ParadoxCopyright © 2006 Arce & McDermott

Wado Ki Kai Karate Dō和道気会

pmcdermott@msn.com

To Open Your MindUse as an IcebreakerUnderstand LifeLife is a Great Paradox

“I played with an idea, and it grew willful; tossed it into the air; transformed it; let it escape and recaptured it; made it iridescent with fancy, and winged it with paradox.”—Oscar Wilde

Xtreme StatesFarthest North?

In Hawaii: The Far East is to the west,The Far West is to the east

179º 59' 59" East 179º 59' 59" West

180º

Farthest West?

Farthest South?Farthest East?

Keep going East and you’ll get West.

Yin & Yang

Everything has Both Yin & Yang

Y & Y: Complements, not Opposites

It’s Recursive

Japanese: In'yō

陰陽いんよう

Chinese: Tai-ChiJapanese: Taikyoku

太極

Complements:Yin & Yang

Neither is“Better”

Yin Yang

Bun : Cultural Bu : MartialScholar WarriorMental PhysicalCreative LogicalIntrospection TeamworkContracting ExpandingDark LightShaded SunnyCool WarmWet DryGentle StrongSweet SourReceptive ActiveMoon SunEarth HeavenFeminine MasculineProcess-Oriented Results-OrientedRetreating Hand Punching HandNegative Electricity Positive ElectricityEastern Philosophy Western Philosophy

Truth in ParadoxTo know what’s really good, you have to know what’s bad.Both extremes, communism and Nazism, were totalitarian.Laughing and crying look the same in photographs.Love & Hate can easily Reverse.A vibrant economy requires Creative Destruction.

There is Strength in Weakness:If I owe you $50 thousand, and can’t pay, I have a Problem.

If I owe you $50 million, and can’t pay, YOU have a Problem.

All generalizations are false—Including this one.

Genius is the ability to believe two completely contradictory things simultaneously.—Albert Einstein

29th Infantry Division

Blue & GrayWW I: Belleau WoodsWW II: Omaha Beach

“Literary and martial skills are like the two wheels of a cart, the two wings of a bird.”

文武Cultural & Military

There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind.—Napoleon

A Samurai was expected to understand both cultural (bun) and military (bu) subjects. They were warrior bureaucrats!

The Pen and The Sword

The First Law of Logicfor Analysts

Logic doesn’t always Work!Less is More.Go Slow to go Fast.Never say “Never”.Expect the Unexpected.For spellcheck, a small dictionaryIn AI, the hardest problems are the easiest; the easiest are the hardest–Hans MoravecJapanese and American management is 95 percent

the same and differs in all important respects.If Everybody agrees, Somebody is Wrong!

RelativityJuly 1953M.C. Escher(1898-1972)

Embrace ContradictionReal knowledge is knowing how ignorant you are.–

Confucius

You can kill with kindness.Are your feet cold? Put on a hat.There is no such thing as Nothing.The greatest Truths are told in fiction.The most valuable container should have no lock.To remember something, stop trying to remember it.If you want something done, assign it to someone who is

busy.Dickens was right: This is the best of times, and the worst

of times.

Luttwak’s Strategic Paradox

• The best defense is a good offense.• A fighter plane needs great speed so it can

get behind the enemy plane.• A bad road can be good precisely because it

is bad.• Si vis pacem, para bellum

– If you want peace, prepare for war

Get the Other Viewpoint

Luttwak concludes that “when scarce development resources must be allocated between competing scientific concepts and engineering configurations, it is unwise to rely on scientific and engineering judgment alone.”

Nothing Fails like SuccessLuttwak, Edward N., Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press / Harvard University Press (0-674-83995-1), 1987, p. 29.

Beware of “Victory Disease”

Opposite Approaches

• The Hawthorne Effect• Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk)• Opposites can be Equally Effective

– Disciplinarian versus GI General• Patton vs. Bradley

– Boston Latin and Science Academy– Co-ed versus All-Boy, All-Girl– Decentralized vs. Centralized

• Jackie Chan vs. Bruce Lee– Not afraid to be a Coward

RememberOpposite Approaches can Both work well

Choose The Middle Way

Expect Unintended Consequences