Saturday, March 21, 2020
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Consume to Create (or Consume with a Purpose)
Pure consumption can feel like one is accomplishing something--stuffing your brain full of potentially useful knowledge. But the challenge is it can be as beneficial as stuffing one's body with empty calories. One does need knowledge to synthesize--knowledge is a building block of original creation, or to say it differently, knowledge forms the struts in the lattice of ideas and understanding that buttress a new creation--the vertices in the lattice being connected as one synthesizes understanding while consuming and connecting knowledge.
When one just consumes without creating, it is hard to know if something of value is being created--is it adipose or muscle? Adipose has potential value, but only if the creative muscle ultimately burns it to create useful results. And one does not know if the results are useful unless the results are published for another brain to chew on and consume to provide feedback. The feedback is what permits the creator to learn if what they synthesized is comprehensible, connected as intended to underlying principles, and ultimately that it is truly original. If the produce of one's mind is either kept in that mind or never actually sent to market, it does not exist or rots on the shelf in the brain.
Consuming with a purpose can guide and inform consumption by helping ensure it is not consumption for consumption's sake. After all, the universe ultimately values creation (good enough creation), as it is creation that is the random bouncing required to permit the higher-plane evolution of thoughts and ideas that help humans find their way to a greater and greater understanding of the universe.
The quotes, "the universe values action over thought" and "I did not think, I investigated", attributed to Einstein and Röntgen, respectively, speak to the value of not just consuming and reflecting, but instead acting on the input with a purpose--after all investigating or experimenting, as Röntgen did, required action. Together, I would extract from these quotes, the universe values creation over pure consumption--or the universe values creation with a purpose.
This article by Russell Bishop provides a useful example that clarifies how/why the universe values creation above consumption or just thought:
"Something clicked this time around and I got the message. I moved a puzzle piece and heard silence. I moved it back and tried another. Applause this time. I moved another and heard silence once again. I moved one more, heard the applause, and then it all clicked into place. With just a couple of bits of feedback on the heels of taking action, I suddenly saw the solution. I rapidly moved all the other pieces into the solution while "the universe" acknowledged the moves with continuous applause. Had I sat there thinking and thinking, I might still be there. All it took was a little action on my part and the willingness to listen to the feedback"
In the above example, the other participants needed to consume to create their reactions, but the key is they too did not just consume, the created reactions based on the inputs--they tended to action.
This job requirement for a position, mentioned here, outlines creativity well:
Creativity
Creation is an exchange of energy that bumps/moves the overall arc of human understanding and undertakings in a useful direction. Consume, but do it with the purpose of creating in mind.
Philosophical rambling:
Heat death comes when there is no useful energy being exchanged in the universe--there may still be energy there, but if that energy cannot create something of value for a downstream consumer, then there is heat death. Thoughts being synthesized and shared are a transfer of potentially useful energy roughly equivalent to the Darwinian exchange of chromosomes by two creatures that are reproducing. If the creatures only eat and never reproduce, the creatures die with nothing left to show for all the consuming they did--without the potential producing value in the form of better-adapted offspring.
When one just consumes without creating, it is hard to know if something of value is being created--is it adipose or muscle? Adipose has potential value, but only if the creative muscle ultimately burns it to create useful results. And one does not know if the results are useful unless the results are published for another brain to chew on and consume to provide feedback. The feedback is what permits the creator to learn if what they synthesized is comprehensible, connected as intended to underlying principles, and ultimately that it is truly original. If the produce of one's mind is either kept in that mind or never actually sent to market, it does not exist or rots on the shelf in the brain.
Consuming with a purpose can guide and inform consumption by helping ensure it is not consumption for consumption's sake. After all, the universe ultimately values creation (good enough creation), as it is creation that is the random bouncing required to permit the higher-plane evolution of thoughts and ideas that help humans find their way to a greater and greater understanding of the universe.
The quotes, "the universe values action over thought" and "I did not think, I investigated", attributed to Einstein and Röntgen, respectively, speak to the value of not just consuming and reflecting, but instead acting on the input with a purpose--after all investigating or experimenting, as Röntgen did, required action. Together, I would extract from these quotes, the universe values creation over pure consumption--or the universe values creation with a purpose.
This article by Russell Bishop provides a useful example that clarifies how/why the universe values creation above consumption or just thought:
"Something clicked this time around and I got the message. I moved a puzzle piece and heard silence. I moved it back and tried another. Applause this time. I moved another and heard silence once again. I moved one more, heard the applause, and then it all clicked into place. With just a couple of bits of feedback on the heels of taking action, I suddenly saw the solution. I rapidly moved all the other pieces into the solution while "the universe" acknowledged the moves with continuous applause. Had I sat there thinking and thinking, I might still be there. All it took was a little action on my part and the willingness to listen to the feedback"
In the above example, the other participants needed to consume to create their reactions, but the key is they too did not just consume, the created reactions based on the inputs--they tended to action.
This job requirement for a position, mentioned here, outlines creativity well:
Creativity
- Demonstrate intellectual curiosity about why things are the way they are; challenge the status quo.
- Change, elaborate, adapt, and improve on ideas or those of others.
- Demonstrate a tendency toward action; materialize thoughts into products or services.
Creation is an exchange of energy that bumps/moves the overall arc of human understanding and undertakings in a useful direction. Consume, but do it with the purpose of creating in mind.
Philosophical rambling:
Heat death comes when there is no useful energy being exchanged in the universe--there may still be energy there, but if that energy cannot create something of value for a downstream consumer, then there is heat death. Thoughts being synthesized and shared are a transfer of potentially useful energy roughly equivalent to the Darwinian exchange of chromosomes by two creatures that are reproducing. If the creatures only eat and never reproduce, the creatures die with nothing left to show for all the consuming they did--without the potential producing value in the form of better-adapted offspring.
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