I haven't blogged for ages. My dedicated, though disappointed followers may have noticed. So there will be two questions in your mind, I'm sure. Firstly, why have I been away for so long? Secondly, what has prompted this resurgence in blogging?
I shall try to answer both questions in one go and therefore introduce today's blog. A message popped up in my inbox the other day. Someone with the curious name of Anonymous had posted a comment in my previous blog saying:
"Only just read this. Sounds Like You Think WAYY too much?"
Now, ignoring the excess of Ys in way, what is man to do when he receives such a comment? I'll tell you what he does. He sits and thinks about it. And do you know, Anonymous is right. Which led me to thinking some more. Is all this thinking a good or bad thing? I don't mean procrastination for its own sake, that's not healthy. I mean proper thinking with potential results. I remember back to when I was working in electronic communications and we used to have technical meetings with technical people that would last 6 or 7 hours at a time. At the time, we had a contractor working with us, we shall call him Paul (largely because that was his name). We would sit in the meeting discussing a particular issue and Paul would sit there saying nothing. Thinking. You could see the man think. He would even graze on the limp sandwiches that were wheeled in thoughtfully. Then, about 15 minutes from the end of the meeting, he would get to his feet, cutting across the meeting, armed with a white board marker pen and sketch out the entire solution that no-one else was close to after 6 hours of talk. Right, thanks Paul, meeting over. That's some good thinking.
Then there is the other sort of good thinking. I'm talking Plato, Socrates, Voltaire, and any other philosopher that comes to mind. Great thinkers. I may have found my perfect career. These guys just sat and philosophised. They thought for a living. They came up with great perceived wisdom. And the very best thing; you could be terribly vague and because of the hypothetical nature of the business, you won't be proved wrong. Or if you are you can counter it by being philosophical.
These people also spawned many quotes that you may have come across at some time, in closing, let me share a couple with you:
“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do” (Voltaire)
"Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself." (Plato)
And, finally, from one of the greatest thinkers of all time "Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?" (Winnie The Pooh)
A Year in the Pub
11 months ago
