I’ve read and re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance more times than any other book in my collection. Despite my admiration for Robert Pirsig, I often find myself disagreeing with his views on Quality.

Quality is a value judgement. It is inherently subjective, because the idea of value is inherently subjective. Quality is also a spectrum, which is why I get uncomfortable whenever there are serious attempts at ‘quantifying quality’. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that, and certainly not a portal between the artistic and the logical world that ZAMM presents it as.

Quality is gestalt: it is more than the sum of its parts, where the additional value comes out of the relationship between the interconnected parts. Quality eludes clear definition because once you define something, you limit it. This said, just because it is not constricted by a short summary does not place it at the top of some convoluted metaphysical hierarchy.

Human language is far more limited than human cognition. We are confused, yet inquisitive creatures. We are poking at the world with our flawed tools and what we do not understand, which is most of it, we tend to give exaggerated attention out of deluded self-importance: as if being beyond our limited senses makes something inscrutable and divine!