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Would you say that your life is comprised of more reflection than action...

12:25 / 30.01.03

...or more action than reflection? Or are the two about the same? Are you happy with the present ratio of reflection to action in your life right now, or would you like this to change? And if the latter, what are you doing to change this? And is it working?

The Apple-Picker

12:36 / 30.01.03

Almost all reflection, very little action. It's very depressing.

Tryphena Absent

13:36 / 30.01.03

I definitely reflect too much. I tend to lose words when I read, my eyes follow the words but my brain wanders off in to fantasy land. I currently spend about 25 hours a week reading books and it's not enough for a third year undergraduate, I need to up the amount of time I read work by about 20 hours if I'm actually serious about doing well, so that's what I am attempting - yesterday went quite well for me actually but today I'm not going to be so good as it's my serious TV night and I'm typing right now instead of reading Frege/Derrida/Mary Hayes or Thomas Lacquer. I'm sighing. Can you hear me sighing?

It's all very depressing as I find I'm beginning to truly hate all academic literature regardless of subject matter and coherence.

13:57 / 30.01.03

If I was acting more than reflecting, would I be answering this?

No! I'd be out fucking shit up and changing the world yeah!!!!!!!!!!! Either that or doing some work.

14:17 / 30.01.03

Sax say talking about reflection is first step on road to action.

14:20 / 30.01.03

I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
(because I am a shiny poof with requisite highly polished surface.)

Not a man of action at the moment at all at all... Too tiring.

pointless and uncalled for

14:59 / 30.01.03

More reactionary than reflectionary.

Never mind.

16:36 / 30.01.03

But what counts as reflection and what counts as action? Do you count brushing your teeth as action? What about writing a poem? What about writing a post?

I have that exact reading problem, Anna. Like a feeling that you're slipping off the page? Excluding DLS, I've read exactly two pieces of long prose in the last six months probably --one was about toe shoes and the other was about Suzanne Farrell, not that I've ever been enormously interested in ballet. And now that I'm thinking, is reading reflection or action?

talking about reflection is first step on road to action

I like that a lot...

16:39 / 30.01.03

I believe I've struck a healthy balance.

16:48 / 30.01.03

It's a false distinction.

Reflection is action. It's all action.

The Apple-Picker

16:50 / 30.01.03

For me, writing a poem is an action, and I'm doing none of it. So is cleaning the apartment and doing my schoolwork. I'm doing none of those things, either. Okay, I've done a little teeny bit of homework.

I do act more than I give myself credit for, but it's just not enough. I'm not acting in ways that I really consider "important" for me or others. I'm doing very little learning for school, and I'm doing even less extra-curricular learning.

What am I doing to change this? I've not been doing a lot. My failure to act has actually been something I've reflected on quite a bit lately. So maybe I'm on my way to action, if we can believe Sax. The best gateway action for me is tidyness. I need to clean my apartment, and then I'll feel more capable of writing.

17:12 / 30.01.03

Sax is the detective. What Sax has to say, you can believe.

But Jack, isn't that like saying color is a false distinction because all color is white light? But anyway, say it *is* all white light. We can break it apart and look at red, blue, and green. Are red, blue, and green false?

Let's say that I agree with you. Then by the same token, "it" is also all reflection...

19:05 / 30.01.03

I have always been, and quite likely will always be, more action than reflection. Luckily, the reflection I have after action usually helps me avoid the mistakes I made because I didn't stop and reflect in the first place...

19:18 / 30.01.03

Persephone:

Sax is the detective. What Sax has to say, you can believe.

...and Jack's a mystic. it's different ways of seeing, is all.

But Jack, isn't that like saying color is a false distinction because all color is white light?

Not exactly: it's more like asking, "Does this blue light-bulb give off light, or blue light?"

"Reflect" is a verb. To reflect is to take (an) action.

20:43 / 30.01.03

Ah no, that was just a Mafia Game reference about Sax. I'm all in love with Sax because of the Mafia Game.

"Reflect" is a verb. To reflect is to take (an) action.

Yeah, I dig that. Reflection is action of a kind, just like blue light is light of a kind.

So you would say that all reflection involves action, but not all action involves reflection?

Brigade du jour

20:49 / 30.01.03

oh yes ... absolutely more reflection than action. don't know if it's a personal thing, stemming from the fact that as a baby I talked before I walked (and therefore maybe thought before I acted?) or if it's something that applies to all of us. I suppose by reading this thread I could get a deeper insight, heh heh.

anyway, thinking before you act has to be a good thing, unless of course you're a total fucking cretin in which case you should just lock yourself in a cupboard under the stairs and never come out.

but, thinking and never acting has got to be somehow destructive, if only for your own corporal health. hmm. excellent question dude.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:06 / 30.01.03

Action!

No... no, wait-- reflection. No, hang on, action. Yes, definately action. But then again, uh, reflection. Maybe. No. Yes. Errr... hang on, I want to think about this for a while longer. And draw some graphs. And maybe make a spreadsheet.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:46 / 31.01.03

Me am almost all reflection. Safer. Fitter. Happier. More Productive.

Sorry. I'm not one of nature's risk takers which, on the whole, I don't mind so much, even though, when I have been forced to take 'risks', they've always paid off.

10:22 / 31.01.03

I'm all in love with Sax because of the Mafia Game.

Now, is that reflection or action?

10:25 / 31.01.03

But to answer the question: I used to be more action than reflection, I think. Drugs, naughtiness, running the bulls in Pamplona, rock-climbing, taking the early morning train to Lowell, Massachusetts, to see Jack Kerouac's grave, accepting the controls to a glider, throwing a TV downstairs repeatedly because it was FUN, but now I reflect a lot more. And read a lot. And write, using actions past to beef up present reflections.

11:38 / 31.01.03

I've spent far too long in the past two days reflecting rather than acting, and indeed, couldn't sleep last night because of this. I am good at it.

Anna- yes. I must do more work too, I'm not doing nearly enough and it's getting scary now.

12:42 / 31.01.03

Fuck me. 25 hours reading a week? I probably did about 25 hours reading during the whole of my degree.

I don't reflect all the time I'm not acting. Mostly I just stare into space.

13:40 / 31.01.03

Honestly, this is helping... thank you all very much.

14:51 / 31.01.03

I do very little of either, thinking about it. I have a virtual committee in my head made up of every opinionated person I ever came across, and they usually intervene with a load of mental beaurocracy (terms, conditions etc) to prevent any thought going beyond the "hmmm" stage. A bit like the bloke in the saucy outfit (Scorpius?) that John Crichton had implanted in his head, but lots of 'em, and without saucy outfits. I seem to do a fair bit of running about over very short distances, and some jumping up and down every evening, so I suppose I'm more action than reflection, but not through choice.

Tryphena Absent

14:59 / 31.01.03

I have 5 articles to read at the moment, a Derrida, two pieces of eighteenth century conduct literature, two articles on minority film research and two books- Philosophy of Language and Fashion System. What do I do? Read Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbelith. That's passive action but not the right kind! So yeah it's going to take me at least 25 hours and all of it has to be done during the week. Plus I've been informed that I need to watch The Buddha of Suburbia (not that it's a bad thing) and I need to write about the changing face of fashion photography from the '30s to the '90s as well.

I probably won't do any of it.

16:21 / 31.01.03

Cheer up, oh ye indolent, woolgathering barbelitos! The theorists have comfort for ye in your downbeat self assessment. According to the basic David Kolb model of the Learning Cycle, we live, we learn, we just keep going round the merry go round (or esle we become Tory voters and hide under the bed from a scary, ever changing world).

We need the action /experience or we've nothing to reflect upon but we need the reflection most of all, to progress the cycle and stave off inertia, but also because the paradigm is limited and we need to do a bit of meta-reflection and a reality check here and there to align ourselves to the real world. Otherwise you get stuck in a self referential loop and you never learn.

So, staring into space and pissing about on the Barbelith are both vitally important ways of engaging with the process, for me anyway.

My only criticism of the model is that there's no mention of intoxication as an aid to reflection and it doesn't co-exist all that well with my chronic procrastinative tendencies.

18:22 / 31.01.03

I saw Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai for the first time two weeks ago, and have tried to keep in mind the quote from 'The Way of the Samurai' that said "In the words of the ancients, one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths."

18:25 / 31.01.03

Yeah, but look how much good it did Ghost Dog.

06:20 / 01.02.03

I'm just talking about the decision making, not the whole Code of Honour and all that garbage... and he died honourably anyways. I'm sure he wanted it that way.