Like most people who think of themselves as creative, I
write notes about the ideas I have. I pulled together a few of these ideas to
discuss.
My ideas list isn't well organized and I am always surprised
by what I find written on the backs of envelopes. Some times it is hard to tell
if it was my own idea, or something I read and forgot to attribute when I wrote
it down. I usually do that, but I sometimes forget.
I wonder what other people think about these ideas.
Where Do You See
Yourself in 3 Millennia?
This is a very recent idea. I'm not sure exactly how it came
about, but I think it was the juxtaposition of something I saw about job
interviews with something I saw about ancient history.
The line suggests to me the title of a Science Fiction
story. A common theme of SF is the idea of life extension. Will we be able to
live for hundreds or thousands of years. What would that life be like?
Many people find it a struggle to imagine where they would
see themselves in 10 or 20 years. Some people can't imagine where they want to
be this afternoon. How can people imagine what they want to be in a thousand or
three thousand years.
Clue Deficit Syndrome
(CDS)
I thought this was a nicer way to say some one was clueless.
While I occasionally feel this way about some people, I think it really isn't a
good thing to do. All of us, at one time or another, think we understand things
better than we actually do.
Fact Resistant
Decision Making
This is similar to CDS, but I think it is a more valid
criticism, since it involves a conscience effort to reject valid information.
Many times in my life I have been very angry with people who are too quick to
dismiss relevant information, or even avoid possible exposure to anything that
might conflict with the decision they want to make.
I've fallen into this kind of behaviour more than once.
Every time I did, I ended up regretting the decision. Often your emotions are
in conflict with your intellectual side. While some people say "go with
your heart", when you reject your own analysis, you may find yourself
further from achieving what your heart desires.
I think this might be an idea I picked up somewhere else,
but I think the wording is my own.
Happy "Excuse To
Be Nice" Day
This is a more positive thought than the two above. When I
went through a difficult period in my life I made a vow to find an excuse to be
happy every day, even if it were for only a few seconds. That was a big help to
me.
Later I ruminated on how people will wish people a happy
birthday. Why, I thought, don't we do that every day. No one really needs an
excuse to be nice, but maybe if there were an "Excuse To Be Nice" Day,
more people would be nice.
I think we can pretend that every day is "Excuse To Be
Nice" Day.
Confidence in Uncertainty
A couple of the classes I took for my master's degree
focussed on operational research. The title of a chapter in one of the text
books was something like "Decision Making Under Uncertainty".
Throughout my engineering career I found that the biggest technical obstacle
was always uncertainty.
For most people, uncertainty is something that undermines
confidence. As my thoughts matured I began to feel that I should try to see
uncertainty was something that would give confidence.
It may not be a very realistic goal, but the fact is, you
need to make decisions when you don't know everything that could affect your
decision. This uncertainty can cause you to hesitate to decide, or even never
decide.
The best approach I was able to come up with was to make
your decisions with the clear understanding that they could be wrong. Then, you
watch how the world unfolds. In time, it will often become obvious if you made
the right decision. If you make the wrong decision, you may be able to change
your decision, or mitigate the effects of the wrong decision.
I found many people were very uncomfortable with this view
of reality.
When I started to write this blog post, I believed that
these ideas were all unrelated to each other. After I reread what I wrote, I
think they may have more in common that I thought.
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
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