Solve et Coagula

A significant component to effectively solve problems of any kind is the ability to accurately identify and isolate relevant variables. If we're working on a problem which throws 100 variables our way and we incorrectly conclude that all 100 are important to the problem in question, our conclusions are going to be wildly erroneous and nonsensical. In short, we would be spinning our wheels and getting nowhere - which could be described as the true "overthinking", or what I've come to call "overnonsensing". Garbage in, garbage out.

Remember all that math and algebra we thought was "useless" in public school? Yeah, turns out it wasn't as useless as we thought it was. Not that everyone who did well in these classes will carry over the skills and apply them to real world circumstances, but what it does do for serious students of life is wire the mind in such a manner as to break things down into simpler fractions, and identify what is important and what isn't; by parsing out useful information from nonsense, from what is true from what is false, which keeps the solidity/integrity of rationality and a foundation of truth intact. We will not be successful getting to the highest peaks of truth by building on a foundation of garbage. Truth must be built upon truth.

Having a strong ability to discern between relevant and irrelevant variables allows us to make sound inferences about situations and events.

This is also how scientific theories and discoveries are made and developed.

God didn't come flying down from the clouds and bestow us with the wealth of knowledge we've amassed thus far by authoring everything. No. These were normal human beings who obsessed and thirsted relentlessly, wanting to understand why things happen the way they do. They recognized the patterns and sought to make sense of them through their ability to reason, the scientific method, and articulated their findings with the creation of new theories, or by building on existing ones. Though it wasn't God that came soaring from the heavens to save Man from his own ignorance in a literal sense, it could be argued that those who made discoveries were divinely inspired. This is why Einstein referred to curiosity as Holy.

"There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see."

― Leonardo da Vinci

Originally published on my Facebook page March 14th, 2016.