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Comment by robotron | Hacker News Reader

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This helped me understand the duality of the logical/mechanical and the creative/artistic. Then merging the two.

My go-to vote as well. Some of my favorite passages pertain to the awareness of-and management of- one's internal motivation and thought process when attempting to do good work.

"So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one's surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all."

Excellent quote. Thank you for sharing.

I read it 45 years ago and liked it. But the only thing that sticks in my memory -- and it is enough, I suppose -- is the author helping his friend fix his motorcycle with a piece of shim made on the spot from a Coke can.

Same. Almost every time I see a can the phrase 'best shim stock in the world' jumps into my brain!

The sequel, Lila, is also really great. He's worked out the structure of Quality, in detail, and it makes a lot of sense. p.s. If you love Pirsig, read Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) - the form is identical.

My inspiration when it came to me learning/building/programming computers and most everything else I undertook in my 20's. It made me strive to be a know-er of things, not just a user.

This book changed my worldview too. For me more the idea that the world is how you perceive it, that events and objects have more than one aspect, property or interpretation.

If this subject interests you, there is a fair chance you'll like "Narcissus and Goldmund" by Herman Hesse.

Great book for learning how to debug systems.

Yes! This book also got me to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau, which was also life changing.

I never fully understood what Pirsig meant by Quality though. I could not understand what it really was, but I didn’t need to. I got so much good out of the book. But if someone could explain better I’d love to hear.

My personal understanding is that much of the point of the book is less to give you a direct understanding of Quality itself, which he says is not directly understandable, but to surround the concept, give you the parameters, where it is where it isn't, being able to identify it when you see it.

+1 For Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. This book lead me to accept a lot of parts of myself and seek to integrate all those parts together. I credit it with starting the journey that changed my life.

im sorry i love these threads and all the people contributing but this book is overrated. Please explain to me what is so great and life changing about this book.

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