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[ 9 minute read ]

Weaving, Sieving, 3D Printing, or Doing Jigsaws?

Without exception, I write blog and forum posts without planning anything or editing such as changing sentences or moving paragraphs: I don't have to heavily edit; I can write blog posts from top to bottom without really knowing what I will write, even though I have forgotten where I started (not quite). I ramble on until I remember where the beginning is, and then I love to make the whole writing journey circuitous by finishing where I started. For me, it is fun. Only the subject is important, and despite me just now saying I can't remember where I started, I always remember the subject, so I chuck anything in that vaguely adds to the point I want to make. I never remove anything I have written either. I start writing and then stop when I have finished. I only change typos, spelling and grammar. Absolute truth. Do you know how I can do this? I talk in a very similar way. I know what subject I should be on and I know what has been said and I am listening to any questions that arise from both, what hasn't been said, and what has been said. I only want to stop talking when I, or we, get back to the beginning. For me, that is the best conversation ever!

Of course, I am an Open University student and so I am somewhat constrained in what they want me to write, you know, for assessments and how they want me to write (essays or creatively). Like most people, I struggle because I don't know the subject well enough to use a sieve technique of making an essay. That is how I talk and write, like using a sieve, though many people might say 'using a filter'. I am not unique in this: Men talk differently when women cannot hear them, and women reciprocate. Adults don't swear in front of their bosses or children, etc. So, I have just highlighted what results we get from using a filter. But before the filter is applied, sieving must be done. 

       'Wait! What?'

My lexicon is fairly large and I have to select just one word from a collection that are similar in meaning (choice). Incredibly difficult, because it has to fit the context. Everybody does it, though. The point I am failing to make is that a whole stream of sentences are arriving in our heads simultaneously, and we have to get them to fit the previous one if we hope to make sense to someone listening. However, we don't have to make any real sense and random sentences and digressions are not usually trimmed out beforehand. That is how people talk. They expect the recipient to do the sieving. 

       'Here is a whole bunch of junk with some good ideas thrown in. Be a good chap and extract the good bits, would you?'

I don't think I do that as much as many other people. I do a lot of the sieving before I speak. So, I pre-think. People say to me, 'Why do you talk like that?' or 'I knew it was you because of the way you talk.' even though they don't recognise the sound of my voice. That means if I know a subject well enough I can just write stuff on a subject, and THEN edit it to fit word-count parameters. Job Done! So what? I bet you all think that is what we all do, Huh? I don't think so; because I have been thinking, and when I think, y'all better adapt. 

There are other ways to write posts, blogs, and stuff.

Weaving

On a loom there is the warp and the weft. The warp are the parallel pieces of string that traditionally go from the machine towards the machine user or weaver, and the weft is the string that follows a shuttle thrown from left to right. The weave is the pattern made by how the warp and weft strings interact. 

Most of us know how weaving is done on a loom and can imagine that a piece of cloth is woven much as an old printer printing line after line of ink on paper. If I just held one finger down on a single key on my laptop keyboard a repeating series of the same letter would, on my screen, go from left to right and then automatically go to the next line down and go from left to right again, until something else happens. It would just be a normal weave like a 'sheet'. No-one would read it. Lifting only some of the warp strings on a loom would simply be like pressing a different key on my keyboard. But more broadly, in weaving we can create a picture, with different coloured strings and by lifting different warp strings at different times. Yet, we are still working from the beginning to the end of the woven product until we need to stop. The important thing, to focus on here, is that there must be a plan and absolutely no changes can be made after the weave of different coloured strings and the lifting of the warp strings at different times has been completed, or really at any time during the process. 

In fact, so far, this is how I have been writing this post, weaving. However, because there is no pattern; I mean, I really have no desire to highlight any passage, so there is no pattern or recognisable shape; there is only a decision to only use certain colours at specific times in a rudimentary way; at the very beginning, in the middle, and at the very end. In this post, these are the paragraphs that follow headings.

While it is possible to write endlessly like this, sometimes I might get an itching to refer back to something I have already written to strengthen a point. Well, I suppose, make real, a bridge so strong that it becomes a feature. While texture can be created with weaving, and I suppose loops might be made (I think that is crochet or macrame), something more mechanical needs to be used to fabricate a post.

3D Printing

Like an olden-days ink-jet printer going back and forth from left to right and advancing one line at a time, 3D printers do the same, except they go over where they have already been. In an essay that would mean, when we first think of it, repetition, which we all know we shouldn't do. Perhaps, if we think a bit on it we might think of higher and lower planes, which would be areas of greater stress, focus, or emphasis. Making a bridge though is tricky for a 3D printer; it has to add temporary supports and make sure that those supports can be removed in the final edit, by the 3D printer operator. (came back here to edit in 'by the 3D printer owner)

What I am doing now is looking in my memory, while I write, for somewhere in the previous text for somewhere I can bridge back to from here, but I am having no success. Ah, I have it! The title! The word order in the title. Because I just now temporarily wrote about jigsaws in my head in such a way as to be islands of stress, focus or emphasis I can bridge forward. I ruined the surprise or the Wow factor, but I AM just writing as I plan (The only plan so far).

So, with 3D printing a layer of resin is laid, and then layers of resin are laid over each previous layer until the object has reached a certain height and is finished. I am imaging Tower Bridge in London, which to those who don't know it is the one where the span of the bridge lifts in two parts to allow ships to pass underneath on the River Thames. It is fairly functional looking, squarish really, and has an upper span that joins the towers on each side of the river. The first thing we notice that a 3D printer has done when creating a tiny Tower Bridge would be two square islands of resin. Later, these will need to be linked to create the spans of the bridge, or the road of the actual Tower Bridge. As far as I know, 3D printing has to create supports for all the spans. In an essay this is hard to do. Certainly, it would take considerable planning. I hate planning, so I am going to move onto the last section of this post and once done, come back and edit some former sentences in this bit about 3D printing instead. The link or 'bridge' will be 'islands'.

The two sentences in italics were edited in, in the final draft.

Jigsaws

When I don't know a subject at all, I have to take notes. These notes are really in a linear form. I can do mind-maps, but rarely do. Usually, for an essay I will write chunks of text that I know I will need to edit. However, the interesting thing is how we decide which pieces of a jigsaw we group together to make islands of colour and which bits make a frame for all the pieces, you know the pieces with the (normally) straight edges. When I do a jigsaw, like most people I find all the straight-edge pieces first, and link them accordingly, From the picture on the box we can find associated pieces such as the green for some tress, or pinks for the flowers, or something. These form the highlights of the picture on the box in terms of attraction, but in an essay are still as fuzzy as the edges of the islands of associated pieces. Doing a jigsaw means finding, first the obvious pieces, and then looking for connecting pieces. It is completely non-linear and a 3D printer would not be able to do this; one day they will be able to go from one island, or high-point, to another in a non-linear way, let's imagine multiple islands, but right now they have to follow rules that only allow linear movement. Laser cutters with CAD can do this and so can embroidery machines.

Conclusion

I probably use my jigsaw example in a first draft of an essay, but I don't have a picture to look at to tell me where to put the pieces. I suppose, I know where the edges are because there are parameters set by the question. To be honest, it has only just occurred to me to try different techniques. I am thinking that I might try to write freely all I know, sieving as I go, like weaving basic patterns that have areas of colour. This would not be like a jigsaw though, because it is entirely linear. Then, from that, I can see the 'picture', and I know the constraints so I can do a complete rewrite like doing a jigsaw, and then use my idea of 3D printing by going over the essay in a linear fashion, building on the islands of interest and making links and bridges as I go. Then, for the final draft, remove the supports in the edit (spelling and grammar and any superfluous linking sentences)

A scattering of evocative words that can be perceived to be arising from applying stigma, stereotypical perceptions and behaviour can easily offend someone. Usually, a person will be silently offended, but the wound is still injurious to their health. Expressions such as ‘wonky mental health’, ‘mental aberration’, or phrases such as, ‘Perhaps then, it is only myself that will see a ‘fixed mindset’ as being something that must be quickly shoved aside by those with a ‘growth mindset’, can always be considered to be indicative of contempt, dislike or misunderstanding and bigotry. Indeed, if I heard someone describe an individual as having wonky mental health I would be inclined to reflect on my own attitudes to persons with mental ill-health. Sometimes, though, there is a desire to illuminate precarious subject material in a less dark format. Perhaps, it is my own take on highlighting the prevalence of mental health by speaking in the vernacular.

Certainly, I do not need to write using any slang, idioms, colloquialisms, or with analogies and metaphors. Technical writing, with the exception of Wiley’s series of ‘…..for Dummies’ books, are particular in the prevalence of phrases and words that are colourful, descriptive, and thought-provoking. Many people will not study a STEM subject precisely because there is no fluid knowledge allowed in the subject text.

So, how does a person in a conversation with another person appeal to the other person except through the use of shared language, including expletives, when both persons are ultimately seeking approval? Of course, there are many people who are morally correct with coming across as self-serving or self-righteous. These people will have their own preferred group of friends and acquaintances and does not include individuals who have strong views on mental ill-health and the sufferers of mental-ill-health, and never the twain shall meet. Methinks, they do protest too much; you know, Smoke-fire; kettle, pot, black.

In passing, I told a psychiatrist that I have been tested as having an IQ of 130 and also tested to have an IQ of 70, and then went on to remind him that dogs have an IQ of 70, to which he replied that some dogs have a higher IQ than that. We know that the bell curve for Intelligence Quotient includes outliers that are quite distant from the average 100 (103 in latter years), so there is a tendency to rope all individuals with mental ill-health into a group as being intelligence-poor; ‘normal’ people as being those who watch television; take holidays abroad once a year for which they save up for; own a car; and expect to retire at the age specified by the Government of the time; while people with higher or lower than usual IQs are ‘weird’; ‘mavericks’; and ‘misfits’.

Clearly, there is a correlation between diminished mental acuity and detectable mental ill-health. Would we expect a depressed person who is contemplating their own permanent demise  to score highly in an IQ test at the time of their wish to stop thinking? Of course not. The person experiencing emotional distress will, of course, be distracted by their perceived situation, such that they will find concentration and focus on a task very difficult.

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It is fair to say then, that we all undergo differing degrees of mental acuity and this is due to the time of day, levels of energy, and degrees of our mental freedom. It is not a measure of my high IQ test that is relevant since it only realistically reflects that I was unaffected by ANY mental ill-health on the day and at that precise time. It is not a metric which should have any lasting impression on myself or anyone else.

In any case, we are what we eat and mental acuity is facilitated by a good diet, so none of us can accurately assess someone else’s mental capacity and capabilities without first knowing whether their physical and nutritional needs are being adequately met. The only real use of attaining a high level of intelligence quotient is that it acts as something that should be a reminder that it should not be marred by excessive living and works as a goad to force a better, and more considered, presentation of one’s aptitudes.

Misconceptions arise from inductive reasoning. which is most people’s preferred method of making some sense of their world, because they can use heuristics to speed up a decision. Stigma, which is a word most often used by people who present as being different to the ‘norm’ and is a perception of potential negative stereotypical behaviour towards them that applies to their difference. However, just like the words ‘skeptical’ and ‘dubious’ being misused (One can be skeptical about a dubious offer – one cannot be dubious about a skeptical offer – even when there is a skeptical offer from a skeptical person who has a dubious life-story). We should be clear that ‘a stigma is a mark of disgrace that sets a person apart from others’.

There is a common misconception: Individuals with mental health conditions are violent, cannot work or function properly in society because they are unpredictable and unreliable, and they will never get better. Another, people with mental health conditions are weak or have character flaws and these people are rare. In summary then, we should run them out of society and make them live on a remote island where they can fend for themselves or die trying (Oh, sorry, the last bit is the plot from ‘Lord of the Flies’)

There certainly is a valid correlation between occasions of mental ill-health and violence. Violence comes from an inability to adequately control one’s behaviour and exhibits itself as having a lack of clarity of vocal expression to satisfy the degree that the pugilistic person wants to use to hurt the other person. The actual misconception is that individuals with mental health conditions are inherently violent and have short tempers, so will attack even when they are unprovoked.

There is a valid correlation between individuals with permanent mental health conditions and a landscape of insufficient support and help. Also, similar to string theory, because there is an observance of a phenomenon, there is a corresponding effect on the observed element or entity. In simpler terms, but slightly distinct from that similarity, if people have knowledge that someone in their street is an alcoholic, will that alcoholic ever be able to shake off the stigma of being an alcoholic when they have not been intoxicated for decades, if they do not move home? That ex-alcoholic will be forced into a diminished mental state by vicarious influence, and not necessarily influenced by the thoughts that the alcoholic originally had.

‘Positive relationships make employees feel supported and generate an improved attitude towards the organisation and work. They will feel happier and have better mental health, which will make them more resilient in the face of problems and stressful situations both in the workplace and outside it. It will lead to fewer workplace absences and a happier, more productive workplace.’

There is a valid correlation between mental ill-health and weakness or character flaws. If negative stereotypical behaviour is directed towards an individual who is different, that individual will need support from a group of either, mental health workers, or a group of like-minded or similar people. Because we use the word ‘resilient’ as a descriptor of good mental health, when we perceive mental ill-health we use the antonym of the synonym to ‘resilient’. The opposite of strong (resilient) is weak. This can be explained away as not being a negatively stereotypical word as much as it is a lack of clarity of expression. What is the direct antonym to resilient, and why do we use ‘resilient’ to describe an aspect of good mental health, when we know that the working antonym is ‘weak’?

When a mental health condition is so apparent that it becomes a subject of interest to others there must be an attendant display of behaviour that has been perceived to be a correlation to the individual’s mental stability or health. We would be silly to think that in order to be predictable or reliable we must first have mental good health. We know that none of us are predictable and all of us are unreliable. Yet, it is also true that unpredictability and unreliable behaviour is one of the first indicators of mental ill-health when it is taken in the context of a work setting, otherwise the individual is entirely fit to continue in their work role and does not require immediate attention from support workers unless the individual is actually perceived to show other signs of distress, or volunteers such information.

People who exhibit mental ill-health or profess to suffer, or live with, mental ill-health are rare only because their mental ill-health has exacerbated to a detectable degree. Just imagine if the majority of people do present with detectable mental ill-health conditions that surpass the threshold that society places on adequate funtionality in the public environment; would you, like Wonko the Sane in Douglas Adams’ book ‘So long and thanks for all the fish’, consider that you were living in a asylum for mentally-ill people?

Despite there being an idea, that is quite widely promulgated, that one in four people will experience mental ill-health conditions at some point in their life; this is quite untrue. There are periods of extreme anxiety in all our lives at some point. When a loved one dies; only a heartless person (someone who is accepted to have a mental ill-health condition) would not grieve for the newly departed and that sense of loss remains; and who has not been distraught and inconsolably cried when our first love dumped us, and been ever affected by that into cautious love?

Since we know that the seven stages of grief are the contra-wise scale of mental ill-health to that of the Mental Health Continuum, we can be sure that the reason that we are not told that all of us will suffer from a mental health condition is because we are not strong enough to deal with this information; in other words – we lack resilience in the face of reality.

I don’t think it helps to promote the idea that three-quarters of the population are in, and will consistently remain in, a position in which they feel safe to judge one quarter of the population as being different, (for difference read inferior); because if there is a minority there is an outlier from the norm; and which civilisation in history correctly perceived their foreign controlling masters, who were in the minority, as being superior to themselves. Thanks, and a doff of the hat to the empires that subjugated nations, for that idea, and the proven concept that the majority will ultimately prevail unless they are suitably hobbled in their attempts.

But, that hobbling is to prevent anarchy. Perhaps, like getting the digital point in the wrong place for the content of iron in spinach, the actual truth is that one in four of us is experiencing mental ill-health at any given time.

So, these misconceptions that derive from heuristics and result in negative stereotyping when a stigma is encountered, are validated by being in the proverbial majority of ‘unfettered’ thinkers.

Finally, let me examine the misuse of the word ‘resilient’ when applying it to be something to aspire to, or be a metric of mental good health. A story of an Eastern mystic comes to mind. Stereo-typically, they give good advice. The mystic said that we should be like a sapling in a great wind; it bends with the wind and returns to its shape when the storm has passed. 'Do not be like the strong Oak tree', he went on, 'which is firm and stiff and breaks in the wind and cannot return to its shape when the storm has passed'.

We find that the sapling survives because it is malleable and the mature oak tree breaks because it is immutable in its nature. When we say ‘resilience’ we are egregiously conflating the nature of a sapling with a mature oak because we think they are both resilient to force, they are, but different types of force.

How have we drifted away from understanding that the expression ‘You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks’ means that a young dog’s thinking is mutable and an old dog’s thinking is immutable? Very small children are far better at recovering from emotional trauma than mature adults, because small children are resilient due to their mutability. Resilient to change, means immutable or inert. ‘Adaptable to change’ means mutable.