morning boy's letters on serious matters and commentary on funny things aplenty
Human beings’ search for the inarticulable among words creates more words and yet more words, theories and yet more theories.
Some help, many don’t.
It might appear upon plenty of digging that certain words got created out of a need for change, more than anything else, more than accuracy or precision.
Yesterday, I talked about HABIT EXTENSION.
Extension is strangely and naturally viewed as an addition at/to the end.
But extension can be on any side in a 3D world. And a 3D world that can be sliced and moved anyway, extension can even be implemented by placing some more blocks in between any of the blocks.
Prefix, Suffix, Interfix.
Quote me on that. Interfix. I like that.
I got this.
There is this popular expression WORKFLOW. I liken it to Business Processes. Correct me if they are different.
Repetition of WORKFLOW makes or breaks your chances of mastering the workflow; that phenomenon in which you are moving satisfactorily and elegantly into and out of your work. Demands consciousness (Jaynesian sort), or conscious attention, at least till you get a hang of stuff in the initial few repetitions.
And then we all know what’s HABIT. Seen simply, it is a mastery of certain ways of doing and thinking, supposedly not so sophisticated as what constitutes WORKFLOW.
Let me cut this short.
List all your habits.
And list the end points of your habits, the last movement, the punctuation where the habit is treated to be over.
And then consciously, deliberately, add a move that extends the habit; it is like adding a phrase, a clause or extending a sentence with some more words using commas.
See how it gives a different shape to your routine, even to your WORKFLOW.
See how such experiments take you close to that elegance only a master can exhibit.
I call this HABIT EXTENSION. Note that down.
Both carry names: containers and contents.
And when we talk, we use these names so spontaneously.
For examples, take the expression ‘quality’. Is it a container? Is it content? Am I asking weird questions?
Well, the question isn’t weird if we remind ourselves that the words that we speak ‘carry’ meanings. Can I say then that ‘carry’ implies some ‘container’, and if there’s a container there’s a possibility that there is ‘content’?
Back to the expression ‘quality’. What is your sense, is it a container?
To me it feels like a container.
So, when we look at a thing and comment, “I am not convinced about the quality”, what do we mean? Just using the word ‘quality’ may not be sufficient. Your companion may get some idea or no idea of what you’ve talked about.
‘Quality’ could mean durability, fulfilling the purpose for which you are looking at the thing, aesthetics, smoothness, etc. You get the idea?
‘Quality’ the word in itself feels vague, even though it carries meaning. Empty container.
In my search for good books, I’ve come across book titles like these:
You Are Born Funny Or The Funniness Gene
I’ve made that title up actually. But I guess you get the drift. These are titles with effectively two titles or names for the book. ‘Or’ does that job.
I’ve been thinking about giving a name or label to my kind of pants which I want to market and sell some time soon. And I boarded the ‘or’ naming train today morning. Here’s the result:
Aircan Or Soni’s Chinos Or Type 475 Or…
I love this sort of naming.
I know I know what I’ve triggered here. A barrel full of questions!
What would you actually write on the label since the space is tiny?
What would be the domain name if you name your pants misusing the facility of ‘or’?
What would want the potential customers to remember?
What would you write on the social media posters? And in the social media posts?
O God, it’s not a book, they are pants! Why are you doing this!
“We exist in shapes!”
One could even write that “we exist in space”. Plural? “We exist in spaces.”
What’s the difference?
Anger, is that a feeling or an emotion?
Wow, I can’t distinguish between these!
I took these for granted. Or rather was so confident of understanding these. Curveball!
Dynamic Architecture
Stationary Architecture
Perfect Decision
Decisions are not abstractions. They are space-occupying things. Territorial.
Is that the word? Think about it.
“Build”
Look at the meaning of ‘brand’, look at the meaning of ‘build’.
For a long time, I’ve had doubts about this expression and similar other expressions which include ‘brand’.
Folks say, the name of my brand is…
‘Brand’ if understood in the sense of its the original meanings, whether as a verb or a noun, doesn’t make any sense in such expressions as ‘build a brand’.
Actually, ‘brand’ feels like an abstraction. An abstract name given to the phenomenon of making one remember your name at the moment of truth.
What’s that?
I do not want to offer a definition or a definitive answer. Why? Coz I’ve just discovered or, say, coined this expression. Let me offer some hints anyway.
Observe your shoes. Notice how they are shaped.
I find that an overwhelming majority of shoes- leather, canvas, sports- and even sandals worn by women exhibit ‘boatiness’. Notice?
Breathtaking and breathless. A related expression to breathless is ‘out of breath’. Am I getting this right?
What is the difference between breathtaking and breathless?
When you sprint, is it breathtaking and is it breathlessness inducing?
When you scroll through your Instagram feed, is it breathtaking and breathlessness inducing?
Breathtaking and breathlessness inducing, both can cause death?
I just came across a book title WHEN WE ARE NO MORE: HOW DIGITAL MEMORY IS SHAPING OUR FUTURE.
How easy to lure us into thinking that it is DIGITAL MEMORY!
It is storage. DIGITAL STORAGE.
In Jim Manzi’s book I come across a powerful expression:
Causal Density
Don’t ask me. Just as there is a density of people, similarly there is a density of causes.
List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.
Evolution
Algorithmic Operators
Selection
Crossover
Mutation
Do you enjoy your job?
Say I replace the word ‘enjoy’ with some other expression.
Confuse?
Do you confuse your job?
Thrill?
Do you thrill your job?
Hammer?
Do you hammer your job?
Nail?
Do you nail your job?
Polish?
Do you polish your job?
Enjoy has multiple invisible meanings.
There are times when I don’t enjoy my job. When I recognize that ‘enjoy’ involves invisible meanings and start applying the meanings, and write them out, I enjoy it.
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