The Most Unconventional Way of Looking At Yourself

But you will not find it in any other book (except?mine)

Look at you!

You’re here.

I guess you might be tired of how people look at you. They don’t quite get the unique aspects about yourself you wish them to know.

I know the feeling.

On campus, I got to a point where I let anyone’s story go.

Do you think I’m a player and spin words to confuse ladies? Well, if that makes you sleep at night, then yes, I am.

Do you think I am a snob? Just because I am new to this class and put on spectacles and sit at the back with a hoodie and never mind joining you for lunch? Well, you might be right. If that’s the cup of tea that suits your palate, I don’t want to change your tastes.

It becomes tiring trying to explain to people why they have got it all wrong. And chances are, I will also not get it.

But I have a reason why people will always get it wrong. It’s a most unconventional way. It’s not found in almost all the books I have ever read.

And despite the fact that I feel I have not read much, I have read quite a couple of books.

Now, here’s a paradox.

If many people read this article and start viewing themselves in this way, will it still be unconventional? Maybe new, and possibly endorsed, but I don’t think it will still be conventional.

Anyway, whatever rows their boats. We’ll still sleep at the end of it all. So, here’s how I see things.

First, look at yourself as a?system

It’s the simplest way of looking at yourself, but the least exciting.

It’s not as exciting as the next two, but it sets the foundation.

The post preceding this talked of one of the greatest puzzles of evolution. We know about the survival of the fittest, what can we say about the arrival of the fittest? Current mainstream theories have little say about it.

There’s little we can do about these ideas. But one way to go about it is by changing how you look at yourself.

First and foremost, you are a system. A system comprises parts, connected through channels of feedback loops. Here’s an example of a system inside you.

You take a lot of water. Or beer. Or wine. Soon enough, you feel like peeing. You have filled your bladder and now, you need to respond. It’s the feedback of a full bladder, tagging at your sphincters telling you to find that room fast.

Hopefully, you’re not asleep. The urge to pee while sleeping destroys many pleasant dreams.

Anyway, that is a feedback system linked to your immediate past history of fluid intake. There are many such systems in your body. Collectively, they form you.

You are a system. And a system has a single goal?—?to avoid breakdown.

ALL SYSTEMS WORK TO AVOID BREAKDOWN.

You never wanted that heartbreak. You never wanted to be left out of that team or group. You did not want to feel withdrawn.

Most importantly, you don’t want to die. You don’t want to feel dead inside. You don’t want to feel any of that.

The goal of any system, any system you can think of, is to avoid breakdown. For living organisms, it is to avoid death.

Death surrounds you. Every step of the way. But you have been victorious this far. That’s the great news. And it only gets better, because you will continue to be victorious for a while before you die.

Let me explain.

I told you, a most unconventional way. I’m only getting started.

Second, everything outside you is your universe?—?very different from any other?person

Everything outside you is your universe.

It includes everything you know and don’t know, and everyone you know and don’t know. Consider a couple.

One partner has a different universe from the other. What is external to one is not what is external to the other. At the very least, what is external to one, is the other partner. The same can be said about any living organism you can think of.

This view?—?of a system and its universe is the highlight of a high-stakes law in physics. Since organisms have to exist within the confines of the laws of physics, viewing yourself in this manner makes sure that you view yourself with rigour.

Scientific rigour.

This simple way means you are unique. In the most rigourous of ways, you are unique and will always be unique. A unique system, with a unique universe.

Science excites a small fraction of people.

But that’s not nearly as exciting, I hope, as the next bit.

Third, look at yourself using probability?—?the law of small?numbers

Think of first-time impressions.

The common saying is that first-time impressions matter. But who talks about the first-time stellar impressions that went to bust? We only focus on the successful ones.

If first-time impressions do matter, why do we still have a lot of betrayals, disloyalty, and mistrust? It’s precisely because first impressions matter that they fail.

If I know you will be hooked by my first impression, then I will invest in it. You will only get hooked on the first impression and not know about the hidden traits. There are many, many later-failed but initially promising first-time impressions that don’t get enough airtime in conversations and on the Internet.

It’s a lesson.

In the short span when one gets to know about something, they know very little about it. The more time you hand around it, the more you get to know about it.

Little time, little knowledge. More time, more knowledge.

Does this explain why people still don’t know you as you wish they would?

Possible. But I’m not done yet.

An alternative way to say this is:

Small samples, little certainty. Large samples, more certainty.

I use samples because time can also be sampled. If I only know someone for a sample of the time I have to interact with them, the shorter the time, the little I know.

Yet again, small samples, little certainty. Larger samples, more certainty.

If you link this with my previous post, you will notice why there are hardly any theories of evolution that can explain with certainty what the first organism might have been like.

Why should I talk about the first organism billions of years ago when you were also the first organism in your universe? Remember the second point? You are unique because of your universe. It is different from any other person.

It means every known organism is the first organism. Go figure?—?the name of my book is The First Organism.

I wrote a book about you. But maybe you never had the time to read it. Maybe you’re not into science and math as I am.

Maybe.

But you know what? It doesn’t matter as much because the very book explains why you cared or not as much. It says that in small samples, there is little certainty.

Let me now flip it.

Small samples = little certainty.

Little certainty = A lot of variation

Therefore,

Small samples = A lot of variation.

What is the smallest sample you can think of? It’s not two. It’s not three. It’s one.

You cannot get a sample smaller than one.

It means that you, as the single system in your universe, have unbounded and untold variation. You can take a ride today and not know if you will have a road packed with traffic. You can go to work thinking it will be a typical day, only to receive bad news.

In this regard, you share a deep connection with the very first organism that ever existed.

Most unconventional yet deeply consistent.

This is the unique view about yourself not found in books?—?except?mine

I talk extensively about the first organism in my book.

You will not find it in any other book. Chances are you will also not read my book, because?…who am I? I might be forgotten in the next 100 years.

Why should you read my book?

I’ll give you a reason?—?it talks about you.

I have developed a theory of evolution that looks at it in a fractal way. Fractality is the attribute of the self-similarity of objects. You can check how the Koch Curve forms.

My theory gets granular in describing organisms but knows its limits?—?it cannot get extremely granular. It can only make course-grained assertions.

At the core of the theory, it says you are the fundamental unit of diversity. That is, the organism is the fundamental unit of diversity.

It summons the arguments from two supreme laws.

1. The second law of thermodynamics?—?alias?—?you and your universe

2. The inverse law of large numbers?—?alias?—?small samples, little certainty, a lot of variation.

My theory, therefore, is a theory of evolution and diversity.

It basically says you are unique.

With scientific and mathematical rigour, my theory says you are unique.

A most unconventional way to view yourself, huh?