DETERMINED LOSER

August 12th, 2019

Episode 411 of Tinkered Thinking examined how quantity has a quality all its own.  In short, producing a huge quantity of work is more likely to produce something of quality than efforts that are minutely focused on quality alone.

Ponder for a moment this relationship in terms of Mother Nature.  Throughout the eons she has created a dizzying array of creatures.  Did she spend her time trying to make one perfect species at a time?  Definitely not.  In fact, creating one species at a time doesn’t  seem possible considering how interdependent species generally are.  She created species furiously, and extinction has greeted most all of her creations throughout the history of our planet. 

Does Mother Nature mourn the extinction of her creations?

Quite doubtful.  If anything, to anthropomorphize something as pervasive and foundational as Mother Nature and evolution would require us to imagine the ultimate stoic in terms of creation.

There’s not even enough time to think ‘oh well!’ when a species goes extinct.  It’s a mind numbing charge forward.  If anything Mother Nature looks like a runaway train who purposely made the invention of brakes impossible.

But let’s switch tracks and bring these ideas to a far more local and individual level.  For the person who creates, what sort of mindset is best equipped for the chaos of results and the uncertainty of tomorrow?  Might we take a nod from the juggernaut that is Mama Nature?

She has lost almost all of her creations to the whims of extinction.

She is, the ultimate loser, but a determined loser.

Despite all her loss and species that go extinct daily, her planet has never seen a state as we currently have.  She is unafraid to branch out through electricity and ideas, through memes and beliefs, though they line up rows of casualties.

While it’s not possible to know without the retrospect afforded by the end of time, Mother Nature’s strategy seems built on the belief that quality will inevitably arise and sort itself out given a high enough quantity of creative action over time.

Does Mother Nature get discouraged by her failures?

Failure is a concept that we created.  It is a concept that we are somewhat forced to operate within.

Imagine for a moment if you’d never been taught the concept of failure.

The only way that the concept of failure hinders Mother Nature is through our own self-restraint in accordance to a limiting feeling of failure.

Otherwise, Mother Nature is blind to failure as we see it.

She lurches forward with absolute recklessness, the sort that we would ascribe to a maniac. 

Indeed, she created the maniac.

It might seem crazy to continue given such a heavy record of failure.   But being a bit crazy might be the only sure fire way of getting anywhere.

Like patience, it succeeds as long as it lasts.

We fail to have a chance the moment we stop taking chances.