Saturday, December 6, 2008

knowing value

I don't remember Pirsig writing about this - he probably thought it was too obvious to state:
Identifying value is, itself, valuable.

This means that just sifting out gold from the dust is a value-creating activity. That's an easy one, as it involves physical motion...

On a subtler level, it also means that just naming the gold and showing somebody else it's there, among the dust, is also a worthwhile contribution to society and the world.

I'm trying to push it, so this may get fuzzy: it also means that just being aware of the fact that there is a qualitative difference between the two substance is a valuable action, a worthwhile skill.

In essence, this is what I'm learning at design school: how to distinguish well-crafted, well-concieved things from those which are not.

....

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