“If all you’re doing is chewing on your pencil, you might as well be gnawing on a stick.”
But Ovid reminds us that the man who is not prepared today will be even less so tomorrow, and I would add that the job that was done badly the last time will be done worse the next.
The Greek ideal of a world without imperfections is absurd, and they knew that. The Christians ripped off the idea and called it heaven, but, regardless, there are still no real phenomena free of all defects.
But that’s what a praxis – your praxis – is for. A praxis is a practice you are actively working to get better at: Sound theory informing your efforts, measured results improving the theory, iteration after iteration. Your objective is to remove defects in your performance, as you identify them. When you can’t find anything else to fix, either find better eyes to judge your work or move up in the challenges you’re taking on.
And that, too, is a very Greek way of thinking. We malign the Greeks as dreamers, but to this day, our way of relentlessly pursuing perfection is the praxis we learned from them.
In other news:
Housing Wire: Home prices haven’t risen this fast since 2005.
Redfin: The Wave of Pandemic-Era Relocations Continued in April, With Nearly 31% of Homebuyers Looking to Move to Another Metro. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. Their own charts show the influence of the riots. Now that the pandemic lies are abating, will real estate demand die down as well? In conversation, I keep saying that near-term results in Phoenix hang on whether we have another “Summer of Love.” Everyone always laughs – an hypocrisy tell.
CNBC: Weekly mortgage demand falls as interest rates move higher.
Matt Vespa: Why 260 Cops Have Fled Seattle.
The Daily Wire: Refund The Police? Major Cities Are Backtracking On Police Cuts After Explosion Of Violent Crime.
American Greatness: Reckoning With the Aftermath of George Floyd.
Michael Anton: Red Lines: The Constitution invites us – and politics compels us – to consider redrawing state and local borders.
Brian Brady says:
We fuss about “proper order” for the same reasons we study dead languages
May 26, 2021 — 7:09 am
Greg Swann says:
😎
Even so, I disagree. We fuss about proper order because it is the optimal survival strategy. Even if we end up making a fetish of unnecessary efforts, if you cannot instantly lay your hands on the ammo box, you’re conquered by the guys who can. The Greeks took over the Mediterranean by being better-prepared – which is also how the Romans both conquered and absorbed them.
The Greeks and everyone before them understood the problem of survival better than we ever will. Thanks to Plato and his fellow-Ci buddies in Jerusalem, we make a fetish of study, but the purpose of study is life. Israelite or Greek or Roman, if Yael cannot lay her hands on both the milk and the tent stakes, all is lost.
May 26, 2021 — 7:29 am
Brian Brady says:
That makes sense. Pilots and boat captains have checklists. Hurricane season requires preparation. Families should have disaster drills (including home invasion).
Let’s apply this to real estate brokerage:
1- Transaction coordinators should have checklists.
2- Agents should have prospecting/marketing daily disciplines.
3- Agents should have rehearsed scripts before picking up the phone
Scripts are, in many respects, the freshly sharpened pencils of real estate brokerage. An obsession with them inhibits performance. Ignorance of them results in broken communication.
This is another topic altogether to rehash but it’s been a decade and a half since Russell Shaw implored BHB readers to think INSIDE the box. I will revisit that here
May 26, 2021 — 8:57 am
Brian Brady says:
RE: Why 260 cops have fled Seattle.
1 out of 5 Seattle cops are gone in the past 18 months. That’s simply astounding
May 26, 2021 — 9:01 am