Adults At Play

What does it MEAN, "to know"? (And why is it important?)

Do you know if buying a particular stock or bond is good? How about the best car? Life partner? Diet? Job? Career? Friend? Politician? Night Club? Vacation? Every decision, every choice you make, is based on your knowing. If you think about it, knowing and the soundness of your knowledge will affect EVERY aspect of your life.

Some things you know (or think you do!) so well, you don't have to think about it. Simple math, how to drive a car, who's really smart, and a for sure you know a few dummy's! Other things you know because you learned it in school. some things you learn over time - You're good at art but not science, you are (or not) mechanically inclined. Some things you learned from a trusted friend, family, or you saw it in a book or on TV.

A very large percentage of what we know, is simply "what we know". We don't think about how we came to know or the soundness of this knowledge, there are some things you "just know". We make many choices simply because in the background we have unchallenged, unverified knowledge. For example: 1. "Ford is the best Pickup truck in the world", or 2. "If you don't want an IPhone you're really out of it" or 3. "Nothing can spin in two different directions at the same time" or 4. "The US"

1. is obviously NOT the truth for everyone. Brazil is larger than the continental USA, but became a smaller country than the US when Alaska became a state. Using Quantum physics we are developing computers based on subatomic particles called "qubits" where the particles actually DO spin in opposite directions at the same time.

How many opportunities do you sieze or miss, how many mistakes lead you in the wrong direction in your life, how many limitations have YOU placed on yourself, simply because you knew.

When you say you "know" something, you are being a philosopher. Your personal 'style', your 'philosphy, determines how useful YOUR knowing is.
My claim is that a combination of lack of reflection, old philosophy, and a paucity of good tools for evaluating and comparing OUR knowing with that of others is the number one cause of conflict at every level of business, civilization, society and relationships of every kind.

We live in a rational, "cartesian" world that has served us well in science. The whole way we understand reality in the western world is cartesian. But what does that mean? It means that all of us are actually "Cartesian Philosophers". We think about the world and reality based on the ideas of the french philosopher, René Descartes.

His ideas worked so well for manipulating the physical world, that his ideas, over time, became simply 'the truth'. He incorporated the ideas of Galileo, that everything could be explained by fundamental laws. It became "what we know" and no longer a hypothesis. Galileo and Descartes ideas changed the way we view the world and the way we understand what reality is.

We live in a very different time than that of Galileo and DesCartes. OUR understanding of what we know still comes from that time, but it is becoming obvious to many that we need new thinking about our beliefs and truths. (a truth, known by philosophers as the 'truth bearer' can be any entity that can be true or false; a sentence, statement, idea, etc. Not necessarily a person)

- To be continued ... Jim

New blog for Real Estate

I created a new blog just for Real Estate so if you are interested in focusing on that topic you can go to my Goodclicks Real Estate Blog. I decided to keep this more to thoughts about life and how we move about our planet.

If you look over there today (4/15/2005) you'll only see duplicates of my last three posts here. However The Real Estate Blog will have regular updates on Central Florida and other parts of the state.

Traveling at warp speed

Strange to look at my last blog - A little over a year ago, yet light years away in terms of living.

How much could you change in a year? Married to someone I hadn't even met when I wrote the last blog. Moved to a new home in Disney's famous "Celebration, Florida". Building a new home, working in real estate. Traveled to Europe for over a month, Jamaica twice, West carribbean cruise, Key West and so much more!

I guess that was a lot to write about, but then again I'm not much of a writer. I'm back here because I'm intrigued by podcasting. I'm firing up my old RSS reader and looking for equipment to begin an "Audio magazine" - a podcast. Then this (or other blogs I will make) can be the background for my podcast. Picures, text, music and most important - topics someone might be interested in.

Like? well for starters, how about Celebration?


Just a few minutes from the Mouse. What's it like to live in a Disney like, almost real, "Pleasantville"? Celebration was created from scratch to have a small town, homey, everyone's a friendly neighbor, touch. But do buildings with porches and white picket fences make a truly friendly small town? Stay tuned and learn more.

I'll be working with my wife Kim to bring the inside information on Central Florida. Communities, Pre-construction, homes, How downtown has been revitalized, What's up with the Parks? - Disney, Universal, Sea World, Kennedy Space Center (Kim and I have annual passes - it's really another entertainment park now). Did you know about the British invasion? With the dollar sinking ever lower, maybe they could BUY America? They're sure buying a lot of florida!

Golf at the Lake FOREST golf course

Yesterday's blog mentioned a golf course and I got the name wrong calling it Lakeside - it's actually Lake Forest. Today I played the course and found it to be one of the most attractive and well kept courses I have played in the area. (I've played Celebration, one of the Champions Gate courses, Hunter's ridge and a few others). There is a par 3, 197 yards, about 175 yd. carry over water. It's really beautiful.

The sun was close to setting as we played the last few holes and the long shadows and golden tones were enough to give that pleasant hum that can ripple through your body and tell you it's great to be alive, or as it says on my golf cap - "Life is good"

Traveling in Orlando - the west orange trail

After living in Las Vegas for so many years, I should have been better prepared for the many travel and recreation opportunities that have nothing to do with the "well known" spots. Last week I discovered the "West Orange Trail". I expect to explore all of it's 19 mile length. For now I have seen about 11 miles at the South-west end. You can see some pictures at http://goodclicks.com/florida/wot/west_orange_trail.htm

I discovered the trail while driving around randomly. I spotted a few people on in-line skates and I pulled over when I saw a small parking lot, popped the trunk and put on my skates. Living in the Stroudsburg, Pa area I had become "Skate deprived". The area has golf, hunting, camping etc, but is like a skater's desert. So off I went, skating on a very wide, smooth path that seemed to go on for quite a ways. After skating around the Lakeside golf course I spotted two women with bicycles taking a break on one of the many benches along the path. Inquiring about the path they told me one of the more pictuesque spots along the way was the town of Winter Garden, some five miles further. That was a little more than I wanted to do after such a long time off my skates and I decided to head back to the car. I did go back the next day to view a bit more with my mountain bike.

If you enjoy skating, biking, jogging, walking or ??? the trail is really great. There are many amenities that I will cover in future blogs. Stations, outposts and relaxing scenery are just a part. Restrooms, water, free museums and more. check back and I'll cover much of it,along with links to websites and photos.

Building new habits

I am looking at building a new habit. So some of these blogs may come across a little weak. the habit? Writing on a regular basis. What am I calling regular? At least once a day.

Yesterday I began researching RSS feeds and believe I should build my first feed as a report on Orlando. While I'm looking at tools for all kinds of things like "content management", "validators", "XML formatting" etc I intend to use this blog as my training wheels. Now that blogger is using ATOM I need to see how acceptance of ATOM goes.

RSS feeds are really great. If you don't know about them you will. The drawback for the moment is the fact that you need to download and install a reader. This can be a daunting task for the vast majority of modern surfers. Likely this will be overcome as the technology brings great benefits. Perhaps newer browsers/operating systems will have them built in. Maybe there are other programs already available, but I don't know about them yet. If you do just email me jim@jlcc.com The spammers already have this address, but Mozilla (Thunderbird) does a good job of deleting about 98% of it.

This blog is rambling on and so I'll close and try to focus on a single subject at a time in future blogs. At least I'm started on building my new habit.

Life is good in Florida

Caught a little of the really bad cold and some snow but I escaped from the worst of it. Been golfing, skating, biking, walking, daydreaming, and even some water skiing. Feels good!