Whitespace
My little brother was born into a world where the internet already existed. A world where all the information in the world is available at your fingertips. I can find out in 15 minutes what it took a few days to find out a few decades ago. So with all this information that we have, we cram in more and more and more. You can open yahoo.com and see how they cram in so much into just one page.
Of course, having a whirlwind of data isn't always the best either. There's always a thing called whitespace.
Whitespace
When you have too much information at a time, your brain won't be able to process all of it at once. It needs space between information. For example, that pause people make after saying something important. Or the way a webpage looks so so soooo much better when everything useless is taken out and you have the minimum to see.
One reason why people like the facebook layout is because it doesn't cram too much on the same page (or at least that's true if people don't have a bunch of apps). By spacing the columns of information and limiting the information that gets there in the first place, you can better appreciate and concentrate on what you DO have on the page.
Put large blocks of space in between the blocks of text and things look much better.
Learning whitespace
So I think that we might need learning whitespace too for the same reason. Learn 3 things in half an hour and you'll walk away with all 3. Learn 48 things in a half an hour seminar and you'll still only walk away with 3. You might have written all 48 down but in the end you'll only grasp the overall concept of all 48 and not the individual concepts of each.
So we need learning whitespace. And that's when I realized what storytelling really does.
I've always been a believer that the best way to get information across is to tell a story. Our mind has evolved over thousands of years of oral storytelling to accept stories as the best medium to send information across generations.
A story (a well told story) compresses information into the format that's best to learn in. Data like dates and names are spaced properly, with the story parts in between to catch your attention again. So you get a bit of info, then while you're processing it, the author catches your attention with a little story before going on to the next bit.
Books should only have a few major points
I always complained that those hundred ringgit books would only have 3 or 4 main points in a book. Sometimes only 1 point in the whole book! Now I realize maybe it's better that way.
Of course this only goes for books that aren't story books in the first place. Because any book that wants to get a point across should always use stories to do it.
So...
Whenever everything looks too cluttered, just add a little whitespace.
Geeks, Rules and Human Interaction
The geek view
As a self-styled geek, I understand the geek mentality. It's actually very simple. Everything should make sense scientifically. Which means if you do the same experiment, you should get the same result. Which also means that it should be mathematically predictable. Which means that people should behave the same when given the same conditions.
And there lies the rub. People DONT do that. They don't behave the same way each time. But that doesn't mean that it's not fun to try find those patterns. Those rules of human interaction.
Why make rules?
We thrive in rules. The world is too complicated. The only way to solve a problem is by breaking it down into a simple form. We put limits and boundaries. Creativity in a box.
That's why chess and maths hold such an attraction. All those rigidly define rules. It makes it so simple to know if it's right or wrong. But from those rigid rules you can still give birth to a million original ideas.
So we want to find out the rules of human interaction. Coz if we found those rules, we know we could play a mean game and come out winning on top.
After all, how can you plan a strategy to win when you don't even know the rules?
If the rules aren't there...
But if the rules aren't there... we get lost. Not knowing what to do next. Not knowing what we're doing wrong. The worst case scenario is Sheldon from Big Bang Theory (tv series).
He sometimes has very valid points that could only be thought of by such a geek.
For example: Why buy birthday presents? If you do, then your friend will have to buy you a present of equal or greater value at your birthday and you'll have to repeat the same at his next birthday.
In the end, after years and years of doing this, the only way you can get any benefit is if he dies after you already got your present so that you don't have to give him one. Worst case scenario is that you'll both be tied or he'll have one more present than you. And when you add in the costs of travelling to the store and the headache of finding a present, it's a no win situation for both.
That's what happens when rules don't exist. We geeks get lost.
How do we make these rules?
Of course, to generate theories of human patterned behaviour, you'll need data. And the most data you'll find is in human relationships. You'll find very little when you study a man alone.
I personally find it fun to watch people when I hang out. Just watching their behaviour from far away and trying to understand them just from their body language.
Tiny things I've noticed
I haven't figured out what makes all humans tick yet. But I have noticed a few tiny things.
1. To include a person into a conversation just look at them. Our eyes are powerful things. Windows to the soul? Maybe. Strong indicators of where your attention is directed? Definitely. When someone looks at you and makes eye contact, you're linked. You're in the conversation. So if you're talking to someone but don't want his friend to feel left out, just look over at the friend every few seconds. He'll surprisingly feel included.
2. Pointing the way. I'm walking with a friend and we're talking at the same time. I want us to go left. Do I have to tell him? No. I just gesture left with my arm and we start to walk that way. I'm willing to bet he doesn't even notice it. When our minds are engaged with conversation, our unconscious happily controls our bodies.
3. People want you to do well when you give them a talk. They've come all the way there, they're gonna listen to you talk. They don't want to be bored. So they actually want you to do well. They'll try as hard as possible to enjoy your talk. Even if you're halfway decent, you have it made. And on the off-chance that you're completely horrible... well, everyone's usually that bad. It's not worth it to remember you.
It's always interesting to see how people behave.
Perfectionist paralysis (knowledge)
When you're a perfectionist, you'll meet problems. Simply because reality is NOT perfect, and never will be.
It's a problem because:
1. You waste resources
2. You don't NEED to get it 100% perfect
And this is especially true when we talk about knowledge.
You waste resources
For example, let's say that you have a plan to make your own restaurant. While planning it, you realize that you need to know how to make a company account, research health laws and fire safety laws, find a good location, understand taxes on your future earnings, know how to manage supply and demand, know what to do if an employee is caught selling drugs and so on.
If you wanted to learn ALL of this first before you even started making your business plan (there's another thing, how to make a business plan, company motto and logo and building the company image) then you won't ever start!!
That's called perfection paralysis.
You don't NEED to get it 100% perfect
Be satisfied with almost perfect.
Be satisfied with 95% and leave it at that because this will save a lot of time, money and headaches spent on knowing the full 100%.
Wait, even better. Know as little as possible before you get started.
"WHAT!! Are you mad? Knowing as little as possible!!?" I can hear you screaming already.
Yeah. I said it. But let's get to that after we know why it happens.
Why does it happen?
1. We fear the unknown.
We don't know what will happen, so we want to know what we're up against.
2. More information is better, right?
When we know more, we feel we can make better decisions, educated guesses if you will (false).
3. We fear failure.
Who wants to fail? Even though we all know that we learn from our mistakes, we still can't bear the thought of failure.
So what do we do?
All you need is:
1. Know enough to know what to ask.
I'm not asking you to walk in blind. Know what you're doing. Know what kind of taxes exist, who gives out fire safety permits for a building and what kind of bank loans are offered. Now you know enough to ask the best way to handle your taxes, what is needed to get that fire safety permit and you can also ask what you need to do to qualify for the loans.
2. Know enough to know who to ask.
Once you have all these questions, make sure you ask the right people. Don't ask people who make "educated guesses", ask people who have been in that specific field for years and years. Ask a government tax guy about taxes, a fireman about fire safety permits and a bank loan manager what's usually the criteria to approve a business loan.
That's it.
With those 2 pieces of knowledge alone, you can face any problem that comes up during the course of acting on your plan.
So act on your plan now!
...right after you ask someone about it.