Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Still Resonates Today | Hacker News Reader

Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Still Resonates Today

smithsonianmag.com

44 pointspseudolus14 comments

“Most shocking, there is a child on the back of one of the motorcycles. When was the last time you saw that?”

The writer is only talking to his friends. The comparatively small group of people who happen to share his privileged corner of the world. Because I see that every day, and so do most people.

As to the book: I read it many (many!) years ago, relenting after being hounded to do so by a couple of friends who assured me of its depth and importance.

Of course I could have missed something. And some of its ruminations on craftsmanship were interesting. But, on the whole, I found it to be a quasi-mystical, obscurantist, facile, waste of time.

I also found that comment so strange. Its still common in Asia, I used to do it all the time myself. Just hold on tightly

And what, exactly is wrong with a child on the back of a motorcycle? That's part of how I learned to ride, and on top of that, we all rode up to the ranch just sitting in the back of Dad's pickup on countless weekends to ride motorcycles - where we could (gasp) hit rocks and trees if we screwed up! Amazingly, not only did no one die, no one was ever injured beyond cuts, scrapes and bruises. I would not trade the experience for safety in a thousand years. (BTW, riding a motorcycle in traffic is a whole different kind of danger...)

This is arguably the best book I've ever read

Would very strongly recommend reading it when you have 1 week to half a year free/avaiable

It will really mess with your head and your perception of reality

It's some really high level stuff

I second this. Arguable one of the top 5 books that I've every read. I read it in my mid 20s, but found it to be very much along the same lines of philosophical thought that I'd been developing internally throughout my late teens and early 20s. Pirsig.

Zataomm, as I like to call it, is one of the most interesting book that I've read in my life.

If you haven't done so, I recommend you give it a go.

Although i liked the first bit of Zen (Which this article seems to be referencing), it quicky lost me in the second half where Pirsig goes rambling on on his quasi-filosofic subjects. Definitely gave me hard time to keep on reading.

I had a slightly different experience with that second half. I sure had a hard time following his philosophy, but I had no trouble keeping on reading it... I might even go so far as to call it a page-turner. It was one of those works where I couldn't tell if the writer was a genius or a madman (or both, as he seems to profess) but either way it is written in a fashion that just draws the reader in; it gives the impression of making sense at every line, but you stop and the end of a chapter and realize that you've hardly grokked any of it.

Haha, that exactly describes my experience also. At the time I thought it was due to a language barrier - that my english wasn't good enough (2nd language) but I guess it's the book. Definitely a unique piece of work, at the very least.

If you read the follow-up book, Lila, it becomes clear that the philosophy is not coherent.

I echo this - after Zen, Lila was a huge disappointment, eventually degenerating into a long rant about the author's unhappiness with aspects of his existence.

You can read up to the bit about cutting up a beer can to make a shim, and stop. You will have extracted 90% of the value of the book.

Sure, if you're reading it as a book about motorcycle maintenance. In that regard, I also found the bit about a seized bolt having exactly the value of the entire motorcycle until you're able to free it very helpful—it helps with the frustration realizing that it's not just a stupid tiny bolt getting in the way of your progress, it is, in fact, a $3,000 bolt.

But, of course, it's not a book about motorcycle maintenance. Whether or not Persig's ideas and philosophy jive with you personally is another question, but it's certainly unfair to say that the bit about a beer can shim represents 90% of the value of the book when so many others (myself included) clearly extract a lot more value from it.

You misunderstand. The bit about the shim is nothing to do with motorcycle maintenance, and everything to do with how to think. But the seized bolt bit is good too, same reason.

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