Why do we think of life in binary – 0 or 1?
Life is not binary. Life is shades. In between black and white are thousands and thousands of shades of gray.
If you take even one dimension of life and fit it into the shade model, life gets complex. What more that we are made up of more than one dimension. The dimensions themselves are not binary either. There is no dimension 1, dimension 2, dimension 3, but rather dimension 1, 1.1, 1.111, 1.111111 and so on.
Combine these two principles together and you can see why people prefer modeling their world after 0 and 1 and not black, light black, lighter black, dark gray, light dark gray and so on.
Binary is our state of mind, shades are the reality of the world
We are limited to what our brains can conceive. Go beyond that and things gets too complex. We cannot understand it. So we don’t try. We instead reduce reality down to a less accurate form we can understand.
When we meet someone different from us, our first instinct is not to ask, ‘Which multi-dimensional combination of shades is she displaying?’. That would be too complex. So instead we ask, ‘Why is she different from me?’, and then proceed answer, ‘Because she is wrong.’
And this is the danger of binary thinking
Her skin color is wrong. Her eye color is wrong. Her habits are wrong. Her sexual orientation is wrong. Anything that I can’t understand is wrong.
We might be better off trying to answer the first question and admitting, ‘I don’t know. The question is too complex.’ And then proceed to see how you are completely alike in that you too are displaying a multi-demsional combination of shades.
Our minds are at fault, not the world.
Twins are most alike, but yet still display differences in their preferences. Knowing this, why do we still expect people to fit into moulds of 0 and 1 if they do not even share genes, parents or upbringing?
We are who we are based on world models that we construct.
The effect of binary thinking on your dreams
The rules of the world:
– A technical person is not allowed to be artistic (for e.g. a doctor/engineer/lawyer cannot be a writer/fashion designer/meditation expert).
– Artistic people are bad at math (people who paint cannot do algebra).
– If you are young, you are helpless. You cannot run a business or make an impact. Wait until you’re older.
– It’s too late for people over 35 to do anything to change their lives.
– Same goes to those over 45.
– And 55.
– If you can’t feed yourself, don’t do it.
I’m glad to tell you that these are not real rules. You are not punishable by law to do any of these. Of course technical people can write if they like to. Of course artistic people can count if they want to. Of course the young can change the world. Of course your ability to change your life is not limited by your age. Of course you can do things that don’t necessarily pay you any money.
Resist binary thinking. See your life change.