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[ 5 minute read ]
If it Matches Me
It is difficult for me to focus on something immediate when I have something stewing on the back-boiler. I don’t really set timetables for tasks; there is no Gannt chart in my house, and no diary or calendar to portion out each day. There needs to be, because I have responsiblities and commitments. Without them, I would cease to exist. Gradually, my molecules would lose interest in each other and they would cluster into their own preferred groups. A good place to take a holiday is around my middle and under my chin. To the neighbours, despite my changing shape, they would see less of me; right through me. They would dismiss me as halfway between a miasma and a solid shape; not much better than a bad smell. You know the one; you have seen people sniff under their arms and pull that little face of slightly disgusted concern. That would be me they would experience, if I had no ‘esperance’ (obsolete word for ‘hope’) and no purpose.
I used to run a Europe-wide business; in fact I was the owner. I set up my own protocols and procedures; ones that suited how my mind works. I care to remember some things and shove away information that would confuse me in the immediate ‘now’. One of the protocols I enforced within myself was to record information that was relevant for later tasks. Because of the similarities of my roles for each day I had to make sure that there was no leaching of information (the cool people people call it data) from one contract to another. I taught myself to forget or not remember. This is one of the reasons I have so many pieces of paper stuck to my wall (inside my home!).
Abnegate – transitive verb 1. To give up (rights or a claim); renounce 2. To deny (something) to oneself. (The minister abnegated the luxuries of life) 3. To deny and reject; to abjure.
It is fairly easy to imagine a pattern of thinking to which I conform. I am interested in Psychology; though only that which matches me. I am interested in Philosophy; though only…..; I am interested in performing well; though only…….; I am interested in Art and Craft, and cooking, and growing things; though only…..; I am interested in myself; there is no caveat to that statement. However, I would like to say, ‘though only where it matches you.’ I am interested in you but I don’t have a piece of paper on my wall to remind me. Fortunately, some people took the time to write down what they discovered in areas that match me, and I have read some of their words. ‘My word! This man is educated!’ Yeah, like a sand-castle as a shaped formation of sand particles is a whole beach; and is the only sand-castle that was ever built. Not even that. Other people build sand-castles; all I know, is the sand still left in the bucket when the towers and turrets of the sand-castle has been built; Without stimulation that sand in the bucket that is my knowledge would dry out and a tap and an upending would allow the bucket to be clean.
I asked a librarian if she had a book about Pavlov’s dog and Schrodinger’s cat. She said it rang a bell but wasn’t sure if it was there or not.
I have a book called, ‘The Personal MBA’ by Josh Kaufman. As the title suggests, it is about winning through acting and thinking in particular ways.
‘Modal Bias is the automatic assumption that our own idea or approach is the best. Most of us like to assume we have everything together – that we know what we are talking about, we know what we are doing, and that our way of doing things is best. Very often, we are mistaken. There is always more than one way to get something done, and good ideas can come from anywhere.’- The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman, Portfolio Penguin, 2010
I am so tempted to link Josh Kaufman’s statement that there is always more than one way to get something done, with skinning Schrodinger’s cat. (It is a take on an old saying; ‘There is more than one way to skin a cat’, which may be an old naval expression relating to how to flog a man with a ‘cat ‘o nine tails). I think the concept has something to it and might be interesting as a thought experiment; Coming up with a way to get something done as being either viable or not, but never actually knowing it is, or was, or will be. That, I suggest, is the opposite of Modal bias; everybody else’s ideas are the keenest, quite simply because we don't trust ourselves. Josh Kaufman warns against modal bias. We have all seen someone else’s way of doing things and thought, Why? He says we have to use willpower to overcome it. Hmm, I think I trust myself more than he wants me to. I am interested in his opinion, though only……
This post is not particularly fun, but you might guess, today, it matches me. I really need to get out more, and get slightly wounded in my garden, or mildly surprised by strangers. I might go to the Central Library, or wake up a supermarket check-out person with wild sentences. That fun, however, has been ruined by better work conditions that give them breaks and a variety of different tasks to do. In any case, I have strong things to do at home. Sometimes, our modern British concern for the populace robs me of wearing a super-hero cape and cheering people up. I think I might need to learn to shuffle along in a queue and dampen down my energy and 'esperance' for my immediate future.