A Geek With Virtue

"I transmit rather than innovate. I trust in and love the ancient ways. I might thus humbly compare myself to Old Peng." (7.1)


I was again inspired by the Analects, I think they are so wise and enlightening.
"I will not open the door for a mind that is not already striving to understand, nor will I provide words to a tongue that is not already struggling to speak. If I hold up one corner of a problem, and the student cannot come back to me with the other three, I will not attempt to instruct him again."(7.8)
I agree with this. I think that a mind that isn't already curious and eager to learn more, is not worth teaching. Why teach things that are not interesting to them? Shouldn't we be interested? It'd be amazing if we could all be thrilled by challenges.

Confucius principles seem to be so passionate, I really like that. It's like in order to learn well you must be passionate about what you're learning. I think it's just instinct. Curiosity. Not because you absolutely have to, but because you are genuinely interested in the subject and you are desperate to know what happens next. "He is the type of person who is so passionate that he forgets to eat, whose joy renders him free of worries, and who grows old without noticing the passage of the years?"(7.19) How amazing would it be to be this way? Completely carefree and happy-go-lucky? Even though I wouldn't describe Confucius as happy-go-lucky, he was probably the type of student that would cry if he got less than a 4 as a GPA. Or anyway that's the impression Confucius gives me.