The family is in a hotel for the weekend, which is quite strange, as we are still in our home city. However, our house is now unlivable, even though it is warm. The problem is that because of all the buggerizing around to change the heating system, and then the hours it actually took, places that shouldn't drop below zero, did drop below zero, and the pipes froze, and split. So, now the water is off, but the house itself is warm. There are going to be some fights to come between insurance, heating company and us, but for now, the insurance company covers most of the hotel.
They don't cover the inconvenience.
But, I don't want to talk more about that now, there will be plenty to come as it is. Instead, I thought I would write a bit on something that has been percolating in my head since 
"I'd love to be a fly on the wall for a conversation you have with friends. You often delve into the complex."
I don't want flies on the wall though, I would much rather have people be part of the conversation, and add their two cents worth, their unique perspective and opinion. However, based on a conversation between friends last night, I also mentioned along these lines.
There is very little informed opinion these days - just opinion.
This was in response to a conversation where people seem to take less responsibility for what they say. Where they feel they can say anything, even if it has no basis, and know they will probably get away with it. And, I think this change in culture is because "everyone is an expert" because they read a line on Twitter and the Dunning-Kruger jumps into effect, making them confident. It isn't just the confidence in themselves though, because they also know that with the constant stream of information and most people not being willing to fact check, let alone delve into the complexity, they will get away with it. They won't be called out.
I was talking to my wife about complicated and complex concepts like I was writing about a couple days back, and she recognizes that she far prefers to live in a complicated environment, not complex. She likes all the tasks (in her head at least), because each has a conclusion, but like the conversation we were having, it frustrates her because there is no end.
The Endless Conversation.
Which is a conversation that I add to occasionally for my daughter.
Complexity is endless, because there is always change in it, always something new, no perfect solution that fixes the problem, and then move on. There is no complete satisfaction, there is always a chase. And, as humans like certainty, because we fear ambiguity, it is more satisfying to have a simply life, to want for nothing, because the chase ends.
This is great for the mindfulness movement, but it isn't great for the evolution of a species, or even the growth of an individual. There is nothing wrong with the simplification of much of our unnecessary lives, but I am increasingly believing that a good life is fed by some area of complexity, some problem to continually solve, to continually learn from. It is experiencing fragments of chaos, the unknown, and finding patterns and structures to make sense of it, to explore, get to know, break apart, and then define into something understandable - then tell a story about it.
We are story tellers.
We always have been, because that is how we pass along what we have learned. It is our inheritance for the younger generations, our legacy, our legend. It is us taking a chaotic world, and bringing order to it that can be passed along to others, to help them start from upon our shoulders, so they can grab for a higher level of chaos to make sense of. Once we stop exploring chaos, shifting it into complex, complicated and finally simple processes, we stop learning new. We are dead.
Learning the basics of math at school shouldn't be so we can pass the tests to get into university, it is so we have the background required to go out and explore parts of the world that haven't been defined yet, to discover new equations. It is a creative process, yet very few actually take part in building the world, while most take part in consuming the world over and over.
My wife said that she likes structure, she likes the repetition, she likes the traditions, which is fine. But I asked her, "so where are you growing?" If daily life is repetitive, it is robotic, it is thoughtless.
Mindlessness.
And, I think that this is part of the problem that many of us have, as we are flies on the wall of life, consuming the sights and sounds of our environment, but not actually adding anything of use to it. We aren't even at the table and part of the conversation. So, how can we grow ourselves if we are acting robotically? We can't - and once we aren't moving, we are for all intents and purpose, a dead, or dying organism.
I don't know how many people would actually enjoy being in conversations with me, because I can seem combative at times, even when I am not, because it pushes people out of their comfort zones. And, if they aren't willing to be out of their comfort zone, they aren't willing to learn and, what they are talking about isn't explorative, it is repetitive.
"Informed opinion" doesn't have to come from experts in the field, but it has to come from people who have at least filtered and thought about the information around a topic. Few actually do this, even though in their head they would like to believe that they do their due diligence on what they consume. The fact is though, most shares on the internet, weren't fully read by the person sharing it.
And, part of the reason is that we just don't have time to invest to ensure that what we are sharing is representative of what we want to share, in the same way that we don't have time to fact check the stream of stupid we get through the various media platforms. And we know, whoever might see what we share, or even read what we say, isn't likely to fact check us either.
I like having conversations with a diverse group of people who are skilled in conversation itself, because they are able to keep the conversation flowing, rather than just killing it with their unqualified opinions. Good conversationalists are able to talk about the most difficult topics, and not get offended, not breakdown in tears.
Today, I went into the basement to see if I could work out what the problem with the water was, but I had to admit to my wife, that I have no ide what I am doing, so don't expect a good result. She got what she expected from me - nothing. It is good not to have expectations on others, but it is also good to have expectations on ourselves as to what stories we are sharing with others. We can lie and big-note ourselves, but at the end of the day, there ill be a cost to our behavior.
I don't yet know what the rest of the weekend will hold and come Monday, it will be spent trying to get repairs done, in an environment where demand for workers is very high. I am not looking forward to it, as I am rapidly falling behind at work, for something that has very, very strict deadlines. But, at this time at night, I don't want to spend time grinding through complications, I would rather wade through complexity instead.
At least the hotel is nice.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]