many years working on the problem, you get frustrated with your day job, and you decide to grab a spade and remove that pebble. Then you realized something — it’s not a pebble. You have been kicking over a tip of a warhead every single morning. What went wrong?”
What Dr Yew was trying to make me understand was the question of what we should do when we find ourselves at the cul-de-sac of our search. He was also trying to point out that the answers could be where we are not looking at, even when they are obvious and placed in front of us more often than we think.
"""
Dr Yew to Me: When nothing works, what do you do?Me: I had been thinking about that. I have been wondering how to change my mind on the way I see things. The solution should be there, but I just can't see it.Dr Yew to Me: Stop looking at it ! It's not there! When nothing works, you go back to your hypothesis. What do you do when you can't find the answers after exhaustive search? Have you read Sherlock Holmes? Revisit your assumptions.
- 2015-02.14Dr Yew: For 20 years, if everyday you keep working on the Manhattan project wonder why it never worked, and you keep kicking over the pebble on the road till the foot of your shoe is worn out, you don't realize it is the nuclear warhead buried just right in front of your lab, yet you ignored it. Tell me what went wrong? This is how the common average fool is. The answer is there, but they ignored it. - 2015-02.14"""When nothing works, go back to your hypothesis, go back and revisit your assumptions. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"""A mathematician will recognize Cauchy, Gauss, Jacobi, of Helmholz after reading a few pages, just as musicians recognize from the first few bars of Mozart or Beeth. — AnonymousDiscovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought. — Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (Hungarian Biochemist, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1893–1986)
Timely Rain
The first time I met Uncle Si Ren was a rainy night, I was stranded outside a shop. He offered me some hot tea and a pastry. I was reluctant to take it as I was careful with strangers as a little boy. I gave the excuse that I was having digestive issues. Uncle Si Ren smiled and understanding the subliminal meaning, he broke part of the pastry and ate it himself, and said the taste isn’t too great. He pointed to the phone nearby and asked me to call my parents to inform them my whereabouts. He emptied another tin cup and poured part of the drink and offered the drink to me. I took the other cup instead. He laughed and started to drink, then said “you think the cup is not clean?” He was indicating that I was thinking that the other cup could be tainted, and demonstrated by eating and drinking the food himself, he could vindicate himself. Every move he made was so calculated, I had to re-assess him further.
“I was kicked out of home”, I told uncle Si Ren, keeping my sad glance away from him.
Uncle Si Ren showed me his driving license, and pointed to his address on the card. “I lived there”, he pointed to the address and then to the direction of a building at a distance. He handed me an umbrella and said, “I have to go home and check that my boys are not making trouble, knock at my house anytime. My boys will like to have new friends”. He handed me some money, and stood up to leave.
I rejected the money, and was reluctant to make a request if I could have a place to stay just for a night, “would it be possible …?”
“… you can stay with my boys anytime you want, and for however long you like. Would you like to come and just meet them at least. They are more well-behaved with new faces, so you really can spare me the headache for today”, uncle Si Ren offered before I could complete my reluctant request.
That was our first encounter, and his “sons” became close friends with me over the months. I learned that night that the boys were actually all fostered. They all came from troubled homes. Uncle Si Ren was a retired lawyer, and over the next few years he taught us how to manage situations through the cases he had handled in the past. Sometimes, he would give us the case studies to simulate investigation and court sessions. He taught us cross-examinations and negotiations with people of complicated backgrounds. He taught me the principle of consistency and how to build trust based on the integrity you live by.
The streets of the yesteryears were unsafe, and many kids I grew up with did not end up well. Most of the time, our destiny is decided by the place we are born to, and the people we meet. No situation is absolute, no single person is good or bad. They are all limited, and all these may confine to be the limits on who we may be becoming. However, the people we meet and the situations we are given become the teachers of life to guide us to walk towards the future we will choose. Uncle Si Ren was a man of talent, he was considered an eccentric who took actions to patrol the streets. He wasn’t the only person on the street that night, but he was a very different character. Whether he was a good man of probity or not, I do not think even his eulogy would be able to make that pellucid conclusion. He was loved by his clients, but he was seen as mendacious and hated by those his clients had won the cases against. As my teacher, through every subtle bonhomie way he carried himself, and every clear lesson he guided me, he showed me that most apposite communications and the most profound lessons are non-verbal.
Emotion is the primary language of the subconscious mind. The words and pictures are the steering wheel, they set the direction, but emotion is the gas pedal. Emotion is the factor that determines how much power the suggestions will have. Some of the communicational suggestions are subtle and wordless.The Goblins
There were some stateless refugees who left their hometown due to political instability. Obtaining work permits were a problem for them as they were not well-defined or provided by the legal system. Things were harder when they were already past their prime of age.
In the day, they sustained as odd job laborers. When the night falls, they come together to put their crafts to work. Furniture refurbishing orders came from many business owners. They were extremely deft with their finesse and stealth in their operations. This was almost 4 decades ago, but these few old grumpy ‘goblins’ worked like wonders. They got the Kanban and Kaizen to mastery then where people are still struggling like amateurs today. One of the old grandpas would be checking on which merchants to be trusted, making assessments of the furniture to be refurbished, quoting a price, and planning the secure means to procure the tools and materials for the work, and planned all the way to ensuring the delivery and collection of payments upon the quality review and acceptance during the closing the transaction. He had another sidekick to communicate constantly with the craft crew on what is possible and what is not to the level of expertise and facility available. The crew themselves were a tactical team to assure safe and clean processing, with constant monitoring of the work quality. I have never seen a workshop that is cleared up so well. Not a scent of varnish nor a sight of saw dust before the sun woke the next dawn. It is as if the workshop never existed.
“We don’t make mistakes”, bragged one of them, “we know what mistakes can lead to, we survived those, and we pay nightly tributes to our relatives who were not able to leave the turmoil. It would be unfair if we live with insouciance. We are given a life that was excluded from them. We have to live it sincerely.”
I like to sit and watch them work. You learn a lot when you get behind the scene and see how things are done in the kitchen, workshop or backstage. You hear a lot of life experiences in their bantering as they worked in their relaxed focus mode.
“In uncharted territory, do not be relying on anybody to advise, or to come and save you. ”, said another. “We depend on each other, but the currency of trust is hard earned and hard-kept.”
“What would be the most effective way for me to earn that trust?”, I asked.
“You come here to watch some boring goblins at work (us) often. It took the grumpiest of us all, old man Lai, quite a while to clear you. Someone vouched for you as a guarantor for you to see the backstage and that you will not share our trade secrets, so don’t make him lose his stake.”, said one of them.
Their modus operandi is a wonder, and the lessons benefited me through the years. It was not the system that made who they are, they are the system. The quality of the craftsmen is the fundamental determinant of their craft. They started with tooling on themselves first. The group culture was their first targeted work environment they built.
The anvil is not a platform of punishment, but when it hardens our mind, it should not harden our hearts. Adrift and dislodged from their home, these grumpy goblins never lost their sense of humor, nor had they lost their sense of hope and humanity to their bitter past. In fact, they requite it with clemency.
The Butterfly That Crosses The Ocean
I was attending a conference for martial arts. In one of the sessions, it quickly turned sour. I was unsure what happened, but this big sized mammoth was grabbing the collar of an elderly man, with another hand about to pound the sorry looking guy. The older man was apologizing profusely and attempting to explain his position. Many came forward to calm the situation. The tension was gradually resolved and the discourse continued. It was a common thing people may enter a direct aggression or passive aggressive stance when it comes to difference in the opinion of martial arts, and the circle is filled with all sorts of people from all walks of life.
My friend had asked me to come to meet a teacher whom he claimed to be undefeatable. This is something or someone I like to see.
“Meet Shifu Schmetterling, he is the Kungfu wonder I had been talking about.” Karl gestured to introduce the old man.
What is with this person that my unyielding, boisterous friend was so impressed with to an extent of amorous admiration, I wondered. Karl is another eccentric character that has little respect for people, but a deep passion for the weaker. Was it sympathy? That was my first thought, but that crude friend of mine is too brutally blunt and candid. Karl spends his weekends meeting people. He does not like protestors whom he called “noise makers with little real work”. “Ask them to do the real work, and they will never turn up. I have never seen them cleaning the streets or feeding the sick. You hear more of their clamor and see none of their work”, he cursed. I thought to myself that there must be something more to this old man that had won so much deep respect from Karl.
I dragged myself grudgingly in skepticism for a training with them on another wintery Sunday. The old teacher assigned his student, Frank, to train with me in the first session, and he proceeded to work with other students.
To my amazement, Frank trapped both my arms and struck me with a light jab. He apologized swiftly, and said he had not mastered the control of his precision striking yet. I adjusted my defense, and he managed to breach it again, trapping both my arms, and striking me with swift precisions on the vital points. I winced in pain, but quickly ignored it, and demanded for the explanation than the apology. That can’t be an accident. I stood back and asked him to walk me through his methods and reflexes. If his student is that good, his teacher must be far beyond that mark. But why did he back off from that excessive intimidation at the conference? Nonetheless, I was determined for a discipleship under this guy.
In one of the training sessions, it was held at an open park. I arrived later that day due to office work. When I was about to finish changing to my training gear, a group of thugs came to make trouble. Shifu Schmetterling was too old, and it was visible from a distance, it was not just a few bulky thugs, it was quite a big mob of more than ten. I had to tie my shoes fast and rush to his aid. What astounded me was that, by the time I lifted my head from the clumsy shoe tying rush, the fight was over. All the thugs were down. I went over and asked what had happened, and all the students said it was the old teacher. The thugs were notorious in the neighborhood. The Polizei (German Police) were no strangers to the troublemakers. It was not the first time they had collected them in cuffs. I could not give them any helpful statement as I did not see anything. Everything happened too fast and too suddenly. The Polizei looked at us with disbelief and left in frustration.
Shifu Schmetterling was the East Heretic (东邪-黄药师) of our time. The butterfly had wings of utterly 2 different facades and facets. The eccentric was impatient with people, but conducted himself with enduring camouflage. He was clearly obsessive with knowledge and martial arts, a taciturn curmudgeon, and a recluse heretic that fluttered among the crowd unseen.
Over the months, I learned more about Shifu Schmetterling. He was more than what we prematurely judged prima facie. This old eccentric had secrets shrouded unfathomably deep and away from the common eye. He was careful to share techniques and only impart to a few of whom he was confident of rectitude. He spoke little, and watched his students Argus-eyed from his side glances.
Do not use your fists just because it is too easy for you. Keep your hands behind you, do no harm, but have your eyes watching around you at all times. One day, you will become a teacher yourself. Impart the heart before you impart the fists. — Shifu Schmetterling
The high level of martial arts is to attain paedomorphism. The flesh should be young like a child's, and he shall return to the days of his youth. The heart races like a youthful antelope, his mind keen, curious and mischievous. His breath is filled with giggles and laughter. He sleeps with a calmed and quieted soul, like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is his soul within him. This is the sign of psyche and physique attainment. - Re: Art of Esoteric Rejuvenation, (童子功, tóng zǐ gōng), 2005-01.03I am a controversial documentary, you have to watch it till the end. - 2011-10.03
¸.•*”Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ”*•¸
The General From The Ghost Valley
Old Francis was a grumpy old man, but he read and knew the heart of men. This old ogre was my grandfather. Francis’ children had never forgiven him for abandoning them during the war time. This utterly envenomed their relationship which never found reconciliation to the end of their story. He had been in bitter relations with his own family, but his students love him. Even close to a century after his death, they still gather to commemorate him. Old Francis was also part of a centenarian club, and he played the survival game with centenarians world wide, sometimes sending post cards to a few challenging them to push the years ahead. A cynic and curmudgeon he was, but quite a secretive, passionate and compassionate one.
My grandfather warned me never to trust 4 kinds of people:
1. politicians
2. businessmen
3. lawyers
4. actorsI asked him, "Why actors?"He replied, "we all know that the 1st 3 has self-interests, and will sell you any poison to get you to believe their profits, but the actor, s/he is actually hidden in all of them - and the most skilled actor is never real - and so good in his work that even he can't tell who of himself and what is real anymore ... "
Years later, I realized what he was trying to say, especially when I heard of the concept of “虎度门”.
- 1990After you learn deception, forget it, don't use it.
Learn forms and formations, and you will comprehend strategy. After you learn strategy, forget it. Only then can you begin to become the Way.
在学会诈门后, 把它给忘弃，不要使用.
学阵法阵形奇门变式, 将理解战法. 战法之后, 弃之. 只有这样，才能为道。- 曾家3层次 - 计,战,道
- Grandfather to Mi'kail, aged 15, 1990The family is a lineage of logicians who are merely deriving a means of 算计 (计算算计). - Re: 曾家兵法 五绝,五要,五害"""
技, 计 (jì, jì, skill, tactic, technique, calculation, management, planning and governance, 计划 jì huà) versus 计 (jì, deception): You need not deceive if you have the real skills and have nothing lacking. If for what you lack, you have counterfeit or fake to make it, it is flimsy grounds you are on.
战 (zhàn, stratagems, strategy and methodology)
道 (dào, rationality and clarity)
"""
Old Francis was probably the last in his line of family unspoken secrets. If it hadn’t been the bitter pitting of horns of the 2 old men between my father and my grandfather, I wouldn’t have found out the long trail of family stories. The 2 old ogres were sending letters filled with venomous diatribe against each other. They allow me to read their letters, and it is quite a read with quite a help from the dictionary. Their choice of words were deadly acrid and economic to preserve the concision to target the most direct and worst of insults.
I know the 2 old men were using me as the post man. Hover, over those years, I gained the trust of Old Francis. Especially, when my step grandmother was gravely ill. I was there every single day. She left her last message to him to treat me differently from the rest of the grandchildren. It was then he began to open his past and some of the hidden troves to me. He shared with me his experiences and accounts of the past how he survived as a prisoner of war, and how he managed an organization as a former CEO of a company post-war.
Old Francis revealed a shocking story, and I began to realize how simple matters caused such an irreconcilable rift between people, even when they are family. The story is much more complicated and long in history. What I got more importantly are the lessons. The old eccentric was so secretive, he did not allow me to write down, but to commit to memory. He made me memorized formulas and narrated the applications.
My forefathers were known for winning wars. Francis imparted the methodologies to some of us extremely selectively. Kings used their doctrines to take over empires, and kings ignored their doctrines and ended in downfalls. We have seen enough foolish history. I re-codify a thesis to win peace. We can resolve hatred and misery, by building hope and compassion. Humanity can use it to build hope and happiness, or humanity can ignore it and continue the hell they want to wallow on with.
In one of his constant reminders was what I termed as ‘Francis’ law. He had stated on the possibility of finding people who are progressive. In a letter to a friend, I wrote:
Out of 1000 people, as observed, Pareto law applies, there are ~200 willing, and a 50% fall-out or hardly passing the minimal mark of P1. That leaves us ~100 surviving entities from the game which is serving as an oracle. Yet the proactive and self-evolving are less than 10, and 2 pressed forward. Strangely, I see similar with the other 4 groups of 1000, some collected by Yves and others. And in many samples, there are 10 self-evolving, and 0 pressing forward. Hence, ~50 proactive out of ~5000, and ~ 4 in self-mastery. That means, 1% P1 | P2 people, and 0.06% to 0.08% potential P3 humans. That coincidence with Francis’ law where he cynically stated that 99.99% of the humans are useless, and only 0.01% is worthy. 10000 humans and we can only find 1. 1 million, we refined 100. We have crossed 5000, and we got 3 or 4 after grueling extraction, and we hardly reached P3 yet.
- Re: Fermi estimation of non-P0 humans, ‘Francis’ law is correct’, 2020The Francis’ enrichment condition critical phenomenon - the likely around 0.1% to 0.001%, or lesser in some cases, of the exceedingly superior essence to the outside norm giving the illusion that the entirety is premium under the exclusivity of the membership of the organization, institution or country, e.g. Ivy league, recruitment from top companies like google, visa work permit holders who are just `IT janitors`, etc (therein, explaining the `imposter syndrome` and `Dunning-Kruger effect`). Though Pareto stated that it is 80-20, but through many instances, just like in Uranium enrichment, very rare few are the critical essence. This is the same for humans who have that will and wit to act, and make that difference. Hence, mining for such essence is critical to create that progress, for a significant decisive event (juncture) or push a civilization over a dawn of an era.Francis’ law starts at people who have the will to turn the tide. This is my definition for P4, which Francis had said that in 10,000, there is likely only 1. Yet for every factor level, there should be 1, i.e. 10^N:1, because indeed today, we have seen 1 P5 human to show that this is possible. - Re: Elaboration on Francis' Law, 2021-02.1199.99% of the wretched human race live in vain, don't be part of the percentile. - Re: Bullet around the neck, 2008-09.07In my family, suggesting to men to marry rich women is a common insult to suggest the chauvinistic inadequacy of manhood, and is a taboo even to be used as a joke, however it is astounding to know that it is an accepted agenda and avowed ambition in our shameless and spineless society. - to Daniel H., 2008-08.22The strategist is the one who can see the crux and crucible, the others see none. It is always our blindspot against the opponent. - 1989My grandfather never allowed me to write down what he told me, though I did pen them down by memory discreetly from his teachings. He even once threatened me that if I were reveal the family methodologies, he would cast me out of the family records. They used to call every new year to check for newborns in the family to be recorded into the tree records. One day, he sat quietly, and said out of the blue that even if I do, no one will be able to learn it. He stated "even if you read the art of war a 100x, and memorized all the military classics, you will never be a strategist, because you have to be a '<our family surname>'". Initially, I thought that it is a bigoted claim. However, years later, I gradually begin to understand what he meant. You can't just read and learn strategy, it is not something you know, but something you become. It is in the upbringing. You have to be brought up by a general to be a general. - 2004My grandfather once told me, you don’t have to be the mightiest, if you are in a tribe that are supportive, akin silk worms, if you put them together, they give very fine weave. However, even if you are dragons with very formidable fighting will, if you are like spiders, each may make very powerful silk and web, but if you put them to work together you get only 1 spider. They eat each other up. - 2000
It took me years to realize what Francis taught me was right, and I named the observed phenomenon — Francis’ law.
P0: exist
P1: sound and sufficient
P2: concrete, rigorous and resilient
P3: towards completeness
* The `P` are Phases according to 100 day game.
"""
HQEP (Human Quality Enrichment Program)
find the 0.1% and refine them into 0.01% ... 0.001%
1/1000: willing but not able - P1
1/10,000: willing, able, benevolent, but lack resources, lack courage, will to act in the moment - P2
1/100,000: general level (able, integrity, courage, benevolent, will to act, may lack resources) - elite level - P3 (managing: improvise, adapt, overcome)
1/1,000,000 (0.0001%): formidable level - P3.5
"""We came from a line of strategists. In my family, we have a common phase — everyday we ask “下一步应该怎么走?”. Every move is calculated. I kept asking my father and grandfather why only our families are trained and drilled to handle crises, they kept saying, families that never went into crisis will remain ignorant. We are militarized because we were at the front of history and battles.
I begin to understand why it is so difficult to eradicate this war-like nature from my family. It was historical and history is still in the currency. If our war-like nature is to be abandoned, justice must 1st be established and installed.
I'm chanting the drill everyday in my mind, and refining it along the way. Like in the movie 'dirty dozen', so that when things happen I don't think. It's just : step 1 - go!; step 2 - go! ... My grandfather said it's like training war horses, the thinking should be done before not during. According to our family history, people can't think when it happens. - 2013-04.09"""
2 words for the lay person: Act. Now.
5 more words for the strategist: Think. Test. Plan. Monitor. Control.
- 2011-11.23
"""Not passion, but perspicacity, tenacity, fortitude, rectitude, strategy - strategic men, machines, methods. - 2017-03.26
My late father used to make me memorize the dictionary since I was 9. When he died, they placed 1 of the dictionaries in his coffin. They did the same for my grandfather.
The 2 old men may had had their differences, but they came from the same line. I hear the same tone when my father reminded me about life and crisis management. Years later, I released some notes written from the lessons taught my father. It is irony how people turn out against the lost opportunity. If given a chance, I would mend their brokenness. I really would. The lessons were taught early, but were understood too late.
The mightiest soldier may bring down a walled city, but without faith, he can never go beyond his grave. The mightiest fighter may remained undefeated, but without a fellowship, he can never united the world. — FrancisMake the generals conceited and the soldiers timid. There is only 1 place bigots can lead cowards to — doom. — Re: Attenuating the enemies’ lines, 2005-06.16Never leave a wounded soldier behind, even if you have to advance on a mission, cache him safely, ensure sufficient provisions and remedy, and make plans to collect him later. In this way, you do not lose manpower, nor do you lose confidence from your soldiers. — 2006-01.13When a soldier gets killed in the battle field, the general is at fault. — 2002-06.21"""
Back in the days where letters and news were delivered by messengers from the battlefields, villagers gathered to get tidings of their fathers, sons and brothers at the front line.
After the post man left, a lady was weeping bitterly. "What happened to you? We heard you son is doing fine. He is not part of the obituary list", inquired another woman. "In fact, he is under the camp of a great general, who eat the same with the men, slept on the ground, and fought along side with the troops. They all love their leader dearly."The lady did not relent her tears and insisted, "you don't understand"."We heard that when your son was wounded by the poison arrow, the general was the one who sucked out the poison. He was there to tend to him for nights until his fever breaks, and he nursed your son to recovery personally. How could you have no faith in such a strong general?", another woman remonstrated.The lady cried even more bitterly and said, "you don't understand, my husband was also wounded in the battle, and the same general cared for him. My husband was so indebted, and to repay that kindness, he fought valiantly to his death. I am sure my son will surely see his end very soon."
"""Love your soldiers, and they will cross the wildest rivers, enter the deadliest killing fields, follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon your soldiers as your own beloved children, and they will stand by you and have the willingness to die for you. ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
The Reader Of Tomorrow’s Newspaper
As a younger man I had very low opinion of soothsayers, I used to term them as — warm-reading con-artists. I had sought the teachings of magicians to understand their cozenage. There was this middle aged eccentric who hung around a bar, and was hardly sober. People came from places to seek his ‘divination’ and they were only allowed one question. That bar made money no matter the outcome of the ‘reading’. He was known to be infallible. People would buy drinks to celebrate or get drinks to drown their sorrows.
The only two things we knew about him was that he said he was waiting for someone, and he claimed that the fengshui of the place was a good place for slumber. Some commented that he claimed the place increased some “psychic powers” or longevity, but no one knew the specifics.
I wasn’t convinced, but as one of the agile guys in the group, the boys dragged me along. My usual prank may be to cause some embarrassment to charlatan. I wasn’t keen on reading the future. He made the first prediction about the oldest kid in our group then, stating that he will made his first million before 28. That kid bought a right to franchise years later, and indeed that very year, he earned his first and only million.
Beidou wasn’t keen, perhaps it was written on his face. He pulled his hand, and suddenly, he knelt down, and exclaimed, “the making of a king !” I thought he was really drunk and likely wasn’t very sane either. He continued, “you will have many women”, and he mumbled to “tend to at least 3 — you say good night”. The boys laughed as they knew Beidou was rough kid, but he was conservative. He won’t even hold a girl’s hand. I laughed too, and thought then that the ‘reader’ was incoherent. He warned him that he had to be wary at a certain age, and he asked him to stay clear of women nonetheless, as there will be “too many”. He continuing making statements about the others, years later, according to the boys, it all came true. The soothsayer read the boys, except he refused to read for one — Lawrence.
Lawrence was infuriated and called him a charlatan. The soothsayer turned around suddenly, grabbed his hand and said, “look here, you can’t passed 21”. Lawrence had leukemia. One week before his 21st birthday, he said “all i need to do is to survive this week, and that charlatan is wrong”. Lawrence died two days before his birthday.
We went back to the bar. They said it went bankrupted after the soothsayer had left the place. He was never seen again. As for the prediction on Beidou, he told me a girl broke his heart. Another friend said Beidou went berserk and had many affairs. He was trying to salvage an emotional wreckage by rebuilding a relationship, but every time the relationship left him cold. I guessed Beidou should have heeded his warning. Beidou shared a joke later that a lady friend explained to him that some girls do like “wurst”, but they will never bring the pig home.
The eccentric saw through the hearts of men to the deep depths of their darkest yearns. He was perhaps merely preying on their hearts, all he did was to expose them. Telling them what they wanted to hear or what they are afraid to admit, and instilling onto them self-fulfilling prophecies. For sure, fortune telling is fascinating and provocative to many for a reason. To the common average bland life yearning for a taste of spiced significance, it falls outside normal experience —and it leads them to follow a peculiar and unexpected logic — to the one they hope for. They wish deeply that that the `reader` would deliver them a fantasy, and they wanted him to succeed — so badly.
A `privileged voyeurism into the future` or did the `reader` could have had planted a subliminal Pygmalion effect (aka Rosenthal effect) and led his audience paint their own pareidolia and aphonenia along the way? Was it really a divine forecast or did everyone just dance to his spell-bound?
If you know the seeds, you will know the fruits. — Francis to Mi'kail"""
A: 「你未看此花时，此花与汝心同归于寂。你来看此花时，则此花颜色一时明白起来」- 王阳明, 《传习录》 “When you haven’t seen this flower, this flower and your heart are in solitude. When you see this flower, the color of this flower will become clear for that moment.”- Wang Yangming, Chuan Xi recordsMe: No, this is not quantum observation. Misquoting this is yet another quantum spiritualism.
"""My father said he wanted to strike my grandfather when he knew he was dying. I walked him to the hospital that day. He even wanted to strangle him on his last breath. He said he wanted to at least slap him for abandoning him but he couldn't. He sat there weeping. I saw a boy with his father on his deathbed - I saw that boy before he was dragged to the front to kill people. - 2018Why is the life line there (pointing at the palm)? It is in the palm of your hands. You can decide. - 1989
Epilogue
Eccentrics are not able to communicate universal experience with experience understanding, their life experiences are anomaly. The everyday people are unlikely to take an indepth view into their world and extract insights.
For years, they walked among us, misunderstood, or rather, un-understood. They are known as the ‘mad man’, and the unkind adjectives labelled them as ‘weird’, ‘crazy’, ‘mad’, ‘strange’, etc. Yet these eccentrics may delight for these descriptions. They may have realized that perhaps the common average is insane as they stood aloof to observe the things they do. They might have also realized and understood that they are more in control of their own paths. Insanity is but the lack of control of human will. Anger, for instance, is a form of insanity. The failure to acknowledge or accept the reality of human mental flaws is the worst insanity of all. Logic flaws is insanity, that’s why we called some software and hardware checks — sanity test. However, the common people get over emotionally, and somewhat riled up over this word.
The recluse finance whiz gave up on communicating with people who are poor at listening. He spent his nights talking to the fish and shrimps. The aging tracker left a trail of tales where few who chance the same path add the nuances to the colors, yet many others would give a miss to that discreet gateway that awaits for those to explore. The taciturn magician may still sit at the corner, unknown to many who walked past him, calling for technical help desk. All it requires is to ask a different question, but few ever would. The wizard continues to walk shadowless among mortals, and secrets may be buried with him one day, until another room 3327 becomes a historical epic realized too late. No one can tell for sure, if the next rainy night harbors a storm or a comforting drizzle. No one knows if there will be a rainbow after the storm. Demons and angels roam the streets, but what if they are both, and it depends how the quantum measurement is done? A good lesson can be badly learned, the same for a bad teacher who may set as a good reason for social reform needed. Eccentrics can come together, and they gathered for a reason. They may be a product of chaos, and when they are swept to our shores, they bring with them a tale of a storm afar that may one day visit us. It is better that we learn to listen early. Butterflies can’t cross oceans, but it may be because we have never seen a ‘black swan’, and we think that name is only given to long range avian, or perhaps we mistook and misplaced them for Lepidoptera in the first place. All these have been hidden from plain sight, because we did not look into the hearts of people, and truly understand them or win them. We assumed we know, but let them walk past our lives unseen, unknown, unheard, unappreciated and unloved.
Perhaps, I should play Dolphus Raymond from the book 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' by Harper Lee. - 2003-03.28I may seem weird to most, but have anyone ever wonder that if I may be Duddits? Sadly, most people won't even find out who or what "Duddits" means? - 2017-01.13
1. Reasons Why We Fail
2. What Is Required To Succeed
3. The Mistakes That Most People Never Learn
4. What They Do Not Teach You
5. Common Bad Advice
6. How Positive Thinking Can Hurt You
7. Objective Positivism
8. What Should One Do In Their 20s To Avoid Regrets In Their 30s And 40s
9. Why Your Will Your Drive Your Wit And Any Of Your Ways Will Fail You
10. Set Yourself Started And Going
11. Fail Fast, Fail Functionally, Fail Forward
12. Tansformative Shifts The 1% Fulcrum On The 20–80 Pareto
13. Chaining The Behavioral Butterfly Effect
14. Are You With The Right People Or Just Lost With The Wrong Crowd
15. When Life Is Too Much For Us To Bear
16. Engineering Hope
17. How To Look For Your Purpose — The Search For An Elixir
18. Questions That Can Re-write Your Fate
19. Your Intent Writes Your Life
20. Lessons From The Eccentrics
21. In Pursuit Of Virtues And Values
22. The Expedition
23. The Alchemy Of Time Fate And Kairos
24. Things I Learned Along The Way