Adding Noise To Consistency

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[typed string0=”PSA: Hey #Engineers, as much as control is good, allow for noise to be part of the equation. #philosophizing #theme ” typeSpeed=”100″ startDelay=”0″ backSpeed=”40″ backDelay=”500″]

That was going to be a tweet, but then I realized I had a tad more than 140 characters to express it 🙂

I’ll try to keep this to my own personal life and you can take what you will (being humble and not over generalizing ;))

I realize that in my life I focus too much on consistency. Why? To improve productivity and focus on keeping the only thing inconsistent, which is self-improvement or self-actualization. It is relatively easier to do this than before as we have excellent technology and tools to build consistency:

  • Infrastructure (roads, lights, utilities etc.)
  • Home (buildings etc.)
  • Tools (phones, tablets and computers)

Do you see something off with this picture?

Let’s look at a potential fore(father/mother) of ours. With limited tools/infrastructure he or she would be more exposed to inconsistencies…. maybe the right word to use here is “non-deterministic” outcomes. A very simple example would be set a constant wallpaper on your phone or letting it be random or semi-random by picking pictures from a directory. Our brains like “newness” due to dopamine receptors (curiosity is one of the outcomes of this programming).

Adding noise in my life through plants, changing colors in my technology and beyond keeps the biological animal content.

On a higher level, our species could use more noise in order to not fall into determinism which is “limiting” to say the least. Through noise, we get ideas, change of perspective and more abstraction from day to day challenges. Thinking outside the box and more importantly being inspired outside the box.