Okay's the worst

Okay is the worst. It is the worst reply that you could give to someone. If someone sends you something, anything. A document, a text or whatever else that could be sent, the worst reply the person could receive is just "okay". It infuriates me whenever I receive one without anything following it. This is why. A person, a living feeling person, who's taken the effort to type something, used his time and focus (which is in very short supply) to send you a document for you to read and respond to; the absolute minimum, nadir equivalent reply effort that you could send is 'okay.' It lacks any insight.

Absolute minimum effort meaning that you barely used any of your cognitive effort at all. Now this implies one of two things:

1. You really don't want to do the work that the person might have asked you to do and hence you simply respond with the word. Or,
2. You deem the document sent to you by the person not worthy enough to receive your time. A person who (obviously) believes that you're worth theirs. 

So as a kind gesture, instead of merely sending 'Okay.' as a response, you might as well experiment with newer, slightly more effortful replies to the person who made it obvious that you are worth theirs. 

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I was given this realization by my brother, how much ever I hate it, that at times I too fall for this. And fall hard. I shall attempt to rectify. If you catch me falling for this (And you happen to read this) send an 'Aaaand?'. I'll try to make it up to you.

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This time I was listening to Bach while I wrote. I thought I'd give classical music a shot; I enjoyed it a fair bit. 

Creative Thinking

I have come to respect the process that goes into writing and orating anything. Influenced by a philosopher by the name of Alan Watts, I too have attempted to write a 3,000-word long essay, which needs a bloody ton of work to be done on it even to finish (I've written ~500 words, and it's already descended into utter chaos.) The more I think about the process of thinking of something new, and expressing it in words, the more I realise that it is a herculean task. Alan Watts had some inspiration to draw from in the form of the philosophies of the eastern books that he espoused. On the other hand, philosophers of the likes of Kautilya and Aristotle would think of something entirely new. Now, the more I think about that, the more I respect them. They had undertaken the truly daunting task of making new arguments; arguments that became the foundation of the topics they talked about. The breadth was just astounding. They would talk about everything from philosophy to Math and Science. And they'd be at the cutting edge; they thought and expressed what we take for granted now.

This line of thought eventually leads me to think about creative thinking itself and the how the process eventually leads to the unique identification of a creation to the creator. Each invention has an inventor or a set of inventors who inevitably leave a mark on whatever it is they created. And eventually, through the invention, they'd leave their mark on the world. This, this is something that astounds me. And as is clear from the previous paragraph. It isn't necessarily just physical devices that they create. In fact, more often than not, these physical devices are forgotten, while the arguments and the expressions given by such greats live on.

One of the toughest part of creation for me has always been the part where we have to vocalise it and need to put it in words to tell others what I'm thinking of. I somehow have a picture in my head, which I'm not necessarily able to adequately put in words ( Part of the reason why this blog is necessary)

The process of creation requires a tremendous amount of focus. For first you have to think of the thing, and eventually put the damn thing into words. Which isn't very easy once you start thinking about it.

The talk of creation and invention reminds me of one of my physics teachers. When asked how Newton came up with his laws, or questions on similar lines, questions that inquired about the origin of a theory; he'd respond with "They dream it up." And I'd always think I want those dreams. But in retrospect it requires deep insight through focused work. Work that needs effort and a considerable amount of time. I guess this is where I start.

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I generally write listening to a song on repeat, I've been listening to this one, while I finished up with this post. A very nice rendition of the song.