Pigeonholes
Mr Gregory has a funny post over on his blog dealing with pigeonholing/labeling/categorization, how we all do it and the dangers of it. I think.
Excerpt:
And how we draw those barriers through our own lives too, imposing restrictions often through sheer inertia. "I don't eat Indian food. I don't read mysteries. I hate French wine. I'm not into documentaries. I don't look good in red. I hate history. I never go to the opera. Blah, blah, blah."
For the record, I don't look good in red, as my skin color is a tint away from translucent, and if I'm wearing red it looks as though I have massive chest wound. Bright orange is out too, as well, radiosity takes hold and people start to ask if I'm feeling ok or have been eating too many carrots.
But at any rate, yes, we all create/impose those barriers. And we do it at multiple levels, but there are generally reasons for it. The big one is efficiency in our thinking & decision making process.
Can't we all be a litter more subtle, a little more aware, a little more creative, and start seeing the world in all its shades of grey, and all the hues of the spectrum?
Well, sure, if we didn't want to actually get anything done.
I think the danger is when your categorization/label/pigeonholing isn't part of a conscious equation... as an equation can (and should be) reevaluated as new variables are introduced. Something that is adopted/assumed can't really.
We don't live in a box. We live on a ball, always revolving, always changing, moving ahead, never in the same place for more than a moment. That's the nature of the universe. That's the true nature of man. And that, my label hungry friends, is what Art is all about.
There's an old adage that says "Life is what happens while you're making plans". I kinda dig what he's saying, as something similar came up some people I do work with, and how many of them are having to reevaluate and redefine their roles (IE, DBA having to deal with security related issues).
But put in technology terms:
Let's say you do a google on something, and get a list of hits. You then open up the list of results in a bunch of tabs (because you're using a browser that supports tabs), and glean what you can.
Now, if that list of links was "live" and changes to googles pagerank algorithm were constantly being updated in your web browser as they came in every second or so, it'd make it a more accurate tool, at the cost of efficiency and well, just getting your damn stuff done, even though you couldn't be sure it was a 100% accurate set of links.
It doesn't mean it shouldn't be reevaluated at an arbitrarily set time, and for damn sure it shouldn't be used as an excuse for personal growth, but there are reasons for it.
Posted by drunkenbatmanFebruary 26, 2004, at 12:37 AM
