INFINITE GAMES

August 31st, 2019

An infinite game is an activity or competition that expands in time and in terms of resources required or generated the more that it is played.  These infinite games can be both good and bad.

Addiction is perhaps the most visceral example of a bad infinite game.  This is particularly poignant in the parlance surrounding heroin.  A user is continually seeking the intensity of experience that was experienced the first time, and this is why the dosage steadily goes up and up.

Competing with the Jones’, as Episode 502 examined, is also a bad infinite game because it’s play constantly results in feelings of dissatisfaction.  And this is why the game is played: to displace or temporarily quell feelings of dissatisfaction.

Writing, on the other hand, or any form of creation for that matter, is a positive infinite game because the imagination can always be further mined.  It can always yield more, and the consistent result can be one of satisfaction and fulfillment.

In this case, the reason for continued play is the inverse of the heroin addict.  The creator is always trying to create something better than before, to refine the message, the technique and the effect.

Note also how creators who are popularly recognized for an early work can end up somewhat haunted by this success and can often collapse into inactivity, convinced that they will never be able to top the effect of that first success.  This is somewhat like the heroin user who is chasing that first high.

But the creator who sees their work as a process that is continually growing is immune to this kind of stagnation. 

Both good and bad infinite games are self-reinforcing feedback loops.  Their effect magnifies and compounds as time passes and the game is played.

On a more individual level, habits are feedback loops and can be the basis for an infinite game that we play.  The question is, do these habits and games generate a fulfilling life, or does each iteration, and each move drill our existence farther down into a pit of misery and despair?

An easy litmus test to figure out if an infinite game is positive or negative is to ask: does this activity consume or contribute?

What infinite games are you playing?

PROBLEMS OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

August 30th, 2019

Are you sure you’ve identified the problem?

Even if we’ve identified a legitimate problem that is part of the situation, it might not be the whole problem, and without uncovering all possible issues, a tangential issue might make the problem we’ve identified pop up again, requiring a solution again. 

This sort of trend is visible everywhere.

Take for instance the perennial challenge of competing with the Jones’.    This is where high-earners see their neighbor get a slightly better car, one more expensive.  So the natural inclination is to out-do the Jones’, the owners of this expensive car and go out and buy an even more expensive car.  Problem solved, right?

Well, as high-earners are often likely to do, given some time, an even better car will eventually appear in the driveway of the Jones’.  Apparently the problem wasn’t solved, but it feels like it can be solved again by shopping around for another pricey model to again out-do the Jones’. 

But this is an unwinnable race because the finish line recedes to infinity.  It’s simply impossible to win because the game expands with each action of play.  This is the worst kind of infinite game because it is being played with finite resources, most notably: time.

Such recurrent problems either require a systematic and automatic solution, or it is evidence of some other root cause is not being addressed.

For example, buying or procuring food is a recurrent problem.  You’ve simply got to eat.  So some amount of work needs to be done to ensure that food can be purchased or harvested.  This, however is not an infinite game in the way that competing with the Jones’ is.  There is a finite amount of food that each person will eat and it’s more than possible to create a system (like a farm) or make enough money to solve that problem completely all the way through to the end of one’s life.

But the problem of competing with the Jones’ cannot be solved in the same way.  In this case it’s a matter of misidentifying the problem, and failing to realize that one’s self is in the sway of a social game that is likely not worth playing. 

Much of social media is based on this exact framework.  Infinite scrolling is a negative infinite game because we are tempted with the lure of something better coming up with the next flick of the thumb.  Of course this never really happens and we are left just wasting time.  The problem isn’t finding something satisfying.  The problem is the act of trying to find something in such a framework.

This is compounded by the all-too-often experience of procrastinating on something important by scrolling through some social media.  The problem might seem like the need to find something interesting, but the problem is misidentified: the real problem is that we have something else we should be doing.

for example: 

If today is the ‘later’ when you said you’d do it,

what should you be doing?

COEFFICIENTS OF FRICTION

August 29th, 2019

In the realm of physics, friction has two coefficients: static and kinetic.  But everyone understands this implicitly: getting something to move is always harder than it is to keep it moving.

From this simple intuition, it should make sense that the coefficient of static friction is always greater than the coefficient of kinetic friction.

Delightfully, this seems to be symmetrically relevant in the realm of psychology and habit formation.

It’s easier to keep a habit going than it is to start one.

It’s that first month that’s always the hardest, but after that, it gets remarkably easier to keep going.

With how many things do we give only a few days of effort?

How many bad habits come back after some similarly short stint of abstinence?

On a local level, it feels as though it’ll always be as difficult to maintain the new behavior as it is in the beginning.  But this is not true.  After that first month, the static friction gives away to the easier, lower kinetic friction.  And with habits that are continued long enough, they seem to gain their own momentum as though that kinetic friction gives way completely as they generate their own fuel.

The key here is to plan a sustained sprint through the first month with staggered rewards to break the month up into smaller, manageable units, each one offering something to look forward to.  This is how we dismantle the coefficient of static friction and initiate new stages of behavior within ourselves.

Without chopping up that first month into manageable stretches of time, it becomes an intimating monolith….

A monolith that feels impossible to move…

THE STRATEGY OF TINKERED THINKING

August 28th, 2019

Today, Tinkered Thinking releases it’s 500^th episode . . .

So what’s the point?

Episode 499 kind of answered that. 

So another question is: how?

First a little background:  A little under two years ago the question arose in the mind: is it possible to write everyday about the same thing?  That ‘thing’ was a simple sentence, the title of a non-existent book.

A creative writing assignment that is sometimes prescribed is: think of a book title that you can imagine seeing on a book shelf, or on the New York Times bestseller list.  Something like that.

The next day, when you come in with your title(s), the new assignment is: ok, now write the book.

Pondering this assignment as a thought experiment was also compounded with a steady intake of Seth Godin’s blog.  He has been writing and posting everyday for an immense amount of time.  Something like 17 years if memory serves well.

The name of a book was easy enough to come up with.  But the idea of sitting down to write everyday was more tantalizing, if only for the reason that prior reasons to write had succumbed as casualties to a large intellectual shift.

A couple months later, there was a word document with about 50,000 words.  As a casual coding exercise, this writing was tossed onto the web and shown in passing to a few friends.

Some interest grew and it seemed reasonable to build it out a little.  Since people do not seem to have the time they used to for reading, the podcast element was added and is l a b o r i o u s l y maintained.  The thinking here is that reading is a paralyzing activity: you simply can’t do anything else while your eyes are occupied with text.  Podcasts, on the other hand, afford a freedom from such paralysis.  You can wash dishes while listening, or fold clothing, or drive to work, or go to the gym, or draw, paint, sculpt, ride your bike, et cetera, et cetera.

The dreamy ideal is that Tinkered Thinking can be that morning mind-snack to jog the brain to action while a listener waits for a cup of coffee to take effect.  (And delightfully enough, that’s what it’s become for some people)

The long term reality is that Tinkered Thinking in it’s current incarnation is a scratchpad, a drawing board of sorts:

A place to brainstorm, ponder, question and wonder out loud.

Tinkered Thinking claims no certainty, but rather tries to describe things while feeling around in the dark, while trying different things.

While this strategy was launched with the basic aim of writing about a single sentence – i.e. that imagined book title mentioned at the beginning – the fuel that has kept this project aloft was a curiosity about what might arise -and subsequently- a genuine surprise about what’s turned up.

For one, that original book title that was imagined has faded into the background and what has emerged is a new structure, a more foundational one which will be the focus of Tinkered Thinking’s first non-fiction book, estimated to be fully fleshed out and available sometime in 2021.  This book represents a structure of thought that has emerged unexpectedly from the practice and execution of Tinkered Thinking. 

In the meantime, the platform has already produced a book of sorts, and nearly by accident.  As dedicated listeners and readers will know, Tinkered Thinking releases a ‘Lucilius Parable’ every Sunday which seeks to reimagine the material of Tinkered Thinking in the form of a narrative.  A year of Lucilius Parables has produced enough material to justify a book, which is in the works and will be available to purchase within the next couple months.  And to be sure, all of this material is free on Tinkered Thinking, and through the podcast, however, the printed book will be fully edited, including rewrites and each parable will be accompanied by an original illustration. 

This first book, which will be Volume I of the Lucilius Parables, is a good example of Tinkered Thinking’s strategy yielding unexpected things.  The whole book arose from a simple question:

What if there were a narrative portion to Tinkered Thinking? 

(The inspiration for this was primarily Taleb’s use of the character ‘Nero’)

The exercise harks of a larger tenant of Tinkered Thinking: exploring principles in multiple contexts allows us to discern what is truly useful and glean it from what is simply the product of a quaint conceptual realm.  Language is a double-edged instrument, and what sounds like it makes sense might not actually be practical or even useful.  Luckily, it seems the Lucilius Parables are consistent favorites among readers and listeners

Boiled down to it’s most basic springboard, the strategy of Tinkered Thinking is: What if?

What if there’s a post every day?

What if there’s a podcast episode every day?

What if there’s a narrative episode every Sunday?

What if there’s a book available for purchase?

What if there’s a twitter component to distill ideas into smaller units?

What if there’s a way for listeners and readers to support the work?

What if Tinkered Thinking shoots for a million words?

What if there’s over a thousand episodes?

What if Tinkered Thinking became an ocean of thought. . . .

What might arise from the deep?

This question of ‘what if’ spurs all sorts of different plans to test against reality and that becomes the ‘how?’ of the Tinkered Thinking strategy.

Posting everyday has yielded the realization that quantity is more important for the creator than quality, which is counter to the traditional wisdom.  Of course, if our endeavors actually resulted in a binary choice, we should all choose quality over quantity, but this is often unrealistic.  What traditional thought fails to realize is that

quantity is a part of the process that eventually yields quality. 

This too is part of the strategy that has extended from ‘what if’, and it’s left to the reader and listener to decide how that has turned out.

To be sure, Tinkered Thinking has many possible avenues and plans it would like to explore, but of course there is a limit to the amount of time and energy that can be poured into the platform. 

And on that note: Tinkered Thinking is supported by listeners and readers.  How much Tinkered Thinking grows is directly related to those who follow the material and particularly, those who support the platform.

This platform has no ads, and this is an important part of the philosophy behind Tinkered Thinking when it comes to attention, and how we direct it, parse it, and fill it. 

Tinkered Thinking seeks to be an exercising influence. Like catfish that nip at cod to keep them active, These podcasts and posts increasingly seek to nip at your brain, to ask questions that might poke monsters of thought. 

So.  If you have found any value in Tinkered Thinking, please consider becoming a supporter through the support page at tinkeredthinking.com.  Every new supporter enables a little more time and a little more energy to go into this platform.

Of course, you can always show your support by spreading the word.  Mention it to family, email the link of a favorite post to a few friends.  A text, a tweet is all it takes to help other people discover this platform.

Lastly, a humble thank you to the listeners and readers who already support this platform.  It is an honor to try and rise to the challenge you present everyday.

Tinkered Thinking isn’t going anywhere for the time being.

So until tomorrow:

Be careful of the context.

BUT WHY?

August 27th, 2019

This episode is an extension of Episode 498, entitled Artificial Hardship.  Be sure to check out that one first if you haven’t already.

In that episode a distinction was drawn between artificial hardships and natural hardships.  The modern world –at least for those lucky enough to live in a modern technological area of the world- effectively solves many of the natural hardships that our ancestors had to deal with.  Mass starvation is not a problem and many of the perplexing health problems that riddled the bodies of our forebears has some sort of treatment if not a straight up cure.

This phenomenal new reality employs solutions to such a degree that the solutions end up causing new problems, like obesity and heart disease. 

For the discerning and disciplined individual, it’s possible to walk a middle way in terms of this spectrum  of problem->solution->new-problem-caused-by-solution-on-steroids.

It’s possible to discipline one’s self to work out, fast, and regulate the type of food eaten.  To optimize schedule and lifestyle to take advantage of the best sleep, to mitigate stress and then purposely implement it for benefit.  Those on the cutting edge of what life has to offer today are generally aware of these things and constantly tinkering with the dials to find what is optimal.  

But why?

It boils down to one word.  This whole restless rolling snowball of busy people anxious to get to the next moment boils down to one word, one concept – a luxury really – that often requires many things to be in balance.

It’s curiosity.

At the heart of what moves us forward is a curiosity, about what is possible.

Certainly, needs and impending dangers drive us too, but when these are solved to an optimal degree, it opens up the wide field of the mind for a particularly delicate and beautiful phenomenon.

This is one of the grave tragedies of school.

For the most part, school kills curiosity and trains animal-humans to be well-regulated workers.  And school makes incredibly efficient work of this.

To be sure, all kids are born curious.  Quite literally.  This is why they ‘get into everything’, put everything in their mouth and constantly look around.

Sure they are learning.  Yes.  They are taking in the world and making sense of it.

But wait a moment.

Why does this stop?

Do YOU have the whole world and universe figured out?

Of course not.  But many people stop wondering and stop exploring.  We stop poking and prodding and testing.

We grow fearful and passive.

Today marks the eve of a special day for Tinkered Thinking.  Tomorrow episode 500 will be released.  500 days of writing, 500 episodes for all you listeners and readers.

And to take a moment, I just want to say thank you.  The growing support has been absolutely wonderful.

And that’s exactly what Tinkered Thinking seeks to give back to you.  More than anything, Tinkered Thinking seeks to fill you once again with a sense of wonder – to crack the modern case of fear and wake again that glinting eyed curiosity.

Tinkered Thinking has sought to swim around in our world of words and thoughts and investigate it from different angles with the hope that a reader or listener will simply pause, and go… “huh.  Hadn’t thought about it that way before.”

And that’s the point!  There are so many undiscovered ways to think that each and every one of us has the potential to explore.

Ultimately, Tinkered Thinking seeks to achieve this aim through the most visceral and powerful tool that we have at our disposal:

The Question.

Tinkered Thinking seeks to find those questions, that one question that lights a firecracker in the core of your mind, sending you soaring in the same way you once experienced as a child.

But why?

Because now you can do something about it.  As kids we all thought and spoke about what we’d do when we ‘grew up’.  Well, for the most part, all of us are grown up now, and because of that, we have the power and the opportunity to take that chance.

Ask yourself: if your 7 or 8 or 9 year old self suddenly met you, knowing you were who they were going to turn into…. how would that little kid feel?

Would that kid’s eyes go wide, would that kid pull a tight fist down and go: yesss! I can’t wait!

Or would that kid maybe look a little worried?

Is there a chance that kid would wonder: geez… I wonder where things went wrong.  This is grown-up me and they can do all the things that I want to do but just can’t because I’m just a kid….

So, on the eve of this most lovely little day, Tinkered Thinking leaves you with that question:

Have you honored the curiosity and wonder of the kid who couldn’t wait to be you?