22.2.2007 von kirsten.

After a bit on the road in Nürnberg and Weißenburg (South of Germany — picturesque, rural, blue skies, green meadows, an interesting job, and a visit to a friend http://www.axelcaspary.de/), I’m back home in the office … home on the range, home in the office (I challenge you to ponder that one).

Speaking about pondering things — here are two books that are absolutely brilliant, silly, ingenious, dumb, deep (*gg*), fun:

Astonish Yourself — 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life by Roger-Pol Droit

Very interesting experiments like “crying in the cinema” (I recommend “Titanic”), or “believing in the presence of a scent” (I recommend “the smell of your grandparents’ hallway”). I have no idea what this could be good for, but it’s interesting

http://www.amazon.com/Astonish-Yourself-Experiments-Philosophy-Everyday/dp/0142003131

And

This Book will Change your Life by Benrik

It makes you draw, jump, do lots of silly things (note the implication of agency here *gg*) — the perfect gift for someone who needs a little bit of devine pranksterhood in his or her life.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Book-Will-Change-Your/dp/0452284899/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/104-2175374-1621558

On that note … cu ’round (and square)

*silly today*

 Kirsten

Geschrieben in Allgemein | 1 Kommentar »

13.2.2007 von kirsten.

I’m sitting in the train station of Brussels, have just missed my train, and the next is not for 3 hours. I thought this was the 21st century, but, somehow, I must be mistaken. So I bought hideously expensive internet access *you probably can guess by now that I am not an entirely happy cookie*, read my emails and then thought, why not share with you a very interesting and amusing book:

Paul Strathern.  Dr. Strangelove’s Game: A Brief History of Economic Genius.  London: Penguin, 2001.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from it:

“Instability would appear to be fundamental to any such [financial] system, and it is arguably the very nature of how it works.”

Interesting when you view it from a complexity theory standpoint, I think. We cannot know everything about it, but we must still try and keep the international financial system from crashing somehow.

From Robert Owen, the founding father of the British trade unions who was one of the first to find out that happy and educated workers are more productive:

“Marriage is an unnatural crime [which] destroys the finest feelings and best powers of the species, by changing sincerity, kindness, affection, sympathy and pure love into deception, envy, jealousy, hatred and revenge…”

For those who wonder why I like this statement, remember I went to school in Berkeley … and, like Owen, I am married …

and on a more serious, discursive note:

“Money did not have a self, it had a function. Money wasn’t pieces of gold, or even the things for which they could be exchanged. It wasn’t a thing, it was a action … Money should be regarded as a verb, not a noun.”

(This is Stathern taking about John Law, the person to invent paper money)

Have fun with these…

Kirsten

Geschrieben in Allgemein | Keine Kommentare »

11.2.2007 von kirsten.

Just yesterday, I posted the video-clip with my interview with Prof. Rom Harré (http://solutionsacademy.com/videos.htm) on the solutions in organisations mailing list (Solution Focused practice with organisations [SOLUTIONS-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM]) and my webstatistics show me that already 165 people saw it!!

Maybe you would like a few book tips, too

Harré, Rom and Michael Tissaw. Wittgenstein and Psychology. Ashgate, 2005.

(Great introduction on Wittgenstein — not a “page-turner” or easy read, but really clear)

Harré, Rom. Key Thinkers in Psychology. Sage, 2005.

(A concise and interesting summary and evaluation of the most important thinkers in psychology in the 20th century — very good as a reference work!)

Geschrieben in Allgemein | Keine Kommentare »

10.2.2007 von kirsten.

These are Kirsten’s musings on Solution Focus, Philosophy and the world at large.
For more information on SolutionsAcademy look at

http://www.solutionsacademy.com

Geschrieben in Allgemein | Keine Kommentare »