“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” – Ernest Hemingway
drawing by Wil Freeborn.
“It is difficult to get the news from poems; yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” – William Carlos Williams
This post by Robin Hanson strikes me as a gold mine of opportunities for concept design:
We seem primed to confidently see history as an inevitable march toward a theory-predicted global conflict with an alien united them determined to oppose our core symbolic values, making infeasible overly-risky overconfident plans to oppose them. We seem primed to neglect the value and prospect of trillions of quirky future creatures not fundamentally that different from us, focused on their simple day-to-day pleasures, mostly getting along peacefully in vastly-varied uncoordinated and hard-to-predict local cultures and life-styles.
For a while I’ve been concerned about issues of work/life balance. Sure, I’ve always been skeptical of jobs, but I also define “work” more broadly as anything I do to improve myself or the world. This includes my job, of course, but also my studies, discussions, physical fitness, etc. Even spiritual and artistic experiences done with the goal of personal development fall in to this category. Together, these things form an overwhelming portion of my activities, and make me wonder if there is a natural yin and yang to work and life that’s out of whack for me.
Sparked by [this video of Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, describing her stroke](http://blog.gentry.io/2008/03/16/brain-scientist-has-stroke-takes-really-good-notes/), however, as well as discussion with friends, I’ve begun to think about it as a brain balance issue as well. If our left brains are the exclusive home of logical reasoning and conceptual thought–the tools used the most by what I consider “work”–then what am I giving my right brain to do? More than that, what would life be like with a fully-engaged right brain? It’s like I’m living with half of my brain tied behind my back.
It’s become popular to talk about right-brained activities as [the new way to succeed](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/brain.html); that they might replace left-brained activities as the things that business and society value most. But let’s leave business and society out of this. Taylor says that when her left brain stopped contributing, she felt euphoria, and a greater connectedness to all of humanity. That seems like a worthwhile goal on its own. Besides, doing right-brained activities as part of a calculated plan to succeed seems like a distinctly left-brained thing to do.
So how can one experience and exercise their right brain, short of having a stroke or [damaging your left brain](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/262705_brain13.html)? There are plenty of [popular techniques](http://www.neurobics.com/exercise.html) to use your right brain, from [intentionally relying on other senses](http://www.neurobics.com/exercise.html) to [experiencing](http://atlanta.citysearch.com/profile/2997557/atlanta_ga/right_brain_art_gallery.html) or [creating](http://www.drawright.com/) [art](http://www.amazon.com/Illustrating-Nature-Right-Brain-Left-Brain-World/dp/0915965089). I’ve also included a few in my “[Ways to be more creative](http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg4w3gs7_10d8mnpk)” document.
Some of the things Taylor talks about experiencing, however, are also the goals of prayer, mindfulness and meditation training. Her feelings of connectedness and euphoria mirror the experiences cited by [Christian mystics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mysticism), Buddhist monks, and [British journalists](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0997c156-97aa-11db-a680-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1). More simply, setting aside time to rest and pause our endless march of progress can let us focus on the moment, and be receptive to the subtle nudges we’d otherwise miss. I recently practiced a weekend of silence with friends and was shocked by how the first several hours were just decompression from the daily burden of practical communication. Eventually I settled into a state of quiet contemplation that let me see the world in a much more receptive way. I’ve practiced times of contemplation regularly since then, and it continues to provide a unique perspective on life.
The temptation for me then becomes a wholesale switch to a fully contemplative lifestyle. Yet while there are certainly monks and mystics who dedicate themselves to a life of contemplation, I wonder if eventually the lack of left-brain stimulation would result in the same discontent that ignoring the right brain does. A friend mentioned to me that many monks do end up in a legalistic lifestyle because their meditative experiences so dominate their life that they are incapable of interacting with the rest of the world. Interestingly, autistic people [often lose their ability to communicate verbally because they experience overwhelming right-brain activities]( http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-03/ff_autism)–so I don’t think I’d want to take it that far.
We have two sides of a brain for a reason, and it seems useful to always engage both of them. For me, it’s time to untie my right brain and let it loose.
I’m caught between simplicity and complexity.
I am intrinsically attracted to simple ways of living. Every way in which I simplify my life feels pure, natural, and right. [Philosophers](http://www.amazon.com/Less-More-Anthology-Ancient-Simplicity/dp/089281554X) [talking](http://thinkexist.com/quotations/simplicity/) about simplicity [resonate](http://ryskamp.org/brain/philosophy/quotes-on-money-and-possessions) with my beliefs. I keep thinking of a quote from [Diogenes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope), the ancient Greek philosopher, who threw away his cup when he saw a child drinking with cupped hands, and said “A child has beaten me in plainness of living.” Simplicity, then, even to its cultural extreme.
Yet the work I’m attracted to is ever more complex, the “[wicked problems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem)” that take immense time, energy, and resources to solve. These to me are the most interesting and worthwhile things to work on, and as I progress in my work the problems get ever more complex.
But can the wicked problems of today be solved by the same increasingly-complex systems that caused them? Climate change is a wicked problem, being fought with environmental, scientific, cultural and political efforts. However the main causes of climate change are scientific innovation, cultural growth, and political stagnancy–can we expect these same forces to now reverse their effect? Can complexity get us out of the hole it dug us into?
Simplicity is a practice, and you grow by practicing it. I’m still very young in this, and perhaps these questions will resolve themselves with time. I don’t see it now, though.
If nothing else, practicing simplicity on a personal level should make me more able to tackle complex problems in my work. If there is a limit to how much complexity one person can manage, then we would benefit from simplifying the things we can, to better focus on the things we can’t.
A few quotes from [Less is More](http://www.amazon.com/Less-More-Anthology-Ancient-Simplicity/dp/089281554X/bobdesigns-20/) that are shaping my thinking:
> You possess only whatever will not be lost in a shipwreck. – Al-Ghazali, 12th cent.
> Is it really wise to be always guarding against future misfortune? Is it prudent to lose all enjoyment of the present through thinking of the disasters that may come at some future date? – Betrand Russell
> The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for. – Robert Henri
> In my hut this spring
there is nothing–
there is everything
– Sodo, 1641-1716
> I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. – Philippians 4:11
> Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. – Proverbs 30:8
> I have not Peru in my desires. – Sir Thomas Browne, 1605-1682
> He is rich who hath enough to be charitable. – Sir Thomas Browne
On the morning commute, I listened to [Doug Pagitt’s Sanctuary talk](http://sanc.info/sermons/mp3/070610_dpagitt.mp3), where he talked about BodyPrayer, which incorporates movement and body position in prayer.
On the evening commute, I watched David LaChapelle’s _[Rize](http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Rize/70024103)_ ([trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0efEID-uCtE)), where kids from South Central L.A. cite dance as the thing that saved them from gangs and gave them community, and then bring their love of dance to church where they dance as part of worship.
Didn’t see that coming.
The self-described “compulsive list-maker” shared these in [his talk at TED in 2004](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/50).
* Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
* Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now.
* Being not truthful works against me.
* Helping other people helps me.
* Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
* Everything I do always comes back to me.
* Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
* Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
* Money does not make me happy.
* Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
* Assuming is stifling.
* Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
* Trying to look good limits my life.
* Worrying solves nothing.
* Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
* Having guts always works out for me.
Two articles in [Wired’s current “What we don’t know” issue](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html) stood out especially for me.
1. *[Is time an illusion?](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html?pg=3#time)* – Mentions Einstein’s belief that time is just another dimension. If so, perhaps from one position it would look like a single point. (Similarly, Jeff Hawkins is quoted in this month’s Business 2.0 that “an expanding universe is the same as a universe where the rate of time is speeding up.” So if moving infinitely fast makes time elsewhere appear frozen, does time moving infinitely fast make us appear frozen?)
2. *[How can observation affect the outcome of an experiment?](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html?pg=3#outcome)* – Talks about the observer effect, and specifically an interesting corrolary derived from quantum mechanics–“that unless we observe an event or thing, it hasn’t really happened”, where “observation” refers to a broad range of detection methods [From Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect):
> In quantum mechanics, if the outcome of an event has not been observed, it exists in a state of superposition, which is being in all possible states at once. The most famous example is the thought experiment Schrodinger’s cat, in which the cat is neither alive nor dead until observed — until that time, the cat is both alive and dead (technically half-alive and half-dead in probability terms). However, it is not clear that quantum observation requires a human or sentient observer.
The combination seemed interesting to me. If time can look like a finite picture, and our “observation” of things makes them real, then perhaps we can contribute to that picture by observing things.
And how much more important then is it to observe _new_ things, or alternatively, be a part of realizing new things so they can be observed. For the picture of time to change, we must create–and perhaps creating that picture is the unique opportunity of life here in our world.
This idea itself is not completely new, unfortunately. Ed Fredkin mentioned it in Robert Wright’s _[Three Scientists and their Gods](http://ryskamp.org/brain/books/notes-from-three-scientists-and-their-gods)_, and Wright then said as much with his latest book _[Nonzero](http://ryskamp.org/brain/books/nonzero)_. Douglas Adams wrote about it in _The Hitchhiker’s Guide_. But the combination of these two ideas was what most recently made sense to me, and once again got me excited about my own little role as a creator.