Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance1 is about a cross-America road trip on motorcycle and philosophy about value. It’s the first philosophy book in English I have ever read. I didn’t get it. A few highlights where I took notes.
Seed crystal A supersaturated solution is one in which the saturation point, at which no more material will dissolve, has been exceeded. This can occur because the saturation point becomes higher as the temperature of the solution is increased. When you dissolve the material at a high temperature and then cool the solution, the material sometimes doesn’t crystallize out because the molecules don’t know how. They require something to get them started, a seed crystal, or a grain of dust or even a sudden scratch or tap on the surrounding glass.
I think we have various names for it: epiphany? Moment of truth? But this seed crystal analogy is really vivid and accurate.
To live only for some future goal is shallow.
I think the author casually inserted the sentence there to comment on mountain climbing experiences, but it was a thunder echoing in my mind. I knew it but I wish I knew it earlier.
Jules Henri Poincare and his book The Foundation of Science was mentioned in the book. I didn’t realize he is 庞加莱 until I looked it up. My world view is still in Chinese and desperately needs reconstruction in English.
There are definitely more interesting stuff that impressed me but I will skip them for now. Because I don’t want to write summaries. When I read it for the second time, I will come back with a proper review and an opinion.