SARGASSO

February 15th, 2022

There’s a portion of the the mid Atlantic where a particular type seaweed called Sargassum pools in an enormous gyre. Most people know it as the area of the Bermuda Triangle. It’s infamous for doldrums where sailors would get stranded with not a lick of wind for days if not weeks and months. It’s a watery no man’s land, that once entered, is hard to escape from.

The human mind has such places, and can make itself one when the right conditions arise. Despite exciting plans, interesting projects and what is normally a pretty revved up sense of drive and determination - something can feel stuck and spinning with nothing to spin against.

Days flitter by, escaping by way of binged TV and half considered attempts to finally get it together.

Like depression it can seem like an omniscient monster that must somehow be fought. But brute force cannot be administered upon itself. Better to use the opponent’s momentum to our advantage.

Put another way, it’s easier to slowly turn a ship than it is to push on the oncoming bow with an aim to bring it to a complete halt and eventually shove it in the reverse direction.

So what is the momentum and direction of something that seems typified by going nowhere?

The answer lies in the illusion that nothing seems to be happening. Take for instance the quintessential activity of the last few years: binge watching TV. We all know that other things can be done while watching TV. We all have more than enough experience eating whole meals while watching TV. So this sort of distraction can be used while compounding tiny tasks for something larger.

A juggernaut does not spring into action, but slowly gains momentum, and it’s possible to inch forward without much the mind noticing, distracted as it is by the candy of culture. All that’s needed is to readdress expectations about what should get done to be more in line with what can get done. And it’s accomplished quite simply: what’s the easiest low-maintenance item I can get done that requires no brain power? There’s likely a few piles that fall into this category. And while the work might go slower with a little distraction, at least something is getting done.

While we wait for wind, there’s no harm in a slow row, if only to pass the time, and a bit of distance. 

LEEWAY IN ART & SCIENCE

February 14th, 2022

Baking is a science. Without a good deal of experience, it’s simply unwise to try and ‘wing it’ in the department of baked goods. A stir fry, on the other hand, like a lot of cooking, has a great deal of leeway. Building a rocket is more like baking than it is a stir fry - it’s very easy to build a rocket that doesn’t work because the window for understanding and constructing a working one is slim. In the same way it’s very easy to bake a horrible cake.

The overlap between science and art certainly exists. The investigation required to solve novel problems in science requires creativity, and there even seems to be an art to problem solving itself, despite how rigid and scientific the solutions appear once solved. There’s infinite ways to arrive at an unknown solution, but the number of legitimate solutions has far less leeway. Hence the partial overlap between art and science.

But in the realm of art, anyone can quite literally do anything and call it art. The same cannot be said for science, and though there can be an infinite number of ways to arrive at a useful conclusion, the idea of arriving at that useful conclusion in a timely manner generally filters for a gargantuan universe of nonsense - A universe of nonsense that is often ignominiously mined by the art world.

Most abstract art and certainly all post modern art takes advantage of this ridiculous leeway, creating an environment for shysters and frauds who work a magic of persuasion without substance. Snake Oil salesmen could get away with their pitch because back in the day’s of the frontier, science was in its infancy compared to now.

This doesn’t mean that science is devoid nor immune to the unscrupulous ways of the fraudster - not at all. The fraudster can exist in such domains because art is required, which means there’s likely enough leeway for some unscrupulous characters to slide in - for a time. In the art world, a fraud can live very well for their entire life - as long as enough other people believe their story. But a rocket scientist who doesn’t understand the science won’t last long.

In order to create, be it art or a novel solution, we require space. To wander and wonder. Like an open niche in an environment, it also provides an opportunity for parasites, but this is the tradeoff, and honestly - part of the fun and challenge. There’s an art and a science to sniffing out a bullshit artist, no matter where they lurk, be it as a quack scientist or a pontificating post modernist.

A LUCILIUS PARABLE: THE VICE OF ADVICE

February 13th, 2022

Lucilius ducked out of the sunshine into the cool darkness. His eyes adjusted to the bar, dark as a cave. He needed to sit and think, and the place was empty. A bartender with rolled sleeves and designed skin was polishing an end of the bar and looked up. He nodded at Lucilius and Lucilius walked over and took his seat.

“Something to drink? Eat?”

“Just a drink?"

“What would you like?”

Lucilius shrugged. “You decide.”

“Sweet? Sour? Herbal? Bitter? Any combination? Anything off limits?”

Lucilius considered the fresh question. “Well I feel like I just had some bitter medicine, and -ha- I guess I’m feeling a little sour. Does that work for you?”

The bartender nodded, slowly turning away, surveying the ingredients he had to work with. Lucilius watched mindlessly as the barman exercised his slick techniques, the fine attention to detail, the precision and accuracy. Within a few moments, a chilled coupe was placed before Lucilius, filled as if with a liquid gold. Lucilius had never seen anything like it before. He took a sip.

“Well?” The barman asked.

“It’s fantastic, what is it?”

The barman shrugged. “Custom, on the spot.”

Lucilius was impressed. “Do you just remember all the custom drinks you whip up like this?”

The barman wore an uneasy look, tilting his head from side to side as he thought about it.

“Some of them, I should write more of them down to be honest.”

“Well you should definitely write this one down.” Lucilius took another sip. “I needed this.”

“You said something about bitter medicine?” The bartender prompted, curiously.

Lucilius sighed. “Yea, I don’t know. Not sure what to do. I guess you could say I have two mentors, and they both tell me completely opposite things.”

“Like advice?”

“Yea. I have a sense about what I want to do, and what I think I can accomplish, but I just spoke to one of these guys, and I simply hated all the advice he had to give.”

“And the other one?”

Lucilius shrugged. “More open-ended. Never any solid ‘do this’ or ‘do that’. More my style to be honest.”

“So this mentor who gave you bad advice: what didn’t you like?"

Lucilius puffed out his breath. “Yea, well I could go on and on about that. He wants me to specialize, and I see that as pigeon-holing myself. And all his advice is geared at an eventual outcome that I actually don’t even want.”

“Does he know that?”

“Nah, well, I don’t know. He doesn’t think what I want is realistic. He basically gives me advice to try and turn me into him.”

The barman laughed. “Let me ask you this: of these two mentors, which one is happier?”

Lucilius’ eyebrows shot up as he considered the question. “Well, that’s an interesting way of looking at it.”

He took another sip of his drink as the barman continued, “And of the two, has either been down the path you actually want to go down?”

Lucilius was even more impressed. He snorted a laugh.

“Same guy for both questions?” The barman asked.

Lucilius laughed. “Actually, yea.”

The barman smiled faintly and walked away to attend to someone else who had just sat at the bar. Lucilius meditated over the issue, newly lit by the barman’s questions, as he enjoyed the drink. He realized how strange it is that someone’s advice could be so disappointing to hear - that it could cause such discomfort and almost anger. Was it a sign of a reality that had to be faced? Or is such a genuine reaction a sign to avoid following such advice?

Lucilius pondered as he relaxed. The barman returned. “Another?”

“Sure,” Lucilius said confidently.  “Another one of - uh, what should we call it?”

The bartender looked off into space for a moment. “The Vice of Advice.”

Lucilius laughed. “Did you just think of that?”

The barman nodded with a faint but proud smile as he scooped up ice and began preparing another drink.

“Oh, one thing,” the barman said.

“What’s that?”

“Well, now I have to be guilty of this vice and offer some advice.”

“I’m all ears,” Lucilius said.

“The one who gave you bad advice?”

“Yea?”

“Make sure you thank him for it.”

Lucilius gave the barman a quizzical look and the barman shrugged.

“No matter how much you don’t like what he said, he’s still trying to help.”

SCOPE OF INFLUENCE

February 12th, 2022

Everyone has a tremendous potential when it comes to improving the daily lives of those around us. This is because, for most people, our family and friends represent our sphere of influence. The leader of a country, for example, has a much different sphere of influence - one that usually extends to millions if not billions of people. But this is the exceptionally rare exception…

A crucial ingredient for anxiety and helplessness is when our information diet is drastically out of sync with our scope of influence. News stations run 24 hours a day, and feeds on Facebook and Twitter update every few seconds, enabling a bombardment of information with wildly varying scopes. In one moment we can be nervous about the morose mood of a small child in the same room, and the next we can be anxious over impending war a half a world away. Our influence only extends to one of these items, but harnessing electricity for instant communication has vastly expanded the potential scope of information we can consume.

Given the simplicity of description here, it might seem that the prescription is to strap horse blinders to the mind and focus solely on one’s sphere of influence. And for sprints of learning and work, this is likely excellent advice. Most things outside of our scope of influence are merely distractions, the ramifications of which won’t matter in a decade, if not days or hours. So as a simple default, yes, drilling down on the things we can influence is the best thing to do.

But, doing so without stopping to occasionally look around can lead to being horribly stranded in an unfruitful direction of life. Take for instance someone who shutters themself away in a secluded cabin with a particular piece of technology. Perhaps a computer before the internet was created, and this person becomes a true master with all it’s capabilities, and then inevitably when such a person returns to society, they discover that their chosen technology is long out of date, and the mastery is completely useless. 

So while the overwhelming majority of our time and attention is best directed toward the things we can control, and the fields where we have legitimate agency, it’s vital to look up and look around every once in a while to make sure that the details of one’s aims within a scope of influence still make sense in a larger framework.

Problem is, the reverse is true. We spend the majority of our time looking around at a whole bunch of far-off things that don’t matter a single hoot, and very little time doing meaningful work that unlocks the potential for improvement within our scope of influence.

COHERENCE DRIVE

February 10th, 2022

Dedicated to Micle, connect with him on twitter @MicleMihai

Looking at the etymology of the word ‘coherent’ it means for two things to stick together. A contradiction feels uncomfortable because two things are being squished together that don’t belong together because they don’t make sense together. Coherence arises when things that make sense together, stick together. Or in the case of human thought and speech, it’s when we place words and ideas in a sensible order.

But at what level do we run our validation test for what a ‘sensible order’ is? For example, there are plenty of nonsensical sentences that make grammatical sense. Take for instance this one:

“Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”

Grammatically there is nothing wrong with the sentence. But as to what sort of coherent thought it’s meant to inspire - that’s another question. How can something sleep furiously? Let alone an idea? And how can it be colorless and green?

So taking the simple concept of a sentence, there’s at least two lenses through which we can judge coherence. There’s grammar and syntax, and then there’s actual meaning, which is what we’re usually concerned with. Interestingly, we can have sentences that make sense which are not grammatically sound, so it may seem that syntax and grammar are perhaps arbitrary - but this of course depends on which ruler we are using to judge coherence!

Let’s zoom out from the single sentence and examine the following two sentences as a pair:

The following sentence is false.

The previous sentence is true.

Each sentence is sensible on its own - not just grammatically but semantically. However, when paired, we have a sly contradiction which is anything but easy to resolve. But the point here is to illuminate another level where coherence can be determined. If we zoom into each sentence, we have coherence. If we zoom out, suddenly coherence is destroyed. Unless of course we are using syntax and grammar as our ruler, then coherence is maintained. So again, it depends on the ruler we use to judge coherence.

This process of zoom can continue outward, to paragraphs, pages, chapters, and whole shelves of books and bookcases.

And then of course we can jump out of the world of words and thoughts and examine the galaxy of action. One particularly old proverb pops up: Actions speak louder than words.

What’s interesting is that much of an individual’s behavior is consistent and coherent, but with many people, that coherent behavior isn’t coherent when placed in conjunction with the words such a person says. Actions speak louder than words because it’s a person’s actions that are more likely to effect the world, not their words.

Another axiom needs to be mentioned here: Walk the Talk. Which simply means, do what you say you will, or: make sure your words and your actions are coherent.

Imagine a person who has virtually perfect coherence between all the things they say, and also with all the things they do. What sort of person emerges in the mind? Is this an angry person? A depressed person? Hopeless? Or is it easy to imagine this person as calm - at peace?

Now we perhaps get to why coherence has any value or attraction. What does it mean to be a coherent person, with a coherent message and coherent actions?

While every person operates with some level and contamination of contradiction, the desire and drive for coherence is simple: it’s authentic and genuine, and most importantly: it’s the one thing that inspires trust, because honesty operates on rails of coherence.

It’s impossible to trust someone who has little or no coherence, no matter which level we are talking. Generally, with people comfortable with lying, there’s coherence in the words they say, but the coherent reality they spin up with words is totally incoherent when mapped against their actions on a long enough timeline.

As a species, our one true superpower is our ability to cooperate - especially as strangers, and in order for this to occur, there has to be a significant amount of trust, or, coherence. A desire and drive to be coherent inspires trust in others, raising our communal power of cooperation, further increasing that we’ll be able to help each other achieve the sort of tomorrow that all parties are hoping to make a reality.