Thinking without a banister
Essays in Understanding -- Hannah Arendt
I have dedicated 2024 to the stories of first principle thinking. A year of extensive travel rubbing elbows with the “big thinkers” and a few exalted beyond reason industry leaders, I have learned a few things. There is a sharp contrast between people that are doing the work fueled by passion and those motivated by the accolades and big pay days.
I am humbled by the former and intrigued by the latter. No need to make spot judgements, intentions are revealed at either a warm and welcoming introduction or a nervous lack of attention as they look over your head for the bigger fish to hook.
Recently I exited the stage after a talk and was surrounded by colleagues offering kudos and asking questions. I noticed a figure simply standing at the perimeter watching with measured gaze — no smile, no acknowledgment. He turned and walked away. This was surprising to me as we had met at a conference a few months ago and although I felt a reserved coolness I chalked it up to the professional burdens we lift while on the road.
This second snub lifted my kind assumptions into something different I preferred to not explore…
I reminded myself of The Four Agreements:
Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Don't Take Anything Personally.
Don't Make Assumptions.
Always Do Your Best.
In other words, pay attention to your side of the street. Let’s bring it back around to the first principles.
First-principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated problems and unleash creative possibility. Sometimes called “reasoning from first principles,” the idea is to break down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up. It’s one of the best ways to learn to think for yourself, unlock your creative potential, and move from linear to non-linear results.— Farnam Street
I linked the article but there is a bunch of gobbling gook about Elon Musk that I think is not longer true or at the very least no longer relevant if you have been observing the dumpster fire over on twit-ex.
For years I have been meaning to return to the writings of Hannah Arendt. Thinking Without a Banister — at least in my interpretation — means that you and you alone are thinking about a topic. Not about what a talking head or pundit thinks but what do you think unsupported from the rhetoric and body politic — how does it resonate with you?
“…however she may be judged in the future, in her lifetime she raised the level of political discourse. In her vast writings that is unquestionable, although there is as yet little sign of its dissemination in the American electorate, or within the bureaus of the public realm, or, where it might be expected, among professional political writers. In its place w have the superficiality of a once reliable newspaper, the glibness that has replaced the wit and intelligence of a weekly magazine, and at best some cerebral puzzles posed by a once portentous book review. A majority of the more competent professionals seems to have agreed that there current audiences are like nothing so much as crabs scurrying across the receding shores of a quasi-literati mass society.”— Jerome Kohn, Thinking without a Banister (introduction).
Living in the age of citizen experts, loudest voices, and profiteering we appear to have lost our way.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold…W.B.Yeats
We can and must do better. I am interested in telling stories — follow along for a few insights and videos.
