Theory #7: The Kamikaze Auto-Pilot
It is 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. Having spent the last week vacationing up north, (and missing my weekly post in the process), I am about to hear an alarm clock for the first time in 9 days. Emotionally, I am not ready, but this doesn’t matter.
Several snooze buttons later I am snapping into action even though I am so groggy that I can’t think rationally. I stumble to the washroom and shower and shave with remarkable efficiency. I intuitively find (ahem) suitable work clothing. There are about 5 things I need to remember – keys, wallet, comb, phone and sunglasses, but I find them all without a thought. I step out of the elevator, nodding at a concierge that I am assuming is there solely on blind faith. My eyes are barely open behind the shades. As I hit the street I begin combing my hair without any mirror as I walk towards the office. Content, I toss my comb a foot or two in the air.
Despite having no formal training in aerodynamics or advanced mathematics, I am miraculously able to judge where the comb will land and move my hand there within an instant; catching it and putting it back in my pocket in one swift motion. Sure, I will be late for work, but I am practiced in the art of corporate dialogue, and my colleagues, equally proficient, will have no problem overlooking my tardiness. Soon I will be typing away at about 50 words a minute, nowhere near exceptional in this day and age, but still pretty impressive if you ever stop and think about it.
Like so many of us on a Monday morning, I have started my work day by completing a series of complex tasks with very little help from my conscious mind. I am functioning almost completely on auto-pilot. It is my own biased opinion that I have an outstanding auto-pilot. It is almost as cool as the inflatable one in the original Airplane movie. Being able to navigate through an infinite amount of details and distractions, and then being able to focus on a single task, is crucial in connecting with the other humans on the planet, because this is the way we interact and communicate with one another: we all learn common shortcuts, words and expressions, and we use them to convey our thoughts. We all speak the language and we all know the rules, so we wander around comfortably, focused only on the details we choose to base our life around.
Contrast this with the wondrous mind of my 1 year old nephew. He came up north to visit this week and I got to see his young brain integrate and understand a new environment. To him, there are no shortcuts yet. Every single item in the room is noteworthy. Every apple is a different item, unique and not yet part of any fruity generalization. He has almost no auto-pilot, and I envy him. The world is nothing but stimuli, and he is he is only just begun the process of breaking it down into a workable number of pieces and patterns such that he can function in society. He is yet to conform, but anxious to communicate, so conform he must and conform he will. Moreover, the better that he is able to break his world into patterns the better off he will be as he sets off to establish himself
We like to say that humans have reason where animals only have instinct, but I have never been comfortable with this. Sometimes I think we either both have reason or we are both just using instinct (“tomato, tomato” – but that only works if you know to read that and pronounce the two words differently.) The major difference, in my opinion, between animals and humans is the level of complexity in our thoughts and behaviour (smarter brains have smarter instincts).
When you get right down to it, the world is really too big for any of us to comprehend and grasp at anything but broad levels, so we create “the big picture”. Meanwhile, we spend the bulk of our lives dealing with our own personal “little picture”. We pick and choose the details we think are important, and navigate around the rest. All the while, large corporations spend millions of dollars trying to bring new details to the forefront of our minds. Do I have dandruff? Gingevitis? Bad breath? Do my socks match my belt? Does my fashion sense align with current trends, and not previous ones? This attack on our senses just puts more pressure on us to learn to how to ignore all of the noise.
It is easy to drown in a sea of details, and we all desperately rely on our auto-pilot to navigate the storm.
The problem is, the more we rely on our auto-pilot, the more trouble we get in later. Life, like a software company, continues to introduce upgrades into its sea of details, and our auto-pilot, because is trained not to pay attention, loses its ability to adapt. We don’t see the world change around us.
This is why old people seem “out of it”. Their minds became resistant to change back when they were learning how to become “with it”. New technologies confuse them. All of these new immigrants with different customs and priorities intimidate and annoy them, so they show less tolerance. The idea of modern society rendering obsolete so many of the details they once learned to navigate, means that their skill set has become less valuable. All of this goes on while their body is physically deteriorating. It is a real challenge to face the realities that come with age, but we are all getting older just the same.
So I offer you Chapter 7 in the Book of Mark: To succeed in life you must have a good “auto-pilot” to navigate the infinite details, but you also must not be afraid to take back the wheel now and then and risk crashing the plane.
The smartest among us develop the best auto-pilot. The better our auto-pilot is, the more we rely on it. This suggests that the smartest among us will be the most affected when our auto-pilot becomes obsolete, so it is the smartest who must work the hardest to counter the trend.
How does one remain grounded, maintain perspective and foster an ability to change with the times? How does one survive outside the details we all once chose and have now buried ourselves in? As usual, my simple pithy theories lead to much harder questions. I have my own solutions, and I DO NOT recommend them for everyone.
I believe in exposing myself to sharp contrasts and opposite extremes. I like to do things, both personal and professional, that require extremely sharp concentration. I also like to enjoy things like drinking and drugs (only the good ones) that bend the brain into new perspectives and discourage concentration. I also like to live in the heart of the city, and spend weekends in the middle of nowhere. Sharp contrasts force me to stop, refocus, and stay grounded. It keeps my mind open to being creative. It wrenches me out of routine and forces me to look around.
I don’t imagine that this appeals to most people, but I trust you already know what helps you think creatively and maintain perspective. I hope you are making enough time for it.
I hope this answers the question as to why I haven’t posted in two weeks. I was away and my brain was vacationing from its usual patterns, as well as from sharp focus in general.
In closing, teacher, I spent my summer vacation trying to remember how to fly the plane.
Several snooze buttons later I am snapping into action even though I am so groggy that I can’t think rationally. I stumble to the washroom and shower and shave with remarkable efficiency. I intuitively find (ahem) suitable work clothing. There are about 5 things I need to remember – keys, wallet, comb, phone and sunglasses, but I find them all without a thought. I step out of the elevator, nodding at a concierge that I am assuming is there solely on blind faith. My eyes are barely open behind the shades. As I hit the street I begin combing my hair without any mirror as I walk towards the office. Content, I toss my comb a foot or two in the air.
Despite having no formal training in aerodynamics or advanced mathematics, I am miraculously able to judge where the comb will land and move my hand there within an instant; catching it and putting it back in my pocket in one swift motion. Sure, I will be late for work, but I am practiced in the art of corporate dialogue, and my colleagues, equally proficient, will have no problem overlooking my tardiness. Soon I will be typing away at about 50 words a minute, nowhere near exceptional in this day and age, but still pretty impressive if you ever stop and think about it.
Like so many of us on a Monday morning, I have started my work day by completing a series of complex tasks with very little help from my conscious mind. I am functioning almost completely on auto-pilot. It is my own biased opinion that I have an outstanding auto-pilot. It is almost as cool as the inflatable one in the original Airplane movie. Being able to navigate through an infinite amount of details and distractions, and then being able to focus on a single task, is crucial in connecting with the other humans on the planet, because this is the way we interact and communicate with one another: we all learn common shortcuts, words and expressions, and we use them to convey our thoughts. We all speak the language and we all know the rules, so we wander around comfortably, focused only on the details we choose to base our life around.
Contrast this with the wondrous mind of my 1 year old nephew. He came up north to visit this week and I got to see his young brain integrate and understand a new environment. To him, there are no shortcuts yet. Every single item in the room is noteworthy. Every apple is a different item, unique and not yet part of any fruity generalization. He has almost no auto-pilot, and I envy him. The world is nothing but stimuli, and he is he is only just begun the process of breaking it down into a workable number of pieces and patterns such that he can function in society. He is yet to conform, but anxious to communicate, so conform he must and conform he will. Moreover, the better that he is able to break his world into patterns the better off he will be as he sets off to establish himself
We like to say that humans have reason where animals only have instinct, but I have never been comfortable with this. Sometimes I think we either both have reason or we are both just using instinct (“tomato, tomato” – but that only works if you know to read that and pronounce the two words differently.) The major difference, in my opinion, between animals and humans is the level of complexity in our thoughts and behaviour (smarter brains have smarter instincts).
When you get right down to it, the world is really too big for any of us to comprehend and grasp at anything but broad levels, so we create “the big picture”. Meanwhile, we spend the bulk of our lives dealing with our own personal “little picture”. We pick and choose the details we think are important, and navigate around the rest. All the while, large corporations spend millions of dollars trying to bring new details to the forefront of our minds. Do I have dandruff? Gingevitis? Bad breath? Do my socks match my belt? Does my fashion sense align with current trends, and not previous ones? This attack on our senses just puts more pressure on us to learn to how to ignore all of the noise.
It is easy to drown in a sea of details, and we all desperately rely on our auto-pilot to navigate the storm.
The problem is, the more we rely on our auto-pilot, the more trouble we get in later. Life, like a software company, continues to introduce upgrades into its sea of details, and our auto-pilot, because is trained not to pay attention, loses its ability to adapt. We don’t see the world change around us.
This is why old people seem “out of it”. Their minds became resistant to change back when they were learning how to become “with it”. New technologies confuse them. All of these new immigrants with different customs and priorities intimidate and annoy them, so they show less tolerance. The idea of modern society rendering obsolete so many of the details they once learned to navigate, means that their skill set has become less valuable. All of this goes on while their body is physically deteriorating. It is a real challenge to face the realities that come with age, but we are all getting older just the same.
So I offer you Chapter 7 in the Book of Mark: To succeed in life you must have a good “auto-pilot” to navigate the infinite details, but you also must not be afraid to take back the wheel now and then and risk crashing the plane.
The smartest among us develop the best auto-pilot. The better our auto-pilot is, the more we rely on it. This suggests that the smartest among us will be the most affected when our auto-pilot becomes obsolete, so it is the smartest who must work the hardest to counter the trend.
How does one remain grounded, maintain perspective and foster an ability to change with the times? How does one survive outside the details we all once chose and have now buried ourselves in? As usual, my simple pithy theories lead to much harder questions. I have my own solutions, and I DO NOT recommend them for everyone.
I believe in exposing myself to sharp contrasts and opposite extremes. I like to do things, both personal and professional, that require extremely sharp concentration. I also like to enjoy things like drinking and drugs (only the good ones) that bend the brain into new perspectives and discourage concentration. I also like to live in the heart of the city, and spend weekends in the middle of nowhere. Sharp contrasts force me to stop, refocus, and stay grounded. It keeps my mind open to being creative. It wrenches me out of routine and forces me to look around.
I don’t imagine that this appeals to most people, but I trust you already know what helps you think creatively and maintain perspective. I hope you are making enough time for it.
I hope this answers the question as to why I haven’t posted in two weeks. I was away and my brain was vacationing from its usual patterns, as well as from sharp focus in general.
In closing, teacher, I spent my summer vacation trying to remember how to fly the plane.
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1 Comments:
Your theory on auto-pilot sounds an aweful lot like the ancient discourse on habit (it was either Aristotle or Plato and I am too tired to go check the shelf and see which it was). Good company to be keeping.
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