Friday, June 6, 2014

Is this too much to ask?

I have read several books about human thinking habits by such authors as Timothy Wright and Wray Herbert.  Our minds tend to develop habits of thinking, such as thinking that a given idea or method has worked before and so should be used again.  Makes sense, so much so that when there is a good reason this time to change our approach, we may fail to notice the good reason.

When I am trying to learn how to accomplish something with a computer or other electronic device, I prefer to get the exact answer to how to do what I want.  I don't want part of the answer or to be interrupted by an ad for some great product that might serve and might not.  I don't want to be directed to a giant book or several of them with the advice to look in them. Many people that I try to help with similar things show signs of feeling the same way I do.


I have read that humans tend to have low tolerance for ambiguity.  They like certainty.  They like answers to their questions spelled out in simple language, answers that are correct.  Yet, as we age, we often want to questions of greater and greater subtlety answered.  Further, our minds can move very quickly.  So it is likely that right after I develop a question about how my car or my tv can be modified or used for something, I will think of additional conditions: how can I have what I want quickly?  Inexpensively? Without degrading the environment? Safely? Politically correctly? (along my political tastes, of course, not yours)


Since I have lived many years, I have developed habits, tendencies and biases.  I like this but not that.  So, getting a new device or using something in a new way should not interfere with other parts of my life.  I can see that I am pretty persnickety.  I am reminded of Pascal's observation that his friends had so many desires and restriction and conditions they wanted met that it was a certainty that something would go wrong for them.



--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety


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