-
I quoted Bruce Lee twice today in serious conversations. That’s a first.
-
In my defence, I was quoting him from his book. Which is brilliant by the way. Summarised: it’s his theory and principles of combat as a reaction to the dogma of martial arts systems that don’t reflect the reality of hand to hand combat. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_of_Jeet_Kune_Do
-
One of his core beliefs is one I think about almost daily when faced with the latest tech playbook design thinking technique. ‘Take what works, from wherever you find it, and discard the rest’.
-
It is such a powerful and useful perspective. Be open minded. Recognise that what worked then, might not work now. Have good situational awareness. Be willing to let go of past successes.
-
In his book - full of sketches of techniques, ideas, and points of view - it is based on the idea that systems often don’t reflect the nuances of reality - in this case, combat. Instead, participants are encouraged to operate within the system. Artificial as it is.
-
This is why, in the very early days, I can’t overstate how disruptive the UFC was. On a global stage it challenged centuries old beliefs of martial art systems. There - for the world to see - was the reality of combat. We didn’t see person vs person, but system vs system.