"Einstein and an assistant, having finished a paper, searched the office for a paper clip. They finally found one, too badly bent for use. They looked for an implement to straighten it, and after opening many more drawers, came upon a whole box of clips. Einstein at once shaped one into a tool to straighten the bent clip. His assistant, puzzled, asked why he was doing this when there was a whole boxful of usable clips. 'Once I am set on a goal it becomes difficult to deflect me,' said Einstein."
This anecdote, borrowed from a story I encountered online, is a perfect example of a mindset I know all too well. It's about more than just stubbornness; it's about an unyielding focus that sometimes borders on the absurd.
The Moth and the Flame
Why do moths persistently fly into the flame? If that's truly the case, what drives this seemingly self-destructive behavior?
We see a similar stubbornness in a fly endlessly slamming against a glass window, desperately trying to escape. All it needs to do is take a step back, shift slightly to the right or left, and it would find the open window—freedom just a short distance away!
When Persistence Pays Off—And When It Doesn't
So, when is persistence a virtue, and when does it cross the line into stubbornness? Can we create guidelines for when to press on and when to pivot? Is there a philosophical underpinning to this dilemma?
I honestly don't know. What I do know is that, like Einstein, I am both stubborn and persistent. I also have a passion for fixing things that are broken.
I've written before about standing on the shoulders of giants, and this ties in here. There are moments when I feel I should be more creative, less dependent on the work of those who came before me. Maybe I should focus on creating entirely new things, rather than stubbornly fixing what others have messed up.
The Sunday Reflection
These are my thoughts on this Sunday, August 25th. As I reflect on Einstein’s story, I’m left wondering: when should we keep pushing, and when is it time to step back and try a different approach? Perhaps that’s a question worth pondering in all our lives.
P.S. 26-08-24 18:36
Personally, whenever I encounter resistance, it's a signal to keep pushing. New paths reveal themselves, each with their own degree of difficulty/resistance. Then, I need to decide which path I want to follow next. It's a discovery process, but it can be discouraging as I get the impression of opening infinitely many drawers without being able to close any of them. It's a breadth-first search approach with a lot of "remind me later" bookmarks!
ReplyDeleteAs a result, I have a great appreciation for people who can go deep into a subject without being sidetracked. My mind loses interest after a couple of weeks of focus, and asks for a new "point of view." Often, only discovering that something is possible makes me "satisfied." It is what it is - if I focus too much on one thing, then resistance builds up to unbearable levels, as if I was imprisoned by the task.
Thanks for sharing. With me it seems that the rule is simple: if someone else asks me if I want to try something new , my automatic reaction is first to say "NO!", and only then start thinking.... When it is me who finds some new way, I instantly abandon unfinished project and start following the new line. So I have all too many unfinished projects. Not good at all!
DeleteI kind of get content too easily; I'm more than happy just to think of the conformal group sitting in Cl(6) bivectors and it being perhaps useful for esoteric things in general. I do like it quite a lot when something new for it shows up (like the structure at infinity with a degenerate metric for the central algebra I aka differential geometry not the bivectors of Tony) but I'm not overly waiting for something new.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly I might like to see if a unimodular structure is useful in the central algebra but I'm OK if nobody does something with it. The only thing I did personally for physics was correct Tony's analogy with cellular automata and Cl(8). I did see it to the end but it helps a lot when you are very limited in what you can do. I worked with cellular automata at IBM and for a long while I thought I didn't understand Clifford algebra near enough but I finally realized the problem was probably on the cellular automata side and I could actually try to do something there. It was quite exciting.
Thanks, John. I am doing it in a rather primitive and archaic way. Probably Babylonian's methods would be better. But I think that the idea that there are two universes rather than one, like that there are two sides of a coin, is evident and important. I am not sure if Tony ever contemplated a similar idea?
DeleteOr better: there is one universe, but locally it has two sides, even if globally there is only one side, like the Mobius strip. The other side is in principle adjacent to our side, but we can't cross the paper, so we have to go all the way around, which is very far, on the other side of infinity.
DeleteTony talked about twistors but with the comment "remove the structure at infinity" so he did not get to a 2nd universe/side. It was useful to have read about twistors before you wrote about them. Tony also has generically named position/momentum operators useful for the central algebra that he doesn't do anything with other than mentioning the Bradonjic paper.
DeleteArk is sometimes persistently stubborn about strange things, such as an innocent coffee pot. I saw it at Sam's Club, it was a great buy, did everything I wanted it to do, was well-made, and only $19.95. He was suspicious. How could it be so good and so cheap? Or maybe it wasn't so cheap. There might be something cheaper elsewhere! And so, we visited other stores over the next week looking at coffee makers. After about the tenth store, I got a little frustrated and I pointed out to him that we had spent at least 10 hours of our time fighting traffic while shopping for a darned coffee pot, and undoubtedly $20 in gas to do that. Thankfully, the one I wanted at Sam's Club was still available. I would have never let him forget it if it wasn't. Heck, I still remind him of the hours and gas we spent looking at coffee pots to try to save a few cents.
DeleteBut, I will say his persistent stubbornness can be endearing when he focuses on more interesting things!