CAN OF WORMS

August 9th, 2019

The phrase is fairly ubiquitous.  Opening a can of worms is synonymous with a decision or action that results in subsequent problems that are numerous and complex.

It’s a cute phrase even if it doesn’t make too much intuitive sense in a time when we don’t run across too many canned worms.

Kettle of Fish

and

Pandora’s Box

are similar concepts that we like to use.

But there’s something particularly modern about a can of worms.  Namely, the can.

Some one invented the can.  And then cans were manufactured.  Then we had to decide what to put in the can.  Then it was packaged, and finally people are in possession of cans that can be opened.

If we think about the idiom literally, it becomes even more poignant:

Someone had to invent the problem. . .

Pandora’s box is a mythical item, and a kettle can presumably be used for other things.

But a can of worms represents a problem that we as a species specifically sought to invent.

It begs to make us wonder recursively:  what problems are we busy creating right now?

All sorts of things fall into this category.  To take a literal and physical example: Lead paint and Asbestos.  At the time lead was added to paint, or vehicle fuel, it seemed like a great idea.  Likewise with Asbestos in all its numerous applications.  But these ‘inventions’ only succeeded in creating microscopic problems that have been replicated trillions of times in terms of the molecules that surround us.

Lead in gasoline is another great example of something terrible, in this respect.  Gasoline engines used to ‘knock’, and it was discovered that this ‘knocking’ would totally disappear with the addition of lead.  Of course, this addition adds a substantial amount of lead to the air that we breath and it turns out there is a troubling correlation between rates of violence and the years when lead was being pumped into our breathing air via ICE’s.

Thinking ahead and trying to figure out just how our actions will effect future events is maybe the most difficult and coveted skill imaginable.  This skill does not simply predict the future, it creates the future.

However, in most cases our notion of the ‘future’ is too short:

If I add lead to this fuel, cars will function better!

If I add Asbestos and Lead to this paint, the company will save money and we’ll have a better product!

Both of these aims are concerned with a short-term look at the future.  But they fail to concern the ‘whole’ future.

Our success often depends on just how far into the future we are willing to imagine as we craft our next action.

What sort of can are you busy building right now?

CAUTION

August 8th, 2019

For the most part, it seems that we fear the wrong things in the modern world. 

We fear taking a chance with a business idea for risk of feeling like a failure.  But the total predicted fallout of climate change is a met with a shrug of shoulders and a couple of words about the size of problems a person can tackle.

Fear most certainly was one of evolutions most brilliant inventions.  In many situations, it has kept us safe.  But fear is a bit of a water hose on full blast with no one holding it: all sorts of unnecessary things get drenched in fear, and many things that we should have fear don’t get touched at all.  At least, this is the case in the modern era where the dangers of life are far less obvious.

Modern life has arisen in large part because of the development of the neocortex, and the abilities it has bestowed upon us to radically change our environment.  This change in environment has likewise shifted the dangers.  An obvious, but difficult to manage one is obesity.  While being obese today presents great danger to a person’s health, ten thousand years ago this was not an issue what-so-ever, and going down the rabbit-hole of avoiding hunger feels very natural.

The neocortex, which is largely responsible for civilization, is also the only practical tool we now have to identify real dangers.  Since we’ve created an environment that is no longer in sync with our intuitions, the identification of real danger requires the counter-intuitive process of carefully thinking through situations. 

This is not easy. 

But given the situation we’ve created for ourselves, it’s our only choice.  And those who don’t put in this difficult, thoughtful work are bound to pay the price when real dangers manifest.

OPEN DOOR POLICY

August 7th, 2019

Being a critical thinker is all about putting your beliefs at risk.

Think of it this way: Mother nature is a pretty ruthless mother, in the sense that she leaves the front door wide open for any thing to waltz in and try to gobble up her children.  If those children make it through the battle, then they get to stay.   Clearly she’s a parent who is all about independence for her children.  Most parents are a bit more protective of their children, locking the front door, and the backdoor to make sure nothing can get in.

We have the same tendency with our thoughts and beliefs.  We protect them.  We lock the door to keep them safe from risk, same from anything that might waltz in through the door and potentially destroy those beliefs. 

In some sense this is a hold-over from blasphemy laws, which governed against the ability to speak offensively towards things held as sacrilegious.  This is an attempt to protect an idea from another idea that turns out to be better, stronger, fitter.

At the end of the day, it’s a tendency that’s fueled by fear and laziness. 

Fitness, literally and figuratively is something that requires constant testing and exercise in order to be maintained.  Just as our bodies do best when constantly tested, so too, our ideas evolve into more robust forms as they are challenged by new ones.  And this requires a genuine open-door policy.

It requires Mother Nature’s courage: the sort of courage that tosses up every beloved conceptual child for potential risk to the unknown. 

The difference of course is that there’s no pain and no reason to mourn when an idea fails to endure and falls prey to something better.

The real tragedy is when actual people fall victim and suffer due to an idea that someone isn’t willing to put at risk for fear of a better idea that might crush it.

OUT OF THE QUESTION

August 6th, 2019

To recap a few previous Tinkered Thinking episodes, we can take the word ‘question’ and simply lop off the last three letters to get a Tinkered Thinking idea of what this word means.  A good question, a real question sets the mind off on a quest. 

It pulls a few other things into focus regarding how we use the word question.  For instance, when someone says “It’s out of the question.” 

What does such a person mean?  Merely that the suggestion proffered will not be entertained.  Quite literally it means that whatever suggestion will not be a part of the mental quest that all involved will take on the subject at hand.

A question, in some sense is an instrument for creating a story.  Often the story is what we must discover to explain the possibilities that we wonder about, to bring reality to our ponderings.  Or rather, bring our ponderings to the hard boiled facts of reality.

To say that something is out of the question is to refuse outright that something has any chance of being part of the story. 

This cacophony of language we constantly use, is, at the end of the day, a story that is constantly rewriting itself.  Even within fields that seem more grounded like math and physics, the story of these fields evolves as discoveries are made, and more importantly, these stories evolve when a good question is posed, and the quest for a different angle begins and ultimately illuminates a new corner of the story.

It begs to wonder: if it’s not out of the question, does that mean that something is…

in question?

A LUCILIUS PARABLE: NO WAIT

August 5th, 2019

The automatic doors parted and Lucilius, using a golf club as a casual cane walked in.  The showroom was immaculate and Lucilius gazed upon the gleaming set of cars.  Lucilius spun the golf club in a wide circle and caught the ground as he took another step and did a loop around each car.  A well-groomed young man approached Lucilius with a smile and asked if there was any way he might help.

“There is,” Lucilius said.  “I want to buy a Tesla.”

“Well, you’ve come to the right place.”

“Excellent,” Lucilius said magnanimously. He spun his golf club again and stopped the clock so as to point at one of the cars. “I want that one.  In white.”

“Ok, well, just a few other questions and we can get you on your way,” the Tesla salesman said.

They worked through the few details quickly and to everyone’s delight it turned out they had just what Lucilius wanted available at that moment.  Lucilius was lead out back and finally laid eyes on his dream car.  Lucilius beamed with pleasure.  He swiped a card and instantly the car was his.

The salesman smiled likewise.  “Ok, well I just need to go back inside and print off a few things, get your key and you can be on your way.”

“Excellent,” Lucilius said.

The man walked off and Lucilius slowly circled the car, swinging his golf club in a big circle.  His face was one of victory, not of something now won but about a battle he knew he would thwart from the start.  He stood in front of the car, and just as the salesman was walking back, Lucilius lifted the golf club and smashed it into the hood of the car, making a huge dent.

The salesman gasped, startled.  “What the…  what’s wrong with you?”

Lucilius pondered this question a moment.  “Not too much, and even then, I’d say I’m making progress.”

“But,”  the salesman stumbled over his words.  “Why would you do that?  It’s a beautiful, brand new car.”

Lucilius shrugged.  “Something like it was bound to happen sometime.  I just don’t like to wait around for such things.  Too much worry, and always for no reason.”