ORGANIZED SYSTEMS

August 24th, 2019

If we are always playing catch-up with something, then it’s time for some creative thinking and sustained effort for the creation of a new habit.

Our habits comprise our systems.

And every recurring problem requires a systematic solution.

The difference between solving a problem ourselves over and over and having the same thing solved by a habit is a subtle one.

Tinkered Thinking will take itself as a case study.  As this platform closes in on 500 episodes, there is one large concern with how it is going.

Often Tinkered Thinking is behind.  By a day, or two, or a whole handful.  The catch up required when these days add up leads to subpar thinking, writing and analysis.  While this is sometimes due to the logistics of recording, it harks of a deeper problem with the approach of execution.

Clearly, the appropriate habits are not in place to make certain that episodes are released on time.  And the only way to ensure this  happens, is to get ahead of the curve and stay there.

It’s a worthy assumption that if Tinkered Thinking can stay ahead of this curve for a solid month that the trend will hold. 

But, in order to accomplish this and make it hold, some creative incentives and structures are required.   Not just the brute-force-iron-will that most people assume it takes.

The work of James Clear and Charles Duhigg come in especially handy here.

One of the attributes of habit formation that they comment on regards thresholds.

Apparently, repeated behaviors become notably more entrenched and therefore more likely to continue when certain run-streaks are achieved.  These are 3 days, 7 days, 21, 28, 30, 90, and 180… if memory is correct.

These thresholds will be used in two ways.  When a threshold is reached with number of days equaling on-time posting, some reward will be applied, and each threshold will have a different reward with increasing value.

On top of this, there will be a second set of rewards for the number of back-logged episodes that equal the same threshold values.

Posting on-time three days in a row gets a reward, but amounting a back-log of 3 additional days also initiates a reward.  The purpose of this isn’t just to post on time, but to stay ahead in the event of something unexpected that makes the work of Tinkered Thinking impossible for that day.

To be sure this is an experiment, and will probably require tinkering, the details of which, will probably comprise a future episode as the effective is gleaned from the ineffective.

LET GO

August 23rd, 2019

One of the earliest episodes of Tinkered Thinking, Episode 15, titled Firebomb Your Life, is all about starting over, cutting ties, moving, and  seizing the opportunity of a totally fresh situation.

Doing this physically, by actually moving to a new place is the most drastic, and probably the easiest way to do this.

but it is possible every day, at every moment.

It’s a matter of letting go of the past more than anything else.

The reason why it is so difficult is – in large part – because of the concept of Rose-Coloured Cuffs, as discussed in Episode 33.  People: friends and family, trigger the person we have been to remerge in the moment, by reflex.

Letting go of all that is very difficult, whereas moving to another place affords a situation with none of the influences to trigger the person we have been.

But it’s still possible.  To let go of the person we have been.

It’s clearly very unlikely as we don’t see it happening all the time.  But rarity does not mean impossible.

It also doesn’t seem likely that someone would be able to let go in this way without a strong practice of mindfulness. 

In this context, the gift of a mindfulness practice simply allows a person to thoughtfully pause before reacting in a reflexive, canned sort of way that is the hallmark of who they’ve been.  Without this pause, it’s difficult to see an avenue by which a person could possibly let go of who they have been in favor of better actions they might take.

GRIP

August 22nd, 2019

When someone tells you to get a grip, what’s going on?

Are you about to fall?  Or perhaps we are about to float off and lose touch with reality.

Indeed, how can you grip something that you can’t even touch?

The word ‘humility’ has etymological roots that reference the ground, as in ‘being grounded’.  (Those etymological roots are about as literal as it can get, figuratively speaking of course)

The opposite of humility is marked by a kind of conceit, the core of which pays heed to its own idea of reality as opposed to what’s really going on out there in the world.  It’s the opposite of being grounded – sometimes quite literally.

So what do we need to touch, grasp and grip when we’ve lost it?

The short answer is reality.

The long answer entails a troubling question: what exactly is reality if not the thing we currently think is going on?

In this light, it makes it sound as though reality is something that other people see.  We are left in the dark of our own ideas.

How can you have access to any other conscious experience than the one you currently have?

The answer is you can’t, of course.

The subtle shift required here, is how we pay attention to what is going on.

Often, our experience of the present is tiled over with thoughts.  These mostly fall into a category of a habit of interpretation.  We assume we’ve seen or experienced what is going on before and our prior convictions, impressions and conclusions are referenced and repeated,

instead of,

letting all that go and opening up our attention to the present moment.

It’s all those prior convictions, opinions and thoughts that deactivate gravity, allowing our being to float off into a land of pretend.

We are so susceptible to this because of the tendency to save cognitive effort and simply reference some foregone conclusion, combined with the fact that those foregone conclusions probably weren’t all that accurate in the first place.  Not to mention that such conclusions may not apply to the current moment at all, despite some superficial similarities. 

In order to get a grip, it’s almost always necessary to let go of prior ideas, notions, feelings and beliefs.

To get a grip of reality as it exists in the current moment, it requires our full attention, and how can anyone do that while some part of the screen is obscured by all these thoughts from the past?

In it’s simplest form, in order to get a grip on the present, we must let go of the past.

This episode references Episode 492: Letting (yourself) Go

LETTING (YOURSELF) GO

August 21st, 2019

The real drive of any action is often the relief or satisfaction that comes at the end of such an activity.  Whether this be the satisfaction of a goal, or the rest after a workout, we are often pushing ourselves towards or luring ourselves forward in some way.

Even this constant organized business of doing all sorts of things can itself call for it’s own relief.  A vacation of sorts.  A time when we can really let go.

Perhaps the most visceral example of this is just before falling asleep after a horrendously active day, when sleep feels as though it’s clawing at the mind.  In that moment, letting go becomes a sort of default state.  We fall into it without effort or thought.  It really is a loss of the prior condition. 

Without such an active day, we tend to approach sleep as another activity to initiate, and a restless mind can make it seem as though we masochistically procrastinate, when really we have simply failed to let go of the day’s thoughts.

This sort of phrasing pops up in another sense, as in: letting yourself go.

Here we let baser instincts run the show: see donut, eat donut?  Watch T.V. instead of going for a run.  Snap at a loved on instead of pausing to think the situation through.

Nearly all the things that make us human in the way we seek to be more humane have some easier, baser counterpart of action.  The automatic reflex that often fails to be in our best interest.

With this in mind, what does the opposite mean?

What does it mean to get a grip?

PAUSE OF THE PAINTER

August 20th, 2019

If a game of charades instantly materialized, and you had to silently represent a painter, what would be more iconic than gesturing a few feathery strokes with a grasping hand and then taking a step back to pause and ponder the current state of your imaginary painting.

That pause is perhaps the most iconic act of such an artist.

The underlying questions of such a pause?

How is it going?

What is the current state of the work?

Where should it go now?

Every pause is a crossroads, an opportunity to pivot in a better direction.

This is another iconic image.  That crossroads in the middle of nowhere.  Four paths adjoined with stop signs. 

The decision is clear: continue on the current path, or take a left or a right.

The artist pausing to contemplate the state of work is doing the exact same thing. 

Shall I continue with the current method and line of thought?

Or should another train of thought and feeling be followed off in another direction?

The artist, unlike the career-track individual is merely an individual who is more practiced with the variety and depth of questions they are capable of asking themselves.

Notice that subtle difference in image also.  The ‘career track’ vs. the Artist who contemplates the possibilities provided by a crossroads.

The distinction lie in how a crossroads emerges.

Every street is essentially a track until it hits a crossroads.

Most people are simply waiting to arrive at a crossroads where upon a decision about a new direction can be entertained.

And here in lies the crucial distinction:

Artists create crossroads by asking themselves questions.

If you are stuck in a rut, or on a bad track, the right question cleaves the path with other avenues of possibility. 

This episode references Episode 117: The Cleaver, Episode 72: Perseverance Vs. Pivot, and Episode 390: Question about the Question