Associate's Mind

  When I was an uchi-deshi, there were special classes reserved for senior students called kenshu (“sword sharpening”). During these classes, I would sit in seiza (“proper sitting”) for 30 minutes or so, listening to the instructor lecture on a multitude of topics. History, art, subtle points of techniques, themes, etc. If you haven’t come [...]

Over the weekend, Scott Greenfield wrote about the trend in social media that one can be a mentor or be mentored via social media: There’s harm being done here, and that’s why it’s necessary to point this out.  The lawyer who has tried ten cases is being “mentored” by the twitter lawyer who has never [...]

  An old year falls, a new one rises. People will dedicate to change. They will tell themselves that this year will be different. They will commit to change their appearance, their friends, their family, their job. Goals will be set. Plans will be made. Motivation will be high. Intentions strong and good. Time will [...]

Via Learning Fundamentals

  Starting last Wednesday my schedule has been incredibly busy. Between work, family, and fitness – something had to push – and it was any online activities. The weekend hit and spent I most of it running errands, more time with the family, hobbies, etc. It was almost with dread that I opened my RSS [...]

“Boredom is a mask frustration wears.” — Neal Stephenson (Anathem) There will be times as a lawyer where you will wait. You’ll wait on the judge. You’ll waiting on opposing counsel. You’ll wait on the client. You’ll wait on the senior partner of your firm. You’ll wait on your IT guy. You’ll wait on the copier. Throughout [...]

Something Mike said over at Crime & Federalism resonated with me. From the post, The Prison is Your Mind: Partial Objects asks: Could you live in an 81 squre foot home? My first semester in law school, I lived in a garage that had been converted into an apartment. People found this hard to believe, but [...]

Note: This is Part 2 in a series on the traditional Japanese educational (master/apprentice) framework, Shu Ha Ri, and it’s correlation with the study/practice of law. Part I can be found here. Ha Wikipedia describes it as “detach”, “digress” — breaking with tradition — detachment from the illusions of Self. Which is part of it. [...]

Last week in a post about “flow” and the zen concept of mushin, I had a bit of a discussion in the comments with a reader in regards to a seemingly growing trend in executive/work coaching/consulting advice that a person engaging in a type of process should just function at an intuitive level immediately – without [...]

I recently came upon an interesting piece focusing on developing and maintaining “Creative Flow” while reading Bigger Capital. An excerpt: Flow is a concept developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the University of Chicago, who has studied the phenomena his whole career… Flow is a moment in time when you’re both challenged at the activity that you’re doing, [...]