Franz Kafka

Patience is the master key

July 9, 2016

(Part 57 of 72 in series, My Journey)

Patience is the master key to every situation. One must have sympathy for everything, surrender to everything, but at the same time remain patient and forbearing… There is no such thing as bending or breaking. It’s a question only of overcoming, which begins with overcoming oneself. That cannot be avoided. To abandon that path is always to break in pieces. One must patiently accept everything and let it grow within oneself. The barriers of the fear-ridden I can only be broken by love. One must, in the dead leaves that rustle around one, already see the young fresh green of spring, compose oneself in patience, and wait. Patience is the only true foundation on which to make one’s dreams come true.

~ Franz Kafka from, https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/10/22/conversations-with-kafka-love-patience/

Patience with myself is a huge hurdle. I’m my own worst critic. One critical comment from me, and I crumble. I regularly beat myself down and out with negativity, self-doubt and unreasonable expectations.

New mantra: Patience is the master key. Patience.

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A new deal for copyright

June 13, 2015

If you have to understand the law to read a book, we have failed. If you have to enter into a contract – any contract, even a ‘‘good’’ contract – to read a book, we have failed.

These are cultural, not industrial activities. It’s insane to ask people to sign contracts to read books. Seriously, who actually thinks this is a good idea?

Maybe we do need rules for culture, and maybe we even need laws for culture, but they shouldn’t – and can’t – be the rules we designed for industry.

It’s not always easy to tell the difference be­tween culture and industry, but there are plenty of cases where it’s totally obvious. For those fuzzy cases in the middle, come up with some guidelines and let the courts apply them.

It’s a wildly imperfect system, but at the very least, it isn’t the grossly Kafkaesque idea that you should have to enter into a 22,000-word agreement with Apple, AT&T, and Random House audio in order to listen to a 15,000-word novella.

~ Cory Doctorow from, http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2015/01/cory-doctorow-a-new-deal-for-copyright/

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