Stream Theory

Post from January 31, 2016 (↻ June 6, 2021), filed under Philosophy.

Not just since the Law of Attraction is there this idea of “like attracts like,” of self-fulfilling prophecies, of better being “careful” what we wish for. While I do believe in (but don’t practically grasp) the Law of Attraction, I don’t like to work with it philosophically yet (perhaps because of said grasp). But there’s a similar concept that I do like to work with, and that’s focus.

Here I’ll put up one more brief thought experiment. Look at the following ideas and associations.

Against terror	For peace
Take revenge	Recognize root causes
Bomb people	Take care of people
Mistrust	Find out motivations
Tighten control	Reach out to dissenters
Cut rights	Strengthen liberties
Reject	Talk
Resent	Forgive

Compare (note that these aren’t and don’t have to be opposites). Then look at this one.

Against cancer	For health
Condemn disease	Celebrate health
Increase research	Build up faith
Worry about life’s weaknesses and insufficiencies	Trust life’s resilience and strength
Complain about injustice and unfairness	Understand disease as a space to grow and learn
Transcend technical limitations	Transcend philosophical limitations

Compare again. Extend if you like. Now this:

Against gender bias	For gender equality
Emphasize injustice	Highlight desirable outcomes
Blend gender and oppression	Understand the importance of all beings
Build up rage against other gender	Develop a feeling for differences and similarities across genders
Propose quota to force one gender into, the other out of functions	Allow for equal educational opportunities to permit people to assume functions by qualification, not gender

Understanding that we’re looking at these from a light philosophical point of view, what do you notice? Do you think the sides are equally valid and useful? Do you think they lead to the same results? Which course should we take—individually, collectively?

I will conveniently fall back to my student role and, until I can find out whether someone else has done similar with like intent, label this: stream theory. Why? Because how we think seems to impact how we further think, making for thought… streams. Stream theory. But maybe I’ve just lacked patience to think about a better title for this post.

About Me

I’m Jens, and I’m an engineering lead—currently manager for Developer Experience at LivePerson—and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead for Google, I’m close to W3C and WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly. I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.

If you have a question or suggestion about what I write, please leave a comment (if available) or a message. Thank you!

Read More

Maybe this is interesting to you, too:

• Next: It’s Not Too Late
• Previous: Coding Guidelines, the Gist
• More under Philosophy, or from 2016
• Most popular posts

Looking for a way to comment? Comments have been disabled, unfortunately.