Balaji Prasad
By Balaji Prasad
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” ~ Richard P. Feynman
The common aphorism, “Simple living and high thinking!” may not be as simple as it sounds.
Like many such exhortations, there is an underlying intent behind this as well as an associated remedy that seeks to mitigate some problem. But if you see this deeply, a cure with allure could render worse some hideous curse; or, horror of horrors, that the good intent might even result in the exact opposite of what the original aspiration was.
Aspirations can be thwarted by incorrect framing, and a “thinking” inside the box. Is there a reframing that aligns better with reality? Can an actual remedy come not from amplifying something but from minimizing it? Could the problem with “thinking” be that there is too much of it rather than too little?
Simply Living, Unhigh Thinking
D’you hyper- hyper-optimize?
D’you over- over- over-think?
D’you see it when you theorize?
D’you shrink space-time to just a blink?
Do foam oh! wistful dreamy eyes
drive you to dredge bottom of thing?
Do you think you may be unwise
to see through only lenses pink?
If you sense your lofty “logic” flies
‘n’ imagination takes to drink,
that’s when you’ll see that it tells lies …
the Self that lies under the thing.
Could “Think unhigh!” touch real highs,
and stop your heart from taking wing?
Your highness?
‘High thinking” may be an unfortunate turn of phrase that reveals something more than it may have intended to. A lot of “thinking” is devoted to the same purpose as most intoxicants: to make the imbiber and swiller high!
Substances of many kinds are widely and wildly popular. Across cultures, geographies and lands. Even if we don’t want to burden ourselves with the “why” of this, it is sufficient to acknowledge that this is so. Incontrovertibly so. Drinking is probably the only thing that comes close in popularity – as evidenced by its use and abuse – to the thing we unashamedly call “thinking”. It even rhymes.
Exploring a layer below all this, an “I” comes into view – the miscreant that craves such inebriation and slyly calibrates the “high-Q” index of various available substances, including the thing we call “thinking”. The “I” is here to stay: it’s not going anywhere. So, a wary bear (or human) will want to keep an observant eye out for this thing that will drink pretty much anything that is within touching distance.
“Thinking”, of course, is not just within touching distance, but actually within the over-eager tippler. And there is a lot of it. A whole lot! Would somehow having less of this make life more? And, if so, how might this be accomplished?
Can the creator destroy?
“Creative destruction” is a term, popularized in business strategy. This framing may contain within it the seeds of a personal strategy too, to accomplish the above.
The interesting thing about such neologisms is that they reframe one’s “logic” box. Thinking creates such boxes. An unfortunate one caught inside one cannot see the box. However, it may be sufficient to see what the box is constructed from: “logic”. “Logic” is made from the stuff of words. And the worst part is … the words may not even be one’s own! So, “thinking inside the box” may be often more accurately restated as “thinking inside their box”.
The boxes come from an indoctrination through continual injection of words and frames that begins from the cradle. And is repeated. And repeated. And repeated. These boxes were never meant to replace reality and one’s senses. But the human brain may fail to draw bright lines between such boxes versus the grasp that comes through one’s own senses, and that is marshalled by a deeper, more organic intelligence.
Make the truth whole again!
The magic of word-boxes separates “creation” from “destruction”. The magic of the reframing it as “creative destruction” puts Humpty Dumpty back together, which allows one to see that when you destroy something, you increase something else, in comparison. Even though you don’t explicitly increase it.
Destroying “Intelligence” could make more room for the gift of organic intelligence – the innate thing that boldly goes where no word has gone before. Similarly, destroying part of the “I” could make more room for the “It” – the real world that is, whether the “I” is or not.
Think less, live more?
Balaji Prasad is an IIT/IIM graduate, a published author, SAT/ACT Online and in-person Coach, and K-12 Math Tutor at NewCranium. Contact: balaji.prasad@newcranium.com.
