a problem only counts as solved when it’s actually gone.
And there are a surprising number of problems that disappear once you have clarity, i.e., they are no longer a problem, even if you haven’t done anything yet. They become, at most, minor goals or subgoals, or cease to be cognifively relevant because the actual action needed—if indeed there is any—can be done on autopilot.
IOW, a huge number of “problems” are merely situations mistakenly labeled as problems, or where the entire substance of the problem is actually internal to the person experiencing a problem. For example, the “problem” of “I don’t know where to go for lunch around here” ceases to be a problem once you’ve achieved “clarity”.
Or to put it another way, “problems” tend to exist in the map more than the territory, and Adams’ quote is commenting on how it’s always surprising how many of one’s problems reside in one’s map, rather than the territory. (Because we are biased towards assuming our problems come from the territory; evolutionarily speaking, that’s where they used to mostly come from.)
Yeah but it’s also easy to falsely label a genuine problem as “practically already solved”. The proof is in the pudding.
The next day, the novice approached Ougi and related the events, and said, “Master, I am constantly consumed by worry that this is all really a cult, and that your teachings are only dogma.”
Ougi replied, “If you find a hammer lying in the road and sell it, you may ask a low price or a high one. But if you keep the hammer and use it to drive nails, who can doubt its worth?”
And there are a surprising number of problems that disappear once you have clarity, i.e., they are no longer a problem, even if you haven’t done anything yet. They become, at most, minor goals or subgoals, or cease to be cognifively relevant because the actual action needed—if indeed there is any—can be done on autopilot.
IOW, a huge number of “problems” are merely situations mistakenly labeled as problems, or where the entire substance of the problem is actually internal to the person experiencing a problem. For example, the “problem” of “I don’t know where to go for lunch around here” ceases to be a problem once you’ve achieved “clarity”.
Or to put it another way, “problems” tend to exist in the map more than the territory, and Adams’ quote is commenting on how it’s always surprising how many of one’s problems reside in one’s map, rather than the territory. (Because we are biased towards assuming our problems come from the territory; evolutionarily speaking, that’s where they used to mostly come from.)
Yeah but it’s also easy to falsely label a genuine problem as “practically already solved”. The proof is in the pudding.
--Two Cult Koans
Conversely, to show the worth of clarity you actually have to go drive some nails with it.
Yeah… but then that’s your second problem. ;-)
And that problem exists only in the map, and can be resolved by getting clarity. ;-)
Haha. True!