by Ralph
on September 26, 2011
Ideas are like children
Like most people, I like my ideas. They are almost like my children and I think they are beautiful. Whatever the reality, nobody thinks that their own child is ugly. In most cases I have invested time and effort in developing an idea and there is something about being invested in an idea that inflates its value. I don’t generate ideas easily. It is a great struggle for me to actually form an idea. I perform some mental gymnastics to line up all the assumptions, connect all the dots and follow all the theories so that my idea holds together. When I finally finish, I have invested a big part of myself.
Ideas can limit your thinking
This is a good thing because I need to be committed in order to run with a new idea but it also sets up a problem – tunnel vision. All that effort and commitment also creates a problem as well. This is because when I commit to an idea, I become closed to other ideas. There is only so much room in my head for ideas. I can only commit to to a limited number of activities. There is just no room for more and I hate to eliminate one of my babies to make room. And when I commit to one activity, it narrows my vision and my thinking to one direction. My mind has a hard time moving away from that direction.
This is a real problem for human beings. We are wired to build our actions on precedents. Our thinking is easier when we have someplace to start. In a formless void, we drift until we can establish some kind of order that helps us make decisions. Ideas give us assumptions and order to the way we see the world and because they are a shorthand summary of the complexity that really exists. This means that when we interpret reality through our ideas, we limit our vision and direction. We see the part of the world that our idea embraces but no more and we are unlikely to move in a new direction or embrace a new vision.
Is there a solution for this problem?
I don’t have a solution for this problem. The more I commit to a vision or direction, the more limited my perception of the other possibilities available. When you have the right direction and vision, then everything is fine. You just need to commit and do the work. But how do you know? What do you do to make sure that your tunnel vision hasn’t kept you from seeing your true direction? I don’t have a good solution but I think the best insurance is a coach who can provide validation of your thinking or other ideas you should consider. Are there other ways that you use to keep your mind open to all the possibilities and options? If so, please share.
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by Ralph
on September 26, 2011
My wife got a personal navigation device for Christmas. She is not very open to new technology so I didn’t have much confidence that she would really use it. I am happy to report that I badly misjudged the brilliance of the people that produced this device and my wife’s interest in getting navigational assistance. It has a very intuitive interface and my wife has actually used it solo to find a high school where she was photographing a basketball game. My son was impressed as well with how it tells you the speed limits as you drive.
Sunday, we needed to drive to Rocklin, maybe 20 miles away and we took Nuvi along mainly to see how her directions might differ from out normal route and to find out how easy looking things up might be on the fly.
We set out somewhat unprepared in not having the addresses of out destinations. Out first stop was our favorite breakfast place in Granite Bay. We (actually my wife since I was driving) tried to find it by name because it knows a lot of local places once you tell it the city you are going to. T O A S T …long pause with the hourglass Then she tried the center name and got two addresses – 4000 and 7000 Douglas. I guessed 4000 and Nuvi locked it in and began giving us directions following the route I was already traveling. Then about halfway there, she wanted us to turn left when I wanted to go straight (because you can’t get where we were going by turning).
Nuvi is resilient, however. Once past the turn, she announced, “Recalculating.” And proceeded to tell us to turn left at the next intersection. I ignored her and she patiently recalculated each time I failed to turn left until finally we were in agreement as we got to Douglas. She didn’t object when we turned off for the restaurant and we turned her off while we enjoyed the best breakfast in the Sacramento area.
Resuming our journey, we thought that turning Nuvi off would reset and she would be ready for a new destination. Not Nuvi, she was still focused on getting us to the original (wrong location) and my wife was unable to get her to accept our second destination without entering a street address which was hard because we couldn’t even remember the street name. As a result, she continued to try to get us to turn around all the way to Rocklin.
On the way home (Nuvi knows where we live) the battery was low and several time she lost satellite connection but she still woke up to tell us to turn.
On the whole I am very impressed with Nuvi. My wife who complains bitterly about the complexity of our entertainment system has no complaints with her. I am impressed with the interface and the amount of information in the system. I can’t wait for a chance to let her do her stuff in San Francisco where I always find myself stuck on one side of Market and unable to figure out what street will take me to the other side.
This week we will be taking her with us when we visit our old haunts in Los Angeles. Although we know out way around pretty well from living there 30 years, we are bound to go to some new places and give Nuvi another chance to show her stuff.
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