From: johnny moral (johnnymoral@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Jun 20 2003 - 05:21:23 BST
Hi Pi,
Funny, I was just driving home ten minutes ago, feeling exhilherated with
the way i could get my little four cylinder toyota to jump off the line with
just the right mixing of clutch and gas, leaving the other cars biting my
dust. And I started thinking about what is usually just a unthinking
clutch/gas movement. I could have just doen it the unthinking way (read:
driven reasonably), but I decided to try to do it perfectly, maximizing my
acceleration, without any tire slippage or squal or bogging down the engine.
So even after the movements become zen to you (I've been driving standards
for 20 years) there is still more to perfect, more to think about. More to
shift to the biological level from the intellectual.
I think you are hitting on the "ritual is the way to see quality (and keep
seeing quality)" topic. And it made me realize that even zen monks who seem
to have gotten their lives totally shifted over into almost biological
patterns still have stuff to think about, they get to think about getting
even better at the things they do. It never occured to me as I watched
monks pray, but maybe they are trying to perfect it? I thought they were
just trying to internalize it so they could forget it and think about other
things, by making as much invisible about their daily lives as possible.
Making it invisible is analogous to making it biological. But, as I
experienced tonight, there's still more to see, more to think about, in
perfecting things, getting better. Not all the time, but every once in a
while, when they want to feel exhilerated.
Johnny
ps: yeah buy a standard. the only downside is taliking on a cell phone and
drinking a coffee at the same time you have to shift, but if no one is in
the other lane, it is worth it.
>From: Pi <pi@mideel.ath.cx>
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>Subject: MD Automatic or standard transmission?
>Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 22:33:30 +0000 (GMT)
>
>Hello all. Curious about the subject line? :) Don't worry, this message is
>not off-topic.
>
>I am in the process of thinking which car to purchase when the time of
>purchase rolls by. I typically plan important purchases to death and this
>is no exception. So, I am looking at a certain sporty car, thinking if I
>should go for an automatic transmission or just the standard, and I found
>myself applying MoQ, as usual. Before I continue, let me point out that I
>have absolutely no experience driving a standard transmission car. But I
>am considering it because of the fun factor.
>
>I was wondering what happens when I usually drive. After a certain
>learning stage is over, I never consciously think about the actions I do
>while driving the car. I do not think about braking, turning, signaling,
>etc. Heck, when driving down a regular path, I don't even think of the
>direction. It is like I am a passenger and the driver at the same time.
>I would think that the intellectual patterns of how to drive a car have
>slowly shifted away from being intellectual patterns to some lower static
>pattern (perhaps biological)! It is just like walking or openning a door.
>Once you have 'become good' at doing those things, you automatically do
>them. You don't have to think about them. In fact, as an experiment, try
>to think about every little movement you do while openning a door and then
>do it. You may find that you forget steps! It happens to me.
>
>Getting back to the car... my thought is that just like how driving an
>automatic car, walking, closing and openning a door etc. have become
>non-intellectual static patterns for me, over some time, why wouldn't a
>standard transmission car become a non-intellectual pattern either?
>Someone suggested that standard cars are annoying to drive through heavy
>traffic (because of the amount of shifting), but so is walking through a
>crowd if you think about every little movement you take.
>
>I would appreciate your thoughts on my theory about shifting of static
>patterns. Thoughts from people who drive standard transmission regularly
>would also be appreciated. ;)
>
>Cheers,
>
>- Pi
>
>--
>Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
>
>
>
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