The other night, I was sitting outside of my home, looking up at the sky. There were feelings of guilt for not using the time "productively".
As I was laying there exhausted, a little overwhelmed, and feeling slightly defeated...
I thought about the fact that at some point, humans found their way to our Islands, in the middle of the Pacific, with no form of modern navigation.
It's said that the islands were first settled in around 400 C.E., and required an approximately 2,000 mile voyage.
Throughout time, the Native Hawaiians became expert voyagers. They did not have Google Maps, just the knowledge that they had acquired through experience.
They had acquired and utilized mental models in place to solve the problems at hand. The more I've read up on this and thought about it, the more I realize how staggering a feat this must have been.
Photo from the Hokulea.com Website.
In the fast paced, digital world that we live in today...
From a basic smart phone, we can:
There's no shortage of access to information in today's day and age. Just 20 years ago, most if not all of these things did not exist, or at least in the capacity that it does now.
There's a concept called the "Information Explosion" which talks about the rapid increase in the amount of published information and the effects of it.
Not only have humans created more data in recent history, than ever before... but we also consume it in amounts unlike any other time in human history.
The magnitude, scale and trajectory of data creation and consumption is staggering, and in many ways incomprehensible to someone like myself.
The fact of the matter is that as humans, we've unleashed a new world with technology... and foreseeably, there's no end or slow down in the foreseeable future.
If trend continues, more and more of the basic problems will be solved for us, with technology. The ones that we will be left with, are the ones that technology has not been solved... yet.
Meanwhile, as technology progresses, more of our time will be spent consuming external data, which means less space to solve the problems that only we can solve (for the time being).
In my eyes, it's neither good or bad... just the reality of our "modern life".
"Staring at the Wall"
There have been multiple times throughout recent months, that I've come across a situation in the midst of my day... and could not find the solution to it. There's never a shortage of information available and an abundance of external tools at hand, but the solution seemed to be missing, or at least not apparent.
It wasn't until I took the time to meditate on the issue and "seek out" the answer, that I was able to come up with a viable solution.
This is where I realized, that for some problems... it's a matter of devoting the time and thought into solving the problem.
Finding the time to think... in a world where you are constantly being fed external information, has started helping me solve things... that I need to solve.
"A Toolset... in your Brain"
Mental Models are like intangible tools... that you can use to solve problems. They're internal representations, of external reality. They are frameworks to think through, and you can acquire as many of them as you want!
They help you understand something complex.. in a more simple and organized way.
What I started to realize is sometimes the key isn't knowing all of the answers, it's knowing what questions to ask. I found this to be true in the Mental Models that I've been learning and coming across.
Having the right frameworks to think through the situation, can sometimes reveal an answer that is not apparent when looking at it in a different lens.
There's a saying that... "when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change".
Talent x Effort = Skill.... Skill x Effort = Achievement.
This isn't meant to go over specific mental models... or to provide advice on meditating.. I'm no expert on either, and actively pursuing mental models have been something that I've been enjoying.
It's the next frontier of broadening my skillset.
This is a reminder that sometimes when there's a problem, I need to change the framework in which I'm thinking about a problem, and create the space and time to solve it.
"The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to it's original dimensions."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sources:
27 Staggering Facts About Data
Hawaiian History & Heritage (Smithsonian)