Beginner's mind is a concept in Zen Buddhism, often referred to by its Japanese name shoshin (初心) or (much less commonly*) nyuanshin. As the name suggests, it refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism, other Asian philosophies, and martial arts. The phrase was also used as the title of Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki's book: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, which reflects a saying of his regarding the way to approach Zen practice: In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few. Wikipedia
Howard Rheingold, replying in exasperation (I imagine) to the Pew Internet survey, The Future of the Internet II (pdf; page 52):
The way the question is worded embeds some assumptions. I have a serious addiction to reading; is that a social problem? Has the world 'lost' me?
The "question"?
Prediction: By the year 2020, virtual reality on the internet will come to allow more productivity from most people in technologically- (sic) communities than working in the 'real world.' But the attractive nature of virtual-reality worlds will also lead to serious addiction problems for many, as we lose people to alternate realities.
I'm with Howard Rheingold. Reading's great and the net is an explosion of reading opportunity … full of surprises. Garr Reynolds (on presentation design):
You know my philosophy: Keep reading and keep looking — we just never know where we'll find inspiration and knowledge if we open our eyes and go off the beaten path. If we embrace the "beginner's mind" and keep our mind "empty" then it's ready to accept anything for examination. It was in this spirit, then, that I purchased a book on (gulp) comics. I first heard of the book from Cliff Atkinson about two years ago. Dan Pink also mentioned the book in A Whole New Mind which I just read a few weeks ago. The book is called Understanding Comics: The invisible Art by Scott McCloud. I highly recommend that you get this book. …
When you get right down to it, it always comes back to desire, the willingness to learn, and the ability to really see. Many of us have the desire, it's the learning and seeing that's the hard part. McCloud says that in order for us to understand comics we need to "...clear our minds of all preconceived notions about comics. Only by starting from scratch can we discover the full range of possibilities comics offer." The same could be said for presentation design. Only by approaching presentations and presentation design with a completely open mind can we see that the options are virtually endless. It is just a matter of seeing.
I've been a reader for most of my life, but I'm reading more than ever — and most of it is now online. Sure, it's taxing — on physical energy alone. Bruno Giussani (writing about editing the first Swiss news website Webdo in 1996–7; his experience parallels mine, mutatis mutandis, as a reader/blogger):
Those were intense years, spent exploring and trying to understand an innovative media space and the new social and cultural reality it was shaping; keeping up with multiplying sources and an expanding network of contacts; trying out new pieces of technology as they came along and designing a couple ourselves; trying to invent a new language and acquire new social-ware skills; working a lot and writing a lot and traveling a lot. Most days started with a “big sync” and continued at the same pace. It was exhausting but also constantly new, stimulating and exhilarating …
I read more in part (great part) because I am building a network of people whose eyes and ears I trust — and this is far more extensive and living than anything I have ever known before. Why is this working out? Shimon Rura:
As we continue to interact, and develop a greater body of shared experience and understanding, we refine our trust in each other. … What makes blogs (and the RSS-powered subscription mechanism) so powerful for getting you information you care about is trust. Specifically, you can think of a blog subscription as an indication of trust that some feed will contain items of interest. It is a rather coarse-grained indication of trust, but is quite effective. Especially when I the reader have my own blog, and participate in the common practice of linking and excerpting the especially interesting content from my subscribed feeds. When I do that, I am delegating trust … This is exactly what happens in social situations. Suppose you're at a party and meet someone new. What's the first thing you ask them? "So, how do you know Bob?" Now suppose you know Bob has despicable taste in music, but he makes the world's best cheesecake. You'll spend a lot less time talking with someone who answers "I played in a grunge band with Bob in 1992" than someone who answers "I'm a pastry chef instructor at the local culinary institute where Bob took night classes." This example, ubiquitous in our social lives, illustrates how powerful and adaptable trust is. Even without being consciously considered. The amazing thing about blogs is that they can reflect this kind of nuance. Almost every blogger has a variety of interests, sometimes spread among multiple blogs, a blog and a livejournal, or categories within a blog. Furthermore, blogs cluster into communities based on shared interests, such that if you subscribe to any of the blogs in the community you are unlikely to miss any major news within the community. This redundancy permits individual bloggers to specialize in the details, and offers readers a chance to adjust who they trust, over time, as they learn more about their options. Just like if you're first interested in an academic field, you can work with any professor who's involved and learn a lot from them; but if you want to do a PhD thesis you'd better find someone who not only is interested in something you want to study, but is also easy for you to get along with.
Add del.icio.us network to that.
So I think Andrew Brown is wrong when he writes:
I am coming to suspect that the internet will be to my generation of journalists, and to any younger ones, what alcohol was to our predecessors': a destroyer first of thought and then of productivity, destructive both of the capacity to reflect, and to react, blurring everything into a haze of talk and endlessly repeated variations on the same experience. Just like alcohol, and even cigarettes once were, it seems an inevitable part of the job, one of the things that distinguishes it from all others. Stories are chased and found on the net just as they once were in bars. … The internet, like alcohol, brings spontaneity and conversation to the writer: often the illusion of wit, and sometimes its substance. But it never ever brings you silence, and it makes it far too easy to escape from the necessary boring solitude of the job. Obviously, no one ever went into journalism in search of boring solitude. In fact it is a profession unusually attractive to people with overactive, playful minds and short attention spans. Alcohol is attractive partly because it damps down the natural exuberance of such minds; the internet seems to encourage it and liberate from the mundane altogether. Either way, the effect is often terribly destructive. … the internet has no edges, any more than it has depth.
Not my experience at all. Beginner's mind. The web really is the new university.
This is also why Alan Johnson is being … unhelpful in declaring that from now on coursework at secondary level will be written under conditions that do not permit candidates to access the internet. What we should be doing is teaching pupils how to use the internet in academically responsible ways. 'Unhelpful' is the kindest word I can find to use here.
'It is just a matter of seeing.'
