When I Was Getting One, The Other Was Getting Away

Not just this time, but every other time when I thought I had figured it out

There’s no such thing as a drop of rain.

It’s drops — plural.

There has never been a drop of rain unless you ignore all the others and focus on a single one.

It was just a phrase we got used to when we were young. Old habits die hard.

Back then, those essays needed metaphoric language to score marks. In reality, no drop of rain has ever existed in isolation.

The same can be said about problems.

There is no singular problem. They come in chains. These chains are, furthermore, contextual.

You cannot understand the problem — the chain — without the problem situation — the context.

And when you think you have broken the chain never breaks, sooner or later, reality comes knocking at your door.

Breaking chains only feels that way. But they hardly are ever broken.

When you feel like you have solved one problem, another creeps its way into your life. Is this how life should be?

Sadly, there is no other way.

Even when the Dilated Peoples sing:

I can’t live my life this way

It is the only way we can live.

There’s a reason for this.

Instead of running ‘round, lock one bird down — a bird in hand is worth two in the bush

There’s one supreme law in science that makes it difficult to break this chain of problems.

Nay, it makes it impossible.

It’s the second law of thermodynamics.

In simple terms, the law states that there is a progressive increase in disorder as time elapses.

Your hair only gets shaggier, not neater.

Your phone only gets slower and messier, not faster and well-ordered.

Your house doesn’t get well arranged with time; it rearranges itself most of the time into several disordered states day by day.

It’s how the universe works.

Now, about problems, here’s the deal.

The only place where problems can appear to be solved is in mathematics. But reality also brings those academics back to the world.

The brilliant ones might think they have solved the problem of 1+1. But they don’t realize that they are the only ones who have solved that problem. There are billions of people who don’t know why 1+1 equals 2.

It might look simple, but you only need a toddler who just learned how to speak to ask:

Why?

Maybe you can then use your fingers and illustrate your point, but then they drop another bombshell:

Why?

Now you’re out of fingers.

Switching hands doesn’t help.

The subtle lesson is one problem solved always seems to produce another. It might not be visible initially, but it is present, lingering, waiting for someone to identify it.

Usually, the person who identifies it is someone who is interested in the problem or anybody who is curious.

To that end, we can create a framework.

They say what they like, but I’ve been that way — The structure of problems and problem-solving

I call it the Popperian Schema.

In reading one of Popper’s books, he highlights how we progress from one problem to another.

Here’s the structure:

P > TT > EE > P

This is not an error in my typing, it is the framework.

Here’s the key to understanding it:

• P— problem
• TT — tentative theory
• EE — error elimination
• P — problem

The first problem should have a subscript 1 below it and the second P a subscript 2. The problem then evolves from P1 to P2. You catch the drift.

From the left to the right, we get the idea of moving from problem to problem.

Not a drop of rain. Drops of rain. Plural.

Start with an initial problem. Understand it and its problem situation. Then formulate a tentative theory. The theory has to be tentative because there will never, never be absolute answers.

Once you have formulated a theory, you have to wade through error elimination. It refines the theory. Thereafter, you develop another problem linked to the theory, but now unsolvable by the very theory you have refined.

You might think this is only applicable in science, but the truth is it applies to everything you presently know…and don’t know.

Let’s give the example of our demystifier — the toddler.

This guy came into this world crying for a reason.

The world cannot be solved perfectly. It’s possible that neonates realize this harsh truth the moment they come out of the womb.

Anyway, they have no options. They just have to deal with it.

In the next couple of months, they learn that they now get hungry more often than usual. In the womb, it was used to get constant nutrition.

Hunger becomes its first problem — P1. It can’t solve it to its satisfaction. It then creates a theory — TT.

It wails.

And boy can it wail.

Soon enough, a soft pliable projection gets inserted into its mouth. With a reflex, it starts sucking. Out comes a fluid it never anticipated.

As it continues to suckle more fluid comes out.

It turns out the tentative theory is very helpful. There is minimal error elimination. Not absent, minimal. The problem it creates will soon manifest itself — P2.

Why?

The mother is not always around to feed it. Also, with time, the milk will not be enough to satisfy its ever-increasing appetite. Other times the milk wells run dry.

The schema holds.

We have moved from the first problem, P1, to a tentative theory, TT, with minimal error elimination, EE, and the formation of a second problem, P2.

The same can be said about the mother.

The first problem is the child crying — P1.

The tentative theory is feeding it — TT.

The error elimination is finding the best time to reduce the wailing with the feeding — EE.

The other unseen problem is that every wail does not necessarily mean a hungry baby — P2.

Take your time looking at some of the problems you face and see this framework.

Usually, the error elimination phase takes time. But the more you refine your tentative theory to your problem through error elimination, the more you figure out the other lingering problem that has been waiting for you in the dark.

But you know what?

Success will be the best revenge

We have been successful for over 3 billion years.

Organisms solve their problems using this framework. From the smallest bacteria you can think of (or viruses or prions) to the largest sea creatures under the sea.

Just when you think you have solved the problem in the best way you can think of, your universe throws another one at you.

It is what the second law of thermodynamics implicitly states.

There is only so much usable energy going around. Over time, it gets depleted and relative to your needs, it turns useless.

You can have your burger or fresh fruits from the garden but we will all visit that small chamber, unhook our pants, and take a dump.

You literally dump useless energy into the world.

With more insight, we discover how to convert more of what we thought was useless into useful energy, with the help of other organisms.

Bacteria can convert fecal matter into useful biogas. The biogas can then run our homes. But our homes then radiate heat which is disordered energy.

By solving one problem, we create another.

It is not a helpless message of complete doom.

It is a story of success. Approximate successes built on other approximate successes.

If organisms have been surviving for billions of years, it only means we have been very innovative in our solutions.

I say ‘we’ but have to remind myself that humans have been around for only 200,000 years. We started using rocks and flints and now make guns and nuclear arms.

War is not something we should be celebrating, but innovation is.

This time I’m back on my grind

After reading this article, you will have to go back to your grind.

Your device is now a little slower.

Your brain might have gotten foggier.

But the problems won’t solve themselves.

It reminds me of the famous uncertainty principle. I know there are people out there who’ve just facepalmed themselves after mentioning this, but I just had to.

Forgive me.

You might think you have understood the exact position of an object, but you have completely lost the knowledge of its momentum.

It is basically, like what Kanye said in the same song where he features:

I just know when I’m getting one, the other’s getting away

This way

It’s just the way it is.

It’s about time you got back on your grind and solved those problems.

Because they will only continue to increase.

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