The Network Garden - Mark Sigal's Blog

Digital media, being an entrepreneur, intelligent investing and other interesting nuggets

About

My Photo
View Mark Sigal's profile on LinkedIn
See how we're connected

WHAT HAVE I BUILT?

ASK ABOUT THE 9 TRUTHS

JOLLY & ROGER'S EBOOK VIDEO TRAILER

Chatopic Book Series

  • Chris Anderson: Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

    Chris Anderson: Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

  • Clayton M. Christensen: How Will You Measure Your Life?

    Clayton M. Christensen: How Will You Measure Your Life?

  • Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow

    Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow

  • Phil Lapsley: Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell

    Phil Lapsley: Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell

  • Rachel Maddow: Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

    Rachel Maddow: Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

  • Daniel H. Pink: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

    Daniel H. Pink: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

  • Susan Cain: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

    Susan Cain: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

  • Patricia S. Churchland: Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality

    Patricia S. Churchland: Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality

  • Daniel Imhoff: Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill

    Daniel Imhoff: Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill

Categories

  • Advertising (4)
  • Amazon (28)
  • Android (29)
  • Apple (72)
  • Basketball (2)
  • Books (21)
  • Branding (4)
  • Coaching (155)
  • Current Affairs (61)
  • Design (11)
  • Digital Media (261)
  • Economy (14)
  • Education (4)
  • Entertainment (6)
  • Facebook (3)
  • Film (6)
  • Games (3)
  • Google (26)
  • Humor (9)
  • Ideation (164)
  • Information Management (56)
  • Investing (197)
  • iOS (47)
  • Local (1)
  • Marketing (5)
  • Media (10)
  • Metrics (16)
  • Mobile (39)
  • Music (2)
  • Pattern Recognition (98)
  • People Connections (8)
  • Policy (6)
  • Politics (4)
  • Post-PC (65)
  • Religion (1)
  • Retailing (7)
  • San Francisco (1)
  • Spirit (23)
  • Sports (22)
  • Streams and Nuggets (424)
  • Television (9)
  • Travel (2)
  • Values (3)
  • Weblogs (1)
See More

Grab my RSS feed

On Lineages of Thought, Short-Termism and the Dying School of Apprenticeship

Trungpa-Lineage

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures wrote a short post this morning on the role of lineages of thought.

I wanted to expand on this concept a bit, as lineage is a central concept in Buddhism as well, where a lineage, such as the Kagyu Lineage, is passed from one generation to the next. 

It is through this methodology that someone like the Dalai Lama can be "discovered" as a reincarnate, indoctrinated in the teachings of the lineage (over many years), and then emerge as a Master.

If you think about it, there is an interesting duality in the nature vs. nurture aspect of a lineage. On the one hand, a conscious effort is made to discover the flesh and bones individual that has the right DNA to be a great leader.

On the other, a deep, prolonged apprenticeship of training and practice is ensures that those raw capacities are forged in a predictable fashion into something "miraculous."

Sadly, our own societal embrace of the tyranny of short-termism has led to the demise of focused apprenticeship as a core part our how we convert our unpolished young adults into skilled craftsmen.

(FWIW, in terms of philosophical learning, I am a 15+ year devotee of Chögyam Trungpa, who was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages.) 

Related:

  1. To Be a WINNER...Or, to Be GOOD? That is the question.
  2. Four Realms of Discipline in a Standing Bow
  3. Remembering Steve Jobs - The Candle that Burned Brightest

 

October 12, 2011 in Coaching, Education, Pattern Recognition, Religion, Spirit, Streams and Nuggets | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)

FIRST-TIME VISITOR?

FOLLOW MY TWEETS

READ MY COLUMN

PLAY AND LEARN WITH WALLACE

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter

    WHAT I'M READING

    • Grantland
    • Fred Wilson (A VC)
    • kottke.org
    • AppleInsider
    • Daring Fireball
    • Felix Salmon
    • Forum Blue and Gold (Lakers)
    • GigaOM

    Recent Posts

    • Seven reasons I am betting on a Soft Landing for the U.S. Economy
    • Reasons for Optimism, and The Honest Liar has No Sense of Decency
    • Creating Animated GIFs with Midjourney AI Art
    • Generative AI: Midjourney, DALL-E and the AI Art Wave
    • American Exceptionalism: Dancing on the Razor's Edge
    • It’s a Madhouse: Thoughts on Gun Reform and Being Serious about Real Problems
    • Life Lessons: Always Be Teaching
    • Find Your Purpose
    • Ruminations on The Fountainhead vs. Atlas Shrugged: When Does Personal Integrity Become Narcissism and Sociopathy?
    • Ruminations on the Test Drive: If you want to see how it ENDS, look at how it BEGINS

    Archives

    • January 2023
    • November 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • August 2021

    More...

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Subscribe in a reader
    Blog powered by Typepad
    Member since 07/2005