School of Curiosity
Explore. Dream. Discover.
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Aqua libra
September 6, 2012
We’ve had one of the wettest summers anyone in the UK can remember. We’ve had a lot of time to moan about the rain. Next time you feel the need to grumble about the tumble of precipitation, just remember – the person you love is 72.8% water.
Have a curious day.
Suki Wabi Sabi
September 5, 2012
Three Japanese tenets….
Suki: Subtle elegance. The attraction of the idiosyncratic or unusual. The primitive monk, a mysterious object, an obscure agricultural tool. Suki is the fascination exerted by the unknown and unfamiliar.
Wabi: Tranquil simplicity. The intrinsic quality of colours and materials, forms and textures. Plain clay pots, woven baskets, a shell pendant. Wabi is the spirit of poverty, appreciation of the commonplace, the fine line which precariously separates beauty from shabbiness.
Sabi: Patina of age. The enhancement of the ravages of time. The castle ruin, the armless statue. Subi is when age, wear and tear, bring something to the very threshold of demise.
We like this.
Have a curious day.
Cracked it!
September 4, 2012
Isn’t it amazing how often new ideas are simply whacky combinations of a couple of old ideas? Australian rugby player Matt King was watching a game of backyard cricket a few years back. He noticed that his sister always struggled to handle a wooden bat, so she grabbed a tennis racket to play her innings. He wondered why nobody has developed a cricket bat with strings and his friends told him he was mad. Years later he developed the Crackit. Not so stupid after all, in the first six months after its launch Australians bought 10,000 of them.
Sometimes 1+1 can equal 6.
Have a curious day.
The facts about the stats
September 3, 2012
Just in case you missed them, here are the all time top five posts on The School of Curiosity….
1. James Ward – he likes boring things
2. 50 things to do before you’re eleven and three quarters
4. Please stare
Have a curious day.
Dunking Proust
August 31, 2012
One afternoon in 1909 Marcel Proust dipped a biscuit into his tea. A small gesture, which triggered off a detailed recollection of past events and childhood memories. He put it all down in A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. Sometimes making a sudden connection between the similar or the disparate illuminates the memory.
What is that brings your memories flooding back?
Have a curious day.
How to be happy
August 30, 2012
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/14116188 w=400&h=300]
Yes, yes, I know. I’ve already posted this one, but it is so beautiful that I am unashamedly posting it again. Since last time, I’ve now taken to buying myself flowers once a week.
Try it.
Have a curious day.
What are you doing here?
August 29, 2012
There’s an anecdote about the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegard. He was standing rapt in thought in a municipal flower bed. An irate park keeper arrived and demanded to know what he was doing there.
“What are any of us doing here?” replied the sage.
Think about that. What are you doing here?
Have a curious day.
On imagination
August 28, 2012
Some thoughts on imagination…..
Imagination is the active ingredient of thinking
Imagination jumps from present facts to future possibilities
Imagination forms mental pictures of things not present
Imagination conceives of situations not yet in existence
Imagination conjures up correspondences and analogies
“What is now proved was once only imagined” William Blake.
Imagine that.
Have a curious day.
Workplace tourism
August 24, 2012
Yesterday I worked on a building site as a bricklayers labourer. I didn’t have to. I just wanted to get into someones else’s life for a moment to see what it was like. It was very hard physical labour for not very much reward.
Sometimes you just have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to realise how lucky you are. I’m a luck, lucky man. (The trouble is the bricklayer wants me to go back to work today).
Have a curious day.
What do you want to be doing?
August 23, 2012
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs words…..
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something”.
Have a curious day.