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Comment by alexpotato | Hacker News Reader

This post reminded me of the story about Jeet Kun Do [0] after Bruce Lee [1] died.

JKD was supposed to be a martial art that adapted the best techniques from other martial arts. e.g. "have no style" because your style is constantly adapting.

After Lee died, JKD broke into two camps:

1. "We should only teach what Lee taught us and no more. e.g. the techniques he taught us are the core techniques."

2. "Lee taught us to be constantly adapting from other martial arts so there is no list of core techniques."

I've always loved this story as it highlights how humans have essentially two reactions to change: embracing it or fearing it.

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeet_Kune_Do

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee

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This is reductive to the level of the people misusing the Douglas Adams quote, with a sprinkle of false dichotomy. Fear and embrace aren’t the only options, and neither camp is entirely positive or negative.

There is plenty of middle ground which should be exercised. If anything, the reason we’re living in an increasingly shitty shit show shower is that too many people are too eager to selfishly embrace too much, with complete disregard for others or long term outcomes.

"as it highlights how humans have essentially two reactions to change"

I'd wager that the most common reaction to change is actually "wearily accept it as there is no realistic option".

Most change is deleterious to those affected; it requires them to change how they live or work, or pay more, just to maintain the status quo. This sort of change is usually imposed by large organisations against which the individual is helpless.

When people are faced with that sort of change it's little wonder they complain about it, but eventually they have to submit to it or face a degredation in their life or work.

Then those who imposed the change roll their eyes and say "ugh, people are so afraid of change," being insulated from and benefitting from it.

The next time you receive a ToS update from your $FAVORITEVENDOR that negatively affects how you do something, or a new tax filing requirement from $GOV that takes up more of your personal time, do come on here and post about how you embraced the change.

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