The Joy of Finding Things Out

" 'Like this cup,' the master said, 'you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?' " ~ Bruce Lee relates a lesson to Joe Hyams in, Zen in the Martial Arts

So, the highway system around the Chicago-land area is very outdated for the amount of traffic it handles. The roadways are constantly undergoing construction, "humorously" highlighted by the canard there are only two seasons in Chicago; Winter and Construction.

I fortunately rarely experience the full on into city/out of city gridlock because, my travel directions are reverse of the normal flow. However, a week ago I meet my friends for dinner before a gaming session and enjoyed the process.

I told Ran about my observations. And as a background my friend Ran is MathMan if someone needs to know the sum of two integers ***boom*** they go to him. So he told me about the discipline of Fluid Dynamics, no doubt something he learned about 25 years before Grung the Blockhead, and how physicists create traffic flow models using the equations associated with Fluid Dynamics. Fucking cool!

Although I do lament my intellectual laziness earlier in life, it's always cool to learn new things. I think this truth holds much of the problems currently associated with the partisan political divide we have in America today. Everyone is so convinced they have it all figured out they immediately treat opposing information skeptically or aggressively denounce it. If only the naked ape was willing to empty his cup...