people think in categories

Famously in the 1970s A&W burgers launched a campaign called 'the third is the word' where they sold a 1/3 pound burger for the same price as a quarter pounder. For some reason it failed and never took off. At a focus group they found people saying "why should we pay the same price for a third of a pound burger as we do for a quarter pounder".

Some assumed that the punters were so thick they couldn't do fractions and that customers believed a third was smaller than a quarter. OK, maybe a few...

What I think occurred is that the very strong category of 'quarter pounder' had outstripped its connection to the real world of weights and measures. I think the consumer probably thought that quarter pounder and third pounder were kind of like the same- so price became the big issue. The strong category of 'quarter pounder' worked to 'stop thought'- or at least confuse it.

When you enter a world with strong categories don't be surprised if no one understands your subtle point. Their minds are simply too 'wired in' to cope. Using the strong categories beloved by others really means nothing new is being communicated.

The value of things that are outside categorisation is that they may, just, be listened to or looked at....

saltmines #2

If you want to becomes wiser, put yourself in an environment where being wise happens more often. Find the place where acting wisely is easier. What are the everyday surroundings of a wise person?

why poetry is essential

I hated poetry up until the age of 13 or 14.

I thought it was a con. That it was deliberately vague. Nonsense words that adults pretended meant something.

Aged 13 or 14 I fell in love and thought: where kind I find out about love? I know: poetry.

So I started to read it. So now I wasn't hostile, just not that interested.

Aged 16 I watched a TV program about Craig Raine who wrote 'martian poetry'- that is, poems with startling and clever show-off metaphors. Not much rhyming. (Rhyme scares people who 'don't like poetry'.) Suddenly a thought came to me: I can do this!

I started writing poetry. I worked out how to do it and began to look at all forms of it. I grew to love the intricacies of making words rhyme and puns ceased to be annoying and became intriguing.

But the best thing was that I learnt how to understand non-literal, metaphorical communication. If you aren't able to read between the lines, see levels within levels and understand when something is an analogy and when it is meant to be literally true then you will be at a grave disadvantage....

the notion of perfection

The notion of perfection is necessary as a template, something to aim for, a map.

But it is not the territory. The territory is ugly, messy, sometimes beuatiful at dawn, but otherwise a right old hodge podge.

People try and make the territory perfect and forget that it never can be. Knowing when to ditch the notion of perfection and when to use it as a spur is the skill you need to acquire.

More damage has been done by people misusing perfection as a concept than almost anything else bar rank stupidity.

creating versus worrying

My old friend and bestselling author Tahir Shah wrote on a social media post that his new year's resolution is "create, create, create." Given that he is highly productive people who want to create may take notice. The wrong frame of mind to be in when you are making something new of an artistic nature is "is it good enough?" The right frame of mind is to be like a kid in front of a mound of clay eager to get stuck in and so keen to know what will be created. Think create, create, create and be eager to just make stuff. Maybe if you're lucky people will like it. But in a way you've already been paid.

doing and thinking

Doing changes the parameters of thinking. Imagine you are climbing a hill and the summit is invisible. This is because the slope is convex and gettlng less steep as you go higher. So actually the going is getting easier. But the summit is hidden by the bulge of the slope ahead. Only by keeping going can you get to the top. By stopping and thinking you may conclude 'it's not worth it' as the summit is invisible. Your thinking is limited by the experience of plodding ever upward and not seeing your goal. But once you are at the summit all kinds of different thoughts are possible, thoughts you could naver have had by imagining yourself at the summit. Doing has changed the parameters of thinking.

Lots of things seem impossible when you think about them because the parameters are inappropriate. But you cannot 'think' these obstructive parameters away. You have, instead, to get going and do something. By doing something you move ahead and the view changes. More things seem possible. The more things you do the more things seem possible.

technology and war

Technology has replaced war as the major disruptor of our lives. People forget that war, like technology (and of course one often hastens the other) has many benefits for some people - the 'war profiteers'. We have a small group of technology profiteers too, and the rest of us who buy into tech when it is in the nascent phase (one car on an empty road) and then realise we are stuck with it (living in a commuter suburb with no public transport and traffic jams all the time). Tech that makes things easier rather than harder (exercise machines, brain trainers) will inevitably allow more and more people to do that thing. This causes TRAFFIC. Traffic makes money for LAMPHREYS (people who hang on and bleed a moving entity dry) but causes a headache for everyone else. In the end we find new tech or a new form of SOCORG (social organisation) to deal with TRAFFIC. This might include the recluse lives of people in Cairo suburbs ('social life is over' one matter of fact resident told me about his new villa based existence in sixth of october city) replaced by the odd social event and a lot of time alone in a darkened room with a glowing computer screen. The main mode of Malthusian malcontent (4Ms!) is ever increasing traffic and the concommittent traffic jam. Immigration is of course excess traffic leading to the real traffic jams on the orbital roads of the city- eventually. 

War causes traffic through displacement driven by fear. Technology causes traffic through greed- easier, cheaper, faster- we want it now and we'll move to get it, and the second order benefits too. War causes traffic much faster than technology used to, but tech is speeding up and spreading everywhere much faster now and is embedded in influential cultural institutions it is hard to avoid such as schools and universities. The main casualties in war are physical, the main casualties of technology traffic are mental. Hence the mental health crisis.

Just as there are conscientious objectors to war there are people who increasingly distrust technology. The resistance to war happens when the concerns of the populace are basic- food and shelter. The resistance to technology starts when we reject increased traffic in every area. This happens when there are no more benefits to be had in the usual areas of increasing wealth and increasing possibility. When the zone of possibility increases in non-tech areas (learning foraging, learning how to make fire with a bow drill, making art, running, cooking) the vital attention of humans shifts. Technology ceases to attract the well rounded 'normal' person and becomes of interest only to those who over strongly desire power and money. Traffic makes money but it becomes a waste disposal problem. Traffic becomes a sewerage problem. The plan shifts from expanding the city to building the infrastructure to allow a certain kind of expansion. The profiteers work in reducing waste, finding betters ways to make waste disappear. In the end the big money is in the waste disposal industry.

Is there an end to war? Small wars persist but big wars no longer happen where technology is well entrenched and has disrupted social organisation to the extent of shattering tribal loyalties. Is there an end to tech invasions? Will everyone turn their back on tech?