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Old 07-04-2010, 10:52 PM   #21
mathewjgano
 
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Dojo: Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja Aikidojo; Himeji Shodokan Dojo
Location: Renton
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Aikido - Breaking the barrier

Quote:
Carl Rylander wrote: View Post
Also, I would say, as Aikidoka, you should minimise your contact with people you have little in common with, and maximise it with people you have a lot in common with. You can get people who you have a only a tiny tiny bit in common with, and they con you into thinking they have a lot...
As a blanket statement, i think I have to disagree, though I suppose it depends on what a person is trying to accomplish. You can have contact with people who have a lot in common with you and still get conned by them...in fact I'd say it's generally easier to get conned by those folks. When I'm around folks I don't know very well or otherwise feel I have little in common with, I'm generally on my game a lot more than when I'm around people who seem very familiar (i.e. my critical thinking goes way up). Also, i hold a diversity of experiences as being hugely important and I can't learn as well from that by hanging out with people similar to myself.
I use vision as an analogy: you can sense depth with one eye, but two eyes gives a far greater sense of depth. Add another set and some good communication ability and suddenly you can triangulate something far more profound than those initial 2D and 3D images.

Last edited by mathewjgano : 07-04-2010 at 10:54 PM.

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