I have a growing fascination with Francis Picabia, not least of all because of some of the quotes I have found attributed to him:

“Who is with me is against me.”

“What I like least about others is myself.”

“The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.”

“My ass contemplates those who talk behind my back.”

His poetry is strangely inspirational:

IN ORDER TO LOVE
SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO
HAVE SEEN IT OR HEARD IT

FOR A LONG TIME YOU BUNCH OF IDIOTS

I find it fitting that he challenged order and reason in a way commonly associated with the term “hacker” today. So sad he has already passed. He would have been an amazing keynote to Blackhat, unlike the inanely boring LSE professor who was chosen for this year.

My early thoughts were to resist Dada-ism, but I wonder if with age I might be sliding into it nonetheless.

Written in 1865, before the typewriter, this is from Alice in Wonderland, Chapter III, “A Caucus Race and a Long Tale” by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson):

                      "It _is_ a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking
                     down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you
                     call it sad?" And she kept on puzzling about it while the
                     Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was
                     something like this:----"Fury said to
                               a mouse, That
                                     he met in the
                                          house, `Let
                                              us both go
                                                 to law: _I_
                                                  will prose-
                                                   cute _you_.--
                                                  Come, I'll
                                                 take no de-
                                              nial: We
                                           must have
                                        the trial;
                                     For really
                                   this morn-
                                 ing I've
                                nothing
                               to do.'
                                Said the
                                 mouse to
                                   the cur,
                                      `Such a
                                         trial, dear
                                             sir. With
                                               no jury
                                                or judge,
                                                  would
                                                 be wast-
                                               ing our
                                             breath.'
                                          `I'll be
                                       judge,
                                    I'll be
                                  jury,'
                                said
                               cun-
                               ning
                                old
                                  Fury:
                                   `I'll
                                      try
                                        the
                                         whole
                                          cause,
                                           and
                                          con-
                                        demn
                                    you to
                               death'."

People often ask how to simplify compliance in information security and governance. They want to know if it can all be boiled together. I remember one CIO who said “just give me one list!”

I had put together a couple slides on why this is an 80/20 question, never a perfect fit, but I like how the Dead Prez rhyme a similar answer:

“Crack is like a Democrat; Cocaine Republican; Marijuana Independent Party. Same government…”

I guess I’m intentionally being opaque on this to protect my own rhymes, besides the fact that theirs are probably better anyway. Imagine a board room where a security consultant performs a poetic recital of risks. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. It will be subtle, trust me.

Similarities and differences. Analysis is not synthesis.