Whew! I've finally finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I started it once before, many years ago in college, but just couldn't slog through it that time. I hate to use the word "slog" on this classic book, but when you're in the middle of it, that's kind of what it feels like. It's the kind of book that you look at once you're finished, and say to yourself, now what exactly was in all those pages? I mean, there were some memorable bits, but enough to fill up that book?
I must say that I liked the ending, which is tied up pretty nicely. There are definitely a number of ideas in the book that made it worth reading. One of my favorites is:
"Or if he takes whatever dull job he's stuck with...and they are all, sooner or later, dull...and, just to keep himself amused, starts to look for options of Quality, and secretly pursues these options, just for their own sake, thus making an art out of what he is doing, he's likely to discover that he becomes a much more interesting person and much less of an object to the people around him because his Quality decisions change him too. And not only the job and him, but others too because the Quality tends to fan out like waves. The Quality job he didn't think anyone was going to see is seen, and the person who sees it feels a little better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling on to others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep on going."
I'd like to think that the above excerpt describes in some way how I approach my work. Hopefully that doesn't seem too grandiose.