News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The Myth of Commoditized Excellence. Parent comment

Re:The Myth of Commoditized Excellence by suls on Thursday October 03, 2019 @10:03AM (#21147038)
Not sure if it is a coincidence you mentioning both technology and motorcycles in the same post. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is basically a book about exactly this (and much more of course). You might find something in there as well ..
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Myth of Commoditized Excellence by mikelyons on Thursday October 03, 2019 @12:18PM (#21148691)
This book came with great reviews and still managed to exceed my expectations.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Myth of Commoditized Excellence by rabidrat on Thursday October 03, 2019 @12:54PM (#21149085)
On the downside though, one of the main characters is murdered in the epilogue for no reason. A most unsatisfying denouement.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Myth of Commoditized Excellence by mikelyons on Thursday October 03, 2019 @01:50PM (#21149774)
I must have missed this part!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Myth of Commoditized Excellence by kragen on Friday October 04, 2019 @10:25AM (#21158013)
Chris hadn't been murdered yet when the first edition of the book came out.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Myth of Commoditized Excellence by dwcnnnghm on Thursday October 03, 2019 @05:10PM (#21152260)
I'm not sure if you mean that the murder was mentioned without reason or if Chris was the victim of a murder without reason. I think it's a bit unclear in the writing style (at least it was to me) that the book is a real story, about a real experience: and so it was terribly sad but (IMO) necessary to mention. Pirsig wrote about an important journey he took with his son and closed it with a mention of the end of Chris' life [0].

To anyone reading this thread, I also recommend Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals [1] by the same author. It's set some time after Zen, as the author struggles with the exact topic of the OP (the fame of the book and the challenges against his "Metaphysics of Quality" [2] that he introduces in Zen). He expands on the idea a bit more and goes into some unclear details from Zen. I thought it was an excellent book, maybe even better than the first.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Personal_life

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lila-Inquiry-Robert-M-Pirsig/dp/05532...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirsig%27s_Metaphysics_of_Qual...

[ Parent | on HN ]