Your Brain LOVES Principles

There are do-ers, and there are consumers of information who love to hear all the "behind the scenes" and the "what were you thinking in that moment before you took that action?" and beyond. There are Kirks and there are Spocks.

You either calculate out the percentage of survival or you have a battle cry.

Your Brain LOVES Principles

I look at thinkers and deep thinkers especially as broccoli. We all know that every diet book in the world could be replaced with "eat more broccoli" and you'd do better. You don't need to understand macronutrients. Gut health is something most of you haven't read about, but you've heard the term. But you know, that's the trick of it all. You can DO plenty without reading the instruction manual.

However, when you learn of a principle, or you are taught the underlying concept of why something works the way it does, life gets amazing. It's like a power-up in a video game. You used to be able to move 8 spaces, but now you can move 20. Why? Because you learned the thing, and now you know the thing, you don't have to waste your time.

Would You Rather?

There's a "would you rather" question I think about a lot: "Would you rather be surprised by everything or surprised by nothing?"

The only sane answer is "surprised by nothing," because if you walk around being surprised by everything, you're doomed to a life of: "Wait! I can breathe in AND out?" and that would be nuts.

The thing is, people who spend the time and effort digging into principles and core beliefs and material like that end up producing output that can spook the average human. You can win at the game of Monopoly without understanding economic theory. You'd win more often if you did. Chess is that way. There are all kinds of "known" details to how chess can and should often go. Games of chess at the grandmaster level are almost always about laying out deep stacks of understanding in patterns that require a lot of thought to counter. It's not a "surprise" move that wins. It's unveiling a move that started eleven moves back.

You get to THAT level by learning principles.

How Kirks Use Spocks

The challenge in all life is that a Kirk will never want to know what a Spock knows. A good Kirk won't really even value what Spock knows. But the best of the Kirks out there know that if they make a space for their Spock to unveil the logic, to teach the concepts behind the winning execution, those Spocks are going to develop some number of thinker/followers who will never quite be blessed with the intuitive skills or the hunger to collect experiences to validate their beliefs.

For every Leeroy Jenkins who becomes legend for diving into the dragon's lair, there are thousands of ash marks of those who just didn't have the built up skills and experience to exhibit capabilities. It would serve many to spend a little time learning principles, accepting them as a foundational piece of what drives the bigger story, and then learn when to remember and apply those principles once the situation is identified.

Learning and memory are a great alternate path to practice and experience, until such time that you don't have to choose between them.

Live long and prosper, principle thinkers. We need you every. bit. as. much. as WE..need. KIRK!