Financial Times: you cannot reduce anything truly worthwhile to a technique
“Ultimately, however, none of these provides a satisfactory answer because it is indeed a genuine paradox, an irresolvable contradiction at the heart of human existence. The best we can do, suggests Slingerland, is “to not push too hard when trying is bad, and not think too much when reflection is the enemy”. If we do that, “the flow of life is always there, eager to pull us along in its wake.””
Julian Baggini, “Templates for gaining wisdom,” Financial Times, March 7th 2014.
The Huffington Post: jaunty and refreshing good humor
“With sometimes jaunty and refreshing good humor, a good number of insights drawn from personal experience and, given the complexity of the philosophical concepts he explores, mercifully readable prose, Slingerland walks us through four phases of early Chinese thought: Confucianism, which preaches “carving and polishing”—the long, painstaking work of cultivating manners (for the gentleman) or craft (for the artist), until perfection can be achieved with spontaneous ease; the Daoism of Laozi (Lao-Tzu), favoring the “uncarved block” or, as the author puts it in a succinct appendix summary, “stop trying immediately, go home”; Mencian Confucianism, “try, but don’t force it”; and the Daoism of Zuangzi, “try to forget all about trying or not trying, just go with the flow.” ”
Peter Clothier, “Just Do It,” The Huffington Post, February 24th 2014.