"Shih was opposite of facts and information; shih was the
elegance of knowledge, the insight and skill to organize
knowledge into meaningful patterns. As an artist chooses
colors of paint or light to make her pictures, so a master of
shih choose textutres of knowledge-- various ideas, myths,
abstractions, and theories-- to create a way of seeing the
world. The aesthetics of beauty and knowledge-- this was
shih.
He explained that the etymon for shih was a simple word in
Old Chinese; the Fravashi had fallen in love with this word,
and they had borrowed and adapted it when they invented
Moksha. From Moksha, the concept of shih had entered into
the Language-- along with thousands of other concepts and
words.
'Ah, ah, I've been saving it for the proper time,' Old Father
said. 'In the Language, shih is elegance in using one's
knowledge. But in Moksha, this broader meaning: Shih is
recognizing and making sense of different _kinds_ of
knowledge. It's the most brilliant art, this ability to
guage the beauties and weaknesses of different worldviews.'"
--The Broken God, David Zindell
This is where the thoughtful entries go... or at least those entries intended to be thoughtful. This is where the engineering and computer science entries go; the book reviews, fact or fiction; and even the hobby entries... because I tend to be thoughtful about my hobbies, as well.