PRODUCTIVE SKEPTICISM

November 6th, 2019

Often, skepticism is used as a license to believe nothing and do nothing.  For the secular individual, it can be the intellectual mask for being lazy.

This attitude and practice is more a contemporary flavor of cynical skepticism.

But as with all ideas, beliefs, attitudes and dispositions that we learn about and might adopt, we must ask:

what is the most useful version?

The root of skepticism is inquiry and doubt.

And in order to form good questions to make an incisive inquiry, we need an imagination.  And in order to take that first step back to create the space for a question to form, we need doubt.  This practice of skepticism can be extremely productive.

For example, anyone who isn’t genuinely surprised when their efforts succeed lacks a certain imaginative flexibility.

Skepticism envisions branching possibilities.

Such flexibility also enables a person to potentially navigate such paths to unexpected and unforeseen success.

Now pit this version of skepticism against the original one, the sort a person might use to entitle themselves to no solid belief and therefore be free from any requirement to try and do something.

Both the individual who pivots and iterates towards a goal and the person who does nothing can be skeptics because of it.

But as with everything, we must ask ourselves: which version will help me the most?

THE VISIBILITY OF PROBLEMS

November 5th, 2019

A visible problem is one that everyone can see. 

If you solve it, then everyone sees that too.  You’re likely to get credit if that’s the case.

Some problems are invisible.  We don’t necessarily realize they exist until they are solved.  This is especially true if an invisible problem is solved in a visible way.  The smart phone might be an example of this.  Before, we had three different devices in order to browse the web, make a phone call and listen to music.  It’s not even clear there actually is a problem until someone draws a technical connection between the three and collapses three devices into one.  An invisible problem with a very visible and much loved solution.

Garbage can be thought of as a visible problem.  We don’t want it around, and waste companies kind of solve this problem by removing it from our sight.  The actual problem of garbage isn’t solved because it usually just goes into a landfill, but the visibility issue is solved.  This is more like sweeping it under the rug.  It’s not really a solution, but it looks like a solution, and the visibility is enough to fund a large business to make it happen.

It’s worth it to wonder if it’s possible to solve an invisible problem with an invisible solution.

At first glance, it might seem as though this is like doing a silent and unseen good deed.

But even that isn’t possible, because even in that instance, there’s at least one person who sees.

If you do a good deed just for the sake of it, and no one ever sees nor knows who it was, at the very least, you know what you did.  And though it might make invisible solutions to invisible problems impossible, it’s still worth it. 

At the end of the day it makes you more likely to do the right thing when you are thrust into the spotlight.

THE DEFAULT STATE OF LEARNING

November 4th, 2019

Everyone claims to love learning.  But this is mostly untrue.

The reason is that people fail to think about what the state of learning – what the actual verb – is referring to.

Everyone loves having new skills and knowledge.  But having skills and knowledge is not learning.  Skills and knowledge are the end result of learning.

The verb ‘learn’ refers to the process of acquiring these skills and knowledge.

What sort of state floods a person’s mind when they are trying to acquire a skill or some kind of knowledge?

Confusion.

Learning is what’s going on before we have the skill, or before we understand the knowledge. 

The default state of learning is confusion. 

Once the skill is acquired or the knowledge is understood, then it’s no longer learning, it’s just a skill you have or some knowledge that you can use.

Learning is that difficult transitional phase when things don’t make sense.

Few people actually enjoy, let alone love this kind of state.

Just think for a moment:

How many times have you heard a person say that they love to be confused?

A LUCILIUS PARABLE: THE MOMENT'S MOOD

November 3rd, 2019

Lucilius was slumped over a computer, staring into the bright screen.  A giant list scrolled on and on as his fingertips brushed the track pad again and again.  He was looking for something to watch, a movie, or a show, but none of the titles he read registered with what he was feeling.

He didn’t want any of those actions movies, none of that drama.  He was a little tired, but calm.  He felt easy and relaxed, if still yearning for something to watch.  He scrolled some more.

There had to be something he could watch.  Something steady, something almost quiet.  Whatever it was, it was probably a movie where not much happened.    It was just a mood really that he was hunting for.  Something meditative, contemplative, passive almost.

But each and every title his eyes scanned held some unwanted spark, something loud, and disjointed almost.  None of these movies were . . . smooth, he thought.  Perhaps he was looking for something that’s only in music, he wondered.  It was about time, he realized.  Something to mark the minutes, but not with the staccato of a second hand, nor the frenzied beats of a song. 

He scrolled further, and then finally sighed and sat back from the computer, his eyes drifted off to a corner of the room.  There was nothing there but the sight held him, like a trance.  He felt himself breathe, the mood of the moment washing over him.

A corner of his mouth pulled away slightly.  He slowly closed his laptop, and sat staring at nothing, feeling himself persist through time.  The mood he’d been looking to match was still there, but now without the list of movies, it seemed to expand, until he could see it in the blank walls of the room, the closed computer, and his hands hanging in his lap.  Dimly, he could hear his slow breath and tried to catch the moment when the world seeping in started to rush out, but the switch was too sly, as each moment seemed to unfold seamlessly into the next.

COMEDY'S POINT

November 2nd, 2019

First, a distinction:  good comedy requires a clever element, but things that are merely clever do not constitute comedy.

There are some comedians who merely craft and perform clever puns, but much comedy goes far beyond this and incorporates extreme subjects.  And comedy does this for a vital reason,

namely:

it’s generally not polite to bring up extreme topics.

Comedy enables us to entertain a discussion of difficult topics without social awkwardness.  It’s the pleasure of comedy, often delivered by the mechanism of cleverness that balances the unpleasantness of the subject.

With these competing emotional forces in balance, we are able to fluidly explore difficult subjects together.

Comedy is a way to hack our own emotional system in order to move forward when something feels too horrible or serious to talk about.

This is a case where the combined effect is more than the sum of its part.  The synergy of cleverness and extreme topics allows forward movement.

It’s not just something we do to have a good time.

It’s how we keep society healthy by keeping the Overton Window as wide as possible.