INVISIBLE VISION

April 18th, 2019

Neuroscience research seems to indicate that the world we see is mostly a kind of controlled hallucination.  Most of what we are seeing is more like what we’re expecting to see as opposed to some definitive and perfectly reliable experience of reality.

A strange phenomenon everyone experiences that may possibly verify this is the all too familiar search for a lost item which turns out to be in a very obvious place.  Often times we are looking directly at the lost item and somehow we fail to see it.  We laugh this off as some kind of funny mental mix up, and yet the implications are perhaps deeply unnerving.  If we can totally miss an item right in front of our eyes that we are consciously seeking, what else might we be missing.

This is far more important in the conceptual realm where our perspective on the non-physical aspects of a situation can be greatly hindered.

For example, a focus on limitations can thoroughly blind a person from seeing all that is within their power to actually accomplish.  This perspective, like all others explored on Tinkered Thinking are invisible and yet they comprise ways of seeing the world.

When we see a solution, it’s generally because our perspective has been tweaked, just as we suddenly see an optical illusion when we tweak our position in relation to it.

As we learn we are quite literally searching for an invisible perspective through which to see the world with a sense of understanding that enables us to practically manipulate some aspect of the world to proper effect.

It bodes well for the depressed or anxious, the confused or the frustrated: there’s simply no telling what new thought or idea might bring our perspective of the world into clearer, sharper focus, expanding our agency and enabling us to take an effective action.

ITCH

April 17th, 2019

Whether we are trying to fall asleep or relax in a meditative pose or concentrate on some new problem, our ability to focus often encounters that nagging phenomenon of an itch brightening up on some random part of the body.  Our concentration is broken, our relaxation is impeded, our venture into those realms of slumber is blocked.  To ignore an itch seems only to give it power, like gas to a flame.

Another ubiquitous phenomenon that we see and hear from others and may be unaware of within ourselves is a particular variety of complaint.  Such complaints are often predicated by introductory statements like

“You know what I hate?”

or

“I can’t stand the fact that…”

What remains unrealized for many people who gush such cranky observations is that they are automatically qualified as serious candidates to change things regarding their complaint.

Naturally, most people told such a directive will rebuff with something along the lines of “it’s too big of an issue, there’s nothing I can do.”

But this logic suffers a further lack of specificity, like an itch that we can’t immediately locate.  With the physical itch, do we simply give up?  Or do we hunt around for relief?

In the case of the complaint, it needs to be sharpened with questions that whittle it down to some kind of actionable size.  Just as questions can sharpen each other, such sharpened tools can then be put to use upon the object of our complaints, hacking away the hazy fat, drawing the problem into sharper resolution, caging in the aggravating little demon at the center of the trouble.

In so doing we can eventually find a solution, or at the very least a starting point from which to begin solving the problem that’s been so acute in our attention.

Many entrepreneurs and business guru’s often use this metaphor of the itch as a way to guide people about what they should do.  The language surrounding this image is more directed towards the pleasure of actually scratching an itch.  But here the goal is to highlight it from the totally opposite direction.  Whereas most people who hear such a metaphor employed are already actively seeking to create something, those who don’t have such aspirations on the mind may not realize the potential of their own problems: what we complain about may be a guide, a compass by which to steer our efforts towards a better, more productive life.

When these two different realms of psychology come into contention, as when a mover and a shaker hears someone complaining, another directive often gets blurted out:

“Well then do something about it!” says the mover and shaker.

If it were actually possible to calculate, it would be interesting to note the percentage of times this kind of command is actually effective.  Chances are it’s low.

The command works like a volley from one perspective to another.  In essence it’s saying “Stop looking at the world the way you look at the world, look at it the way I look at it.”

This almost never works, unless a fair amount of that perspective already exists within the target.

Instead of an abrasive command that usually comes across as an offense to a person’s complaint, we can benefit from wondering what strategy might be more effective.  How can we evoke the same perspective within our companion in dialogue instead of trying to throw a billboard with the answer into their face?

As with riddles and puzzles, no one really likes to be handed the answer.  We want the opportunity to ponder and succeed, even if it’s just the smallest possible instance.  What part of conversation and dialogue fits this description? 

The question.

Instead of rolling eyes and saying “Do something about it!”  We might grow a bit sneakier, and ask questions that make a person further investigate their own complaint.

Under the guise of eliciting sympathy, a person stuck on their own complaint will dive into it further, but if that exploration is guided with well formed questions that help a person arrive at facets of the issue where action can be taken, then “Do something about it!” can turn into “what would happen if you took this little action?”

A person complaining is like a person who can’t find an itch – a person who may not even realize that they can be relieved of such pain if only they take the right action with the right target.

This applies to even the mover and shaker who is likely to get fed up and say “Well just do something about it!” 

The mover and shaker is in essence complaining about the complainer in this case instead of investigating more fully the nature of their own discomfort.  Such a mover and shaker might benefit from a question like “is there a way I can more effectively help this complaining person instead of just telling them to do something about it?”  Chances are very good the answer is yes.

Seeking to engage with questions is far more effective, with others and with ourselves.

The right question is far more likely to evoke one’s point of view in another, or develop our own point of view if that question is self-directed.

To disagree with a statement like “do something about it!” is easy.

Questions, on the other hand can function like welcome invitations into new and unknown territory within a person’s own mind – territory where your own perspective might also exist, or territory within one’s self where a better plan of action might reveal itself.

This episode references Episode 30: The Only Tool, and Episode 157: Conquer or Concur

CURIOSITY'S TRIBUTE

April 16th, 2019

In the ancient world people from all parts of the globe had different belief systems with different gods but a similarity that threads through nearly all of these belief systems is the idea of paying tribute to their gods with some kind of sacrifice.  Within the cannon of Greek myths it was the smoke that rose from burnt offerings which sustained and nourished the gods, presumably to make the gods favorable to mankind and bring about good rains and good harvests, essentially the good life.  This is, in other words, a trade-off.  Sacrifice some food now to make sure tomorrow is better.

A much sidelined concept in the modern adult world is curiosity.

Curiosity is something relegated to the unimportant and much forgotten world of children.

And yet curiosity can breed a near obsessive productivity.

Such a deep dive into a subject creates an expert.

And in a workforce of replaceable cogs, nothing is safer than a unique skillset.

But unlike the gods of ancient Greece and those that still remain in current traditions, Curiosity is a deity that can bestow a real superpower upon those who are willing to pay the tribute.

Unfortunately, unlike churches which take money, or the ancient gods of Greece that preferred the smoke of burnt foods, curiosity accepts only the most valuable of resources that we as people have:

Time.

The most inane things fight for this single resource: social media, entertainment, mediocre jobs, asinine social gatherings, and often they win over things that we find far more important if directly questioned: things like family, exercise, reading.

Curiously enough, few are quick to mention curiosity as an important part of this group. 

And yet curiosity holds within it’s power the greatest treasures to bestow.  Treasures that might free a person of a mediocre job and the need for entertainment created by other people.  Curiosity, unlike all other things we might trade-off our time for, has the ability to show us a path in life that supersedes our need for a job and simultaneously become our entertainment, and finally frees up the time that is usually partitioned among many things when we fail to find a way to combine them all into one.

Even if such sounds too good to be true, like a cake we can eat and also continue to have,

It’s perhaps a small enough sacrifice to wonder about such a possibility,

and perhaps our wondering might breed a growing curiosity that can lead us into new and interesting realms of possibility that we’ve never before considered,

but that

takes time.

This episode references Episode 342: Phoning The Void

NO DAYS OFF

April 15th, 2019

Today marks Tinkered Thinking’s first birthday.  In the last year there have been 365 podcast episodes and adjoining posts that comprise hundreds of different perspectives revolving around one central theme.

Tinkered Thinking will continue in this vein for the reasonably foreseeable future in order to more fully explore this theme and slowly extrapolate upon a framework that has begun to arise from the soup of 275,000 words.

Today seems like a particularly salient day to comment on the fact that this platform has a continuous output seven days a week.

The purpose and effect is several fold.  It has been an experiment to see if writing about a single topic everyday is possible, and that experiment was also undertaken in order to more quickly and fully construct a virtuous habit.  Like most all behaviors and thoughts, those most repeated are generally the more likely to happen again, and a day-off presents an opportunity for the exact opposite to repeat until nothing is left but an old curious project that might have yielded something.

The other side of this 7 day schedule is a tribute to the fact that we do not ever have any days off from life.  While vacations might feel like reprieves from more routine work, we never get a day off from who we are or our experience from moment to moment. 

Each day is an opportunity to explore something new, as each episode of Tinkered Thinking strives to do.  And the result has been surprising.  Such a practice of engaging with the unknown unearths completely unexpected treasures.  It’s been the hope of this platform that such discoveries might be helpful, useful or at the very least curious to those who are kind enough to take some time with the content.

If you have at all benefited from the wandering wonderings of Tinkered Thinking over the last year, or if you have just discovered it, please take the time to share it with someone.  Please also consider becoming a supporter of the platform, even a couple of bucks a month makes a substantial impact on the health and longevity of this project.  Books are in the works along with supporter-only content, so stay tuned as Tinkered Thinking explores a second year of wondering out loud.

A LUCILIUS PARABLE: FOUNDATION

April 14th, 2019

Lucilius was in his garden looking at mushrooms that had popped up overnight, wondering how they might be connected, gently unearthing some of the mycelium and following it’s growth when the old wooden gate creaked.  He looked to see a young man walking along the stones towards him.  He took a seat on a fallen log near Lucilius without greeting him.  Lucilius looked his way briefly and then continued with his study of the mycelium.

“How goes it?”  Lucilius asked.

The young man sighed.  “Pretty overwhelmed, I guess.”

“Oh?” Lucilius prodded.

The boy sighed again.  “I’ve been given a huge project, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Why not?”

“There’s so much to it, so many pieces, I’m just not sure where to start.”

“Start anywhere,”  Lucilius recommended, glancing at the young man who was rubbing his eyes, squeezing his brows to a pinch at the bridge of his nose.  He opened his eyes as though waking up again, his eyelids fluttering. 

“Yea, but I need to know how I’m going to do the rest before I start or else I might mess something up in the beginning.”

“It’ll figure itself out, such is the nature of these processes.”

“How do you mean?”

Lucilius sat back from his investigation of the mycelium and looked at the young man.  “Do you remember when we went to see those huge pyramids?”

“Sure.”

“You can imagine building a pyramid, by simply placing blocks in a square, and then placing blocks in the shape of a smaller square on top of the first.”

“Yea, I guess.”

“You do not have to worry about the size of the fifth or sixth square because the one below determines how much smaller it should be.  If you think about construction in that way, each step tells you what the next should be.”

“That works with a pyramid, sure, but I don’t see how that applies to my task.”

Lucilius watched the boy for a moment, seeing how tired he was.  “If you stretch your mind to be more flexible, you might see how it can be much the same.  You might for a moment think about the sentences you speak.  Do you have them totally written out in your mind every time before you utter a first word?  Or does our speech seem to organize itself as it goes?”

The boy thought for a tense moment and then sighed in tired frustration.

“Let’s think about this a different way,” Lucilius said.  “Is it easy or difficult to move a huge stone pyramid?”

“Difficult” the young man said.

“That base layer of the pyramid need no particular order in the way it is laid.  You can start with a corner stone or a stone at the center.  The order only matters once we actually have something to work with, hence the next level.”

“Ok, what does this have to do with moving a pyramid?”

“Well you are concerned with the complete picture, the end-goal.  In essence, it’s that last capstone at the top that you are concentrating on.  You have it all flipped, and now let me ask you, how difficult is it to topple a pyramid when it’s balanced upside down?”

The boy again sighed in tired frustration.

“But there’s something else that I think needs attending to first.”

“What’s that?”

“It seems you might benefit by giving tomorrow a good foundation by getting a long night of rest.  It seems now that everything I say topples your mind when I’m trying to help you build up a spirit with which to tackle your task.”