View source for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

{{pubdate|13|May|2021}}

During my PhD, on the topic of [[ontology evaluation]] - figuring out what a good ontology is and what is not - I was running circles up and down trying to define what "good" means for an ontology ([[Benjamin Good]], another researcher on that topic, had it easier, as he could call his metric "Good metric" and be done with it).

So while I was struggling with the definition in one of my academic essays, a kind anonymous reviewer (I think it was [[Aldo Gangemi]]) suggested I should read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

When I read the title of the suggested book, I first thought the reviewer was being mean or silly and suggesting a made-up book because I was so incoherent. It took me two days to actually check whether that book existed, as I wouldn't believe it.

It existed. And it really helped me, by allowing me to set boundaries of how far I can go in my own work, and that it is OK to have limitations, and that trying to solve EVERYTHING leads to madness.

(Thanks to [[Brandon Harris]] for triggering this memory)

{{tag|Simia}}
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