Reverse Systems Theory or Fiddling

Remember my last post? I know if was quite awhile ago, but back up for me and read over it. Got it? Now do the exact opposite of that. That is to say, do what that post says (pick up a system and spend your time learning it, guitar, language, recipes) and then, also, don't do that, at least don't feel like you always have to. That's too big, too much and it isn't even always the best or right way to go about things. Let me explain.

When I was young I was really into Transformers. When you get a new one, in the box with it comes a set of instructions on how to turn it into whichever form it isn't currently in (ie if it is a robot you turn it into a space train, or vice versa). But I never used the instructions. I'm not bragging. Often it would take me so long to figure it out and my mom would keep trying to shove the instructions at me (most likely so that I didn't get frustrated and break the new toy she'd bought me), but I never used 'em. It took all the fun out of figuring it out myself. Thing with Transformers, however, is that there is a right way to move the thing between its two shapes, which makes this a pretty slim metaphor, because most systems have a little more wiggle room. But I press on.

See the Transformers people obviously knew that part of the fun--and certainly the only education value inherent in the toy--was learning how to look at its constituent parts and move them appropriately, almost like a puzzle. So they started making transformers that could be twelve different things and possibly more. That way you could just spend your time fiddling.

That went on longer than I meant it too and I still have more to say. The point of all the Transformer talk is that learning is more often than not experience and not ingesting information. And sometimes it makes more sense to turn away from the codified knowledge and branch off on your own even when the knowledge is easily at hand. In the end you might not know quite as much about the system you were fiddling with, but you have an intimate knowledge of your own fiddling, you probably know where a lot of the pitfalls lie and can probably avoid them better. Basically you learned. That doesn't mean you really have knowledge necessarily, but that you changed in some way. The having of knowledge is tenuous because you could forget. You can forget experience too, but it has etched itself into you in some way.

The idea for today is to get inside and system and fuck around with it, like a little boy dismantling whatever electronic device (if you need a particular image you can imagine me dismantling my laptop last year). Pick up a guitar and just start touching it until sounds come out that make you happy. Same with language. Mangle that fucker.

My caveat of warning with this idea is that it is really self-assured. I am not going to deny that probably everyone knows better than me. And that certainly if you want to learn about guitar you could do it much faster and efficiently with an instructional video guide. So learning it yourself is inefficient and you might not even (ever) learn it right. My recommendation today is that you ignore "right" and you learn it your way, cause maybe there is something more interested in it that everyone else is missing while they were busy trying to get it right. Or maybe not and maybe you'll end up with a deformed Transformer that is clearly neither truck nor bot. And maybe you will love it still.