On the importance of strategic lawn mowing

napoleon

If not for the essential difference that it is a lot smarter, strategic lawn would be a lot like normal lawn mowing.

With strategic lawn moving, instead of mindlessly mowing the closest patch of grass available, you would pause for a moment to look over the about-to-be-cut lawn to analyse your battlefield. Think about the path you’re about to follow. Make a plan. See if you can avoid doing some parts twice.
You’ll also want to prevent yourself from trampling the unmowed grass with your feet before you even get to the cutting part, as such a thing can never be strategic, and firmly belongs to normal lawn mowing.

Strategic lawn mowing isn’t a practise known to the public. Unjustified, I insist. Strategic lawn mowing is iconic to the vortex called life.

Many things – lawn mowing included – are found boring by the many people. Yet, would we surrender to our serendipitious whims and vagaries, we would accept the notion of boringness.
I for one, do not.

Life isn’t just about the result. Your lawn will look much the same whether mowed strategically or stupid. But – as often – how and why are more important than what.

Challenge yourself and everything around you, including the lawn.
And while you’re at it; enjoy the chase.

Latest

Forgotten patch of land

Forgotten patch of land

The hardest thing to get in Shanghai is silence and solitude, yet there’s this strip nearby our apartment that does provide these things — a patch of land that city developers had no use for. The first time I came here and entered, suddenly something felt weird until I realized it was the absence of […]
March 27, 2026
Cobblestones and Lions in Longmen

Cobblestones and Lions in Longmen

I know I take too many photos, and I know I should remove some for brevity. But it feels to me that each of these views is worth capturing, as if to store it in a jar for storage. When I no longer live in China, I want to look back on these trips, to […]
February 18, 2026
Chinese New Year shopping in Majin

Chinese New Year shopping in Majin

We’re in Majin Village (马金镇) in Zhejiang, a day before the Chinese New Year starts. Everyone’s busy doing some final shopping or getting a haircut before the festival — and the weather reaching 22 °C in February helps bring people outside. Meat, spices, offerings, flowers, yoghurt, cookies, barbeque, trinkets, posters, vegetables, soap, new shoes — […]
February 17, 2026
Dutch Signs in Xixinan

Dutch Signs in Xixinan

It’s a foggy morning in Xixinan Village 西溪南村, a village near Huangshan. I’m tired of sleepless nights with a 5-month old baby, but I equally want to take this opportunity to take some photos, so I’m outside the door at 06:30. Watertowns like this are usually crowded during the day, but deserted this early. Xinanxi […]
February 16, 2026