RESOLUTION PREREQUISITE

October 1st, 2019

Resolution usually increases before we go.

The moon, for example, was first just a disk in the sky with some textured coloration.  Then Galileo invented the telescope and we started to get a better look at the thing.  Telescopes became better and better, and by the time the first Apollo mission landed on the moon, we had the whole thing mapped in pretty good resolution.

The same thing is true about things in the other direction.  The first microscope was invented in the early 1600’s but it would be quite some time before that resolution increased to the degree that we’d be able to tinker with all of the tiny structures we could see.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why visualizing a goal is very effective:

Vague is very difficult to execute because action requires specificity. 

Any goal or achievement that we might strive for boils down to a string of basic actions.  The higher resolution we have with regards to what each little detail requiring an action might be, the less time we spend simply being stuck.

Resolution increases agency by providing navigational details. 

Think of it the other way around.  If you instantaneously found yourself in a totally different environment and it was completely pitch dark, what would be the first, default reaction?

Well, you certainly wouldn’t go waltzing around.

You’d freeze.  You’d stay very still for at least a moment, and then you’d start putting out feelers, putting a toe out to see if there are safe places to step and what not.

Even taking a few casual steps could actually be dangerous in such a situation. 

And with everything, it remains dangerous until we gain some resolution on the environment.

It’s a good rubric for analyzing failure:

Did I understand what I was actually trying to do?  Or was a I missing a lot of the picture?  What parts?  Or was it simply details I missed due to a lack of resolution?

How do I zoom in for the next attempt?

Or perhaps I need to zoom out?

This episode references Episode 54: The Well-Oiled Zoom