Why we like Calendars

Celebrating the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year is completely preposterous if you think of it. The transition from 31 December 2019 to 1 January 2020 has little geophysical meaning for the earth, yet it seems to keep us human beings extremely busy.

The Romans indicated old-to-new transitions with the double –faced deity of Janus. One side looks at the old things behind us, the other side looks at the new things in front of us. Janus was not entirely trusted though, exactly because of this ambiguous identity. It cast some doubt over him, because of his apparent schizophrenic character.

Yet we people are all a bit like Janus. We use the calendar to position ourselves in time, to look back on what is behind us, and to look forward to what may be coming. The calendar allows us to get rid of the old, and embrace the new. It makes us forget the tears and sorrows of the past and encourages us to make new resolutions. Calendars make us dive courageously into the uncertainty of the future.

Beethoven 250 Year

Next year, we celebrate Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday. I believe Beethoven's music is the best music to introduce young people into the world of classical music. I also believe Beethoven somehow reaches  a summit in the world of music. After him, nobody reached the same level again, perhaps with the exception of Peter Tchaikovsky.

My favourite Beethoven classic is the "Pastorale", the sixth symphony. At my parents'home, we used to have a vinyl Long Play record directed by Otto Klemperer. My sister and I used to call this record: "the Rain" because the fourth movement allegro clearly sounds like a thunderstorm.

I refer to my Dutch blog: "Thank you for the Music".

The Optimisation Compulsion

The need for optimisation or continuous improvement originates from production management. There is even a production management method called OPT, which stands for optimisation. We have a general belief in society that optimisation is the foundation for success. Is that really true? Could our exaggerated optimisation rage also be the foundation of failure? Our optimisation tendency has turned into an optimisation compulsion. We tend to optimise just about anything, continuously, from the location where we produce our goods to the partner we share our life with. As a result, nothing is stable and we lose ourselves in endless transformation efforts.

Optimisation works well in a stable environment, where the parameters remain the same for a longer period of time. This is rarely the case, especially if everyone is already optimising everything. All optimisation efforts will prove to be pointless because the environment changes too rapidly, and you will need to change direction before you can complete your optimisation process, which is by definition also a transformation process. Our self-inflicted optimisation compulsion is based on  intellectual blackmailing: “If you don’t optimise, you will not reach the top; you will not make it. It is all or nothing. Therefore, if you don’t make it, it will be your own fault.” This is the typical reasoning in a society based on meritocracy.

I refer to my blogs: “Beschleunigung”, and in Dutch: “Hyperactiviteit” and “Vloeibare Waarden”.