Testing, testing, one two three


Pencils ready?

You're going to get a twofer on this blog today.

I was in the midst of replying to the comments of this entry and it dawned on me that I have not made some of my beliefs quite clear.

I absolutely agree, not everyone is ready to face the big questions.

But there is nothing new in that!

Not in American history and not in history in general. Especially if certain Plato quotes are to be believed.

You can't have the exceptional discovering the right answers without A LOT of the unexceptional stumbling around with the wrong ideas.

Think of it as a signal to noise ratio. You can't turn up the volume and only get the good stuff. Sheer amplification increases the static too.

And as much as I personally would love to premptively cut out the nonsense so we can concentrate on the "important stuff,' it wouldn't work. That nonsense is absolutely necessary to put the good ideas and practices in context. That nonsense is also absolutely necessary to frustrate the exceptional so they come up with new ideas.

I come from a long line of farmers. My maternal grandfather stopped being a farmer when they moved to Arizona, but after he retired he gardened on about an acre and a half until he died. Good farmers and good gardeners will tell you that concentrating on just one crop doesn't work well. Some plants put nitrogen into the soil, some take it out. Some put certain nutrients into the soil while taking certain others out, others take out different nutrients and put still more back into the soil. Some years it's best to let the field lay fallow. And you still can't control what your neighbor grows, or if his crop is better than yours.

One of my root beliefs is that if I can't convince you to change your mind, I have no business trying to force you. If my ideas have any worth, they have to be able to stand on their own merit.

Sometimes life conflicts with my ideas and I have to change them or drop them entirely because they don't work. Ideas HAVE to be constantly tested and tempered by experience to prove themselves. It's an ongoing test, a trial by fire and ice that never really ends.

For an idea to be good, it has to stand out in the nonsense and noise.

Here's the thing that most people forget. We don't always know if an idea is good until years or decades or centuries later. The good ideas will stick around, being tested, becoming part of other ideas. The bad ideas will weed themselves out.

Eventually.

But that means that at any given time, there is never going to be only Truth and Perfection. There will be a few good ideas in a sea of nonsense. Our part is not to judge which ideas will stay, but to use the ideas that work today.

Posted: Fri - November 30, 2007 at 06:57 AM
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