#Piet Hein

[apoemaday]

A Psychological Tip

by Piet Hein

Whenever you’re called on to make up your mind, and you’re hampered by not having any, the best way to solve the dilemma, you’ll find, is simply by spinning a penny.

No–not so that chance shall decide the affair while you’re passively standing there moping; but the moment the penny is up in the air, you suddenly know what you’re hoping.

[drafthearse]

Ra ceiling light by Piet Hein for Lyfa, 1969. [for sale!]

[hexagr]

It ought to be plain how little you gain by getting excited and vexed. You'll always be late for the previous train, and always in time for the next.

—Piet Hein

[filmcentury]

Candle Wisdom If you knew what you will know when your candle has burnt low, it would greatly ease your plight while your candle still burns bright.

Piet Hein (1905 – 1996), Danish polymath who was a mathematician, inventor, designer, writer, and poet

[wellmetmat]

@nohoperadio: a rhyme about subtraction! Piet Hein's instruction for making toast:

There's an art of knowing when. Never try to guess. Toast until it smokes and then twenty seconds less.

Since the smoke point is unknown this may, at a stretch, count as algebra - the whole quatrain could be expressed as "t = s - 20".

(Piet Hein was full of ideas, wrote thousands of these rhyming aphorisms, and was descended from a famous Dutch Golden Age privateer of the same name, whom I'd vaguely heard of in a different connection as the captain who was hailed as a hero for the archetypally Dutch action of making a staggeringly large subtraction from the cargo of a Spanish treasure fleet. A very lively family line.)

[airagorncharda]

From "Grooks 3" by Piet Hein, poems written during the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

I've seen a lot of recent essays, articles, and posts trying to capture this exact sentiment

[thelongestway]

it is a very Piet Hein day

THAT WEARY FEELING

Do you know that weary feeling when your mind is strangely strangled and your head is like a ball of wool that's very, very tangled; and the tempo of your thinking must be lenient and mild, as though you were explaining to a very little child.  

[alliwanttodoiscollectpoetry]

Small Things and Great

He that lets

the small things bind him

leaves the great

undone behind him.

~ Piet Hein

[mrvaidya]

There's even a poem!

A Psychological Tip by Piet Hein Whenever you're called on to make up your mind, and you're hampered by not having any, the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, is simply by spinning a penny. No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair while you're passively standing there moping; but the moment the penny is up in the air, you suddenly know what you're hoping

(Here's a source)

My 11-year-old couldn't decide what flavor of ramen to make, so I told her to flip a coin. Heads for spicy chicken, tails for beef.

Taking my advice, she flipped a penny, and when it landed on tails she said "Wait! Wait! I did it wrong!"

I told her that she did it right, because the real reason for flipping a coin isn't to let fate decide for you, but because when the coin is in the air, you will suddenly realize what you wanted in the first place.

I'm sure there's a life lesson there somewhere…

But honestly, I have never known her to pass up spicy chicken.

[mijnmobielemoleskine]

Living is a thing to do now or never - which do you? - Piet Hein

[neverenoughmarauders]

"Problems worthy  of attack prove their worth  by hitting back."

Piet Hein

I desperately need more people to know about Piet Hein's grooks. Some of them are just wonderful. I might post some on here from time to time.

[linusjf]

Piet Hein and Joyce Carol Oates: Mankind

Image via Wikipedia “Philosophers / must ultimately find / their true perfection / in knowing all / the follies of mankind / – by introspection.” —Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996). “Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.” — Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 1938).

[persimmonteas]

Err and err and err again, but less and less and less.

The Road to Wisdom, Piet Hein

[filmcentury]

The road to wisdom? —Well, it’s plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less.

Piet Hein (1905 – 1996), Danish polymath who was a mathematician, inventor, designer, writer, and poet

[ulfgbohlin]

i spy with my little eye and I see something...orange by Ingrid Jansen Via Flickr: blogged

[chairblog]

Chunky Upholstered Beam Bench by Piet Hein Eek

Chunky Upholstered Beam Bench by Piet Hein Eek Sold at Wright for $8,190