Mortality Blog

So I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Coding Horror:

I suppose it’s also an issue of personal style. To me, writing without a strong voice, writing filled with second guessing and disclaimers, is tedious and difficult to slog through. I go out of my way to write in a strong voice because it’s more effective. But whenever I post in a strong voice, it is also an implied invitation to a discussion, a discussion where I often change my opinion and invariably learn a great deal about the topic at hand. I believe in the principle of strong opinions, weakly held.

A couple years ago, I was talking the Institute’s Bob Johansen about wisdom, and he explained that — to deal with an uncertain future and still move forward – they advise people to have “strong opinions, which are weakly held.” They’ve been giving this advice for years, and I understand that it was first developed by Institute Director Paul Saffo. Bob explained that weak opinions are problematic because people aren’t inspired to develop the best arguments possible for them, or to put forth the energy required to test them. Bob explained that it was just as important, however, to not be too attached to what you believe because, otherwise, it undermines your ability to “see” and “hear” evidence that clashes with your opinions. This is what psychologists sometimes call the problem of “confirmation bias.”

Wow, nested quotes. Anyway, That made perfect sense to me. I try to assume I’m right about everything - if I didn’t, I don’t think I would have the confidence to make tough decisions. Of course, that sort of thinking could lead to some really bad decisions, so I always make sure that I reach an opinion through serious consideration - awareness of the facts, and not only my own conclusions about it, but people I respect as well. And even once I’ve formed an opinion, it’s not imutable - in fact, I love it when people can convince me that I’m wrong, because it makes me that much better off in the long run.

Yeah. Strong opinions, weakly held. Dig it.

Motivation for action is an interesting thing. There are plenty of different motivators - I’ve always thought that the survival instict is the base of everything else. Some of us are lucky enough not to need to worry about basic survival needs - food and shelter, then reproduction and community. The possibility that I might not be able to eat tomorrow, or I might not have a safe place to sleep tonight has never crossed my mind. It’s not even on my radar. So when survival isn’t really much of a factor, why do I want to do all this other stuff?

I’ve got urges that I don’t really have a name for - but there are some words that come close:

• aesthetic
• whimsy
• sentiment
• feng-shui
• atmosphere

… irony in particular appeals to me in a tought-to-describe manner.

Here’s why I’m thinking about all this. I reorganized my clothes today, and now I’ve got one drawer for socks - and what goes in a sock drawer? Well, socks, sure, but also porn! And I realized I didn’t have any actual physical porn.

Now, I like porn, I’ve got tons of it, but the digital format works great for me - in fact, I really don’t even think that porn magazines and DVDs are even neccesary any more. And yet - as soon as it occured to me, I really wanted to get an actual porno magazine for my sock drawer.

So it’s the irony of me having porn in my sock drawer, right where it’s supposed to go, that prompted that. The sort of aesthetic picture of me moving my socks aside and finding those glossy pages underneath. I don’t know, it’s weird, but it’s appealing.

Then there was the dilemna of what magazine to get - I gave the  Taboo on 82nd’s selection a once over, and picked out one published by ‘Bel Ami’. It was a tough choice - ‘Penthouse’ or even a not-so-racey ‘Victoria’s Secret’ would have actually fit in better, that or ‘Playboy’, but in the end it seemed like fitting the stereotype by putting a porn magazine in my sock drawer but then breaking it by making it gay porn was so much better.

So with that as an example, there’s actually a lot of that kind of reasoning that dictates my actions. Obviously, it’s not always practical. But in most cases, my choice in most things is guided by comfort, utility, and irony, possibly in that order.

… this whole thing might’ve actually just been an effort to make a post more interesting then, “I got porn for my sock drawer!”, ha ha. Well. That’s all I’ve got on this subject.

edit: oh man, this just occured to me, I rack up further irony points due to the fact that you don’t just put porn in your sock drawer, you hide it there - which means I’m telling people that I’m hiding it, therefore making it not at all hidden! Ohhhh man this is so perfect.