Why Russell Ackoff is ninja…

Here are the top three reasons why organizational theorist Russell Ackoff is ninja:

-He is 90 years old

-In spite of being 90 years old, he is still relevant as a theorist

-Most importantly, he understands the nature of ultimate truth…that it is fundamentally resistant to being owned

If Ackoff was Buddhist, he would understand why all Buddhists must ultimately kill Buddha:

A guru produces disciples, and a discipline, and a doctrine,” he says. “If you are a follower of a guru, you don’t go beyond his thoughts, you accept his thoughts. He gives you the questions and the answers – it’s an end to thought. An educator is exactly the opposite,” he says. “You take off where he sets you up for the next set of questions. One is open-ended, the other is closed.

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We don’t call it consulting,” he states firmly. “We make a distinction between consulting and being an educator. A consultant goes in with a solution. He tries to impose it on a situation. An educator tries to train the people responsible for the work to work it out for themselves. We don’t pretend to know the way to get the answer.

If Bruce Lee was a b-school prof, he would look like Ackoff.

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Here’s a really interesting keynote Ackoff gave a while back on the difference between transformation and reformation and systems thinking…good stuff.

This is pretty geeky…but i like the idea

Although, applying light saber logic, shouldn’t these nunchucks vaporize his armpits and groin and hands?

(via geekologie)

Thurman on religious experience

Howard Thurman was a friend of MLK’s father at Morehouse College and eventually went on to mentor MLK and a number of other civil rights leaders.

Thurman is a compelling voice in terms of bringing mysticism back to the Christian experience.

Here he is talking about religious experience:

“Once a religion is stated in terms of dogma…it can become the source of propoganda, it has something, a handle.”

There are strong parallels to Thurman’s ideas on religious experience with Bruce Lee’s anti-style ideas behind JKD.

For Lee JKD was an evolving project that stay just one step ahead of formulation/reification:

Do remember, however, that “Jeet Kune Do” is merely a convenient name. I am not interested with the term itself; I am interested in its effect of liberation when JKD is used as a mirror for self-examination.

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On the religion front, Karen Armstrong is doing some interesting work in terms of mining religion for its power to transform behavior while avoiding the trappings of dogma and creed.

Here is her TED talk:

Parkour 1.0

Cool short

More robots fighting – be sure to watch this full screen.

World War was created by Vincent Chai for his final degree project whilst studying 3D Animation at the University Of Hertfordshire.

Vincent Chai portfolio:
vincentch20.co.uk/

Brains vs Braun

It’s a blockbuster night for the UFC on Saturday:

…Saturday night’s fight will be a spectacle, and deservedly so. The sport’s greatest living legend, the 45-year-old Randy Couture, takes on the enormous Brock Lesnar, a former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion who made a career in professional wrestling before returning to legitimate sport and giving MMA a try.

The 31-year-old Lesnar is a genetic freak of a man (6 ft 3 in/265) who you might recognize from WWE, ya, that’s right…World Wrestling Entertainment.

Couture is a class act…and at 45, the dude is in better shape than 99% of people half his age on the planet.

I think the long-time UFC ref says it best:

John McCarthy, who has worked as a referee in the sport since the second UFC event in 1994, calls the fight “The classic matchup — probably the most physically impressive man in mixed martial arts (Lesnar) going against the most mentally impressive man (Couture).”

It’s kind of interesting, the NBC article goes on to compare this to a more exciting time in the world of boxing:

…if Lesnar beats Couture in dominant fashion, it could be a star-making performance similar to Mike Tyson’s 1988 knockouts of Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks.

Two decades after the pinnacle of Tyson’s career, big fights have virtually disappeared from water-cooler conversations in America. But if there’s a fight that can change that, it’s Couture vs. Lesnar.

Professional boxing is in for it if UFC keeps bringing big matches like this.

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This’ll give you a better idea of Lesnar’s freakishness:

Sun Melting Steel

(via Neatorama)

Yoda the b-boy

Relaxation and Athletic Performance

The NY Times has cool article up that discusses the importance of relaxation in elevated athletic performance.

This initially reads as paradoxical but the article makes a lot of sense:

Relaxation. It is a trait that is often underappreciated, coaches and athletic trainers say. Yet it can make the difference between doing your best and not doing well, between feeling dragged down or soaring. Coaches search for better ways to teach it. And many athletes, including some of the world’s best, work on it constantly. An ability to relax while pushing hard, exercise researchers say, is one reason why winners win.

“It’s the paradox of athletics,” said Rick DeMont, associate head coach for men’s swimming at the University of Arizona and a former Olympian. “Tension is slow, tension is inefficient. You need to be relaxed.” And relaxation can be taught.

The idea tension is slow resonates with some of the concepts that informed Bruce Lee’s martial arts training. Lee believed that unnecessary muscle tension slows down your strikes and movement in general:

Relaxation is essential for faster and more powerful punching. Let your lead punch shoot out loosely and easily; do not tighten up or clench your fist until the moment of impact. All punches should end with a snap several inches behind the target. Thus, you punch through the opponent instead of at him.

The NY Times article goes on to offer a technique for relaxing during exercise:

One of his tricks is to have athletes concentrate on relaxing their eyes. “If they’re wide eyed, they’re tense,” Mr. Hart said. “I tell runners to run sleepy eyed. It’s like pouring a soothing oil over the body.” As the eyes relax, the face starts to relax, the jaw relaxes and then, Mr. Hart said, he tells runners to let the feeling spread through the shoulders and arms.

I’m gonna have to try this.

Ninja Baby