Julien's fuzzy blog

Back to work after a deserved lazy week-end. No paper to focus on now. I can concentrate on long-term objectives again but I guess it's also time to re-evaluate my way of working and interacting with people. I'll start probably by reading again Richard Hamming's talk: You and Your Research. A short quotation to start with:

"You find this happening again and again; good scientists will fight the system rather than learn to work with the system and take advantage of all the system has to offer. It has a lot, if you learn how to use it. It takes patience, but you can learn how to use the system pretty well, and you can learn how to get around it. After all, if you want a decision `No', you just go to your boss and get a `No' easy. If you want to do something, don't ask, do it. Present him with an accomplished fact. Don't give him a chance to tell you `No'. But if you want a `No', it's easy to get a `No'."

I've taken my old CD case and found this album of genesis, Mama. If my memory is good, it's one of the first vinyl I've listen to when I was a kid. I remember very well looking at this yellow game cubes on black background for hours...

This is the end of the lyrics of the last song of the album, It's Gonna Get Better.

If it's gonna get better, it starts with a feeling If it's gonna get better, it's gonna take time If it's gonna get better, we've gotta start now Cos I know, everybody can feel it And I know, everybody will see it Cos it shows, and that shows I'm not dreaming Cos you know, and I know, it's time for change

But now I'm free as a bird
As I walk out that door
You have my word
I won't bother you no more
Yes I'm feeling OK
As I face the brand new day
As I face the brand new day

Supertramp

I listen quite a lot of Supertramp and Pink Floyd at the office since a couple of days. Don't know why... If you have the answer, please send me an e-mail.

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

"Si nous sommes incapables d'aimer, c'est peut-être parce que nous désirons être aimés, c'est-à-dire que nous voulons quelque chose de l'autre (l'amour), au lieu de venir à lui sans revendications et ne vouloir que sa simple présence."
(Milan Kundera, L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être)

"If we are unable to love, it is maybe because we desire to be loved, ie. we want something from the other (love), instead of coming to him without revendications and only wanting his single presence."
(Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

A nice quotation by my favourite novel author, Milan Kundera:
"Dans le jeu on n'est pas libre, pour le joueur le jeu est un piège." (Risibles amours)

"In the game we are not free, for the player game is a trap." (Laughable Loves)