By system I mean any set of rules determining the outcome.
It is good to have a system when you don’t know what to do, there is no best way to do things or in the case of seemingly meaningless existence.
For example I am no artist, for me, placing an object one distance away from the edge or another or choosing one color over another doesn’t matter, I don’t really see the fundamental difference so to speak, but for an artist the choice is obvious.
So when I don’t know what to do, I might pick a system let say to use fibonacci numbers as much as possible. When I need to place an object, It can be place anywhere and be of any size, but I find a way to fit some kind of fibonacci number somewhere in there and suddenly I have found the way. Before I had many options and no one was better than the other, now I have a system for limiting choice and giving me foundation / reason for my actions.
Even easier example, card games, in some games it might be hard to calculate the probabilities of opponent hands, keep track of the remaining cards e.t.c. so a system that simplifies it all might be used, which will get your game to the next level, but never up to the level of people that actually can play the game.
This makes life much easier. One is no longer lost in the cloud of indeterminism. There is an answer for any problem. Also if the system works it will consistently deliver good results with great efficiency, having a systematic job when you follow a set of rules to accomplish a task is easy, so easy that robots can do it sometimes, and do. Hence systemizing everything is great for the ease of mind, productivity and consistent results.
Of course this does’t change peoples perception, an artist might look at my fibonacci creation and shake his head in disbelief about how someone can make such utter crap. The system while working and being efficient might produce undesired results or a system that once produced great result might now be outdated. For example apple used fake material such as wood and leather in their applications for a while, they had a system, which said that such design should be used to increase the premium feeling. But then they noticed some problems with that system and changed it to another system to make things cleaner, simpler and focus on the content, now they are following that system. Same thing goes for any other system, they should all be used with caution, especially if the system make your life easy and removes the need to think. There are many examples of when systems go wrong especially political ones.
Because the problem with a system is that you don’t really know the correct answer this is why you follow it, otherwise you would’t need a system. It is therefore easy to mindlessly keep on doing the wrong thing hoping that it will work out in the end.
Any system must therefore be regularly revised, one must look at the results and say that it’s all good, and if it isn’t then one must tweak or change the system. But because a system is the cause / foundation / reason for ones action one eventually starts to identifies with it, because who are you if not what you do, and any criticism of the system will be taken personally, system must be defended at any cost.
The system that makes up you, i.e. the set of rules that determine your actions, the one that must be defended at any cost, is probably fair to call your ego. And if you think there is’t any, there is, for in the same situation, you would act in the same matter, it is also called for rationality to be consistent in ones behavior, which is determined by your system even if you don’t actively choose to follow a certain rule each time you decide something. You for example don’t steal when you go to the store, regardless of how many times you go there, you don’t think about it, but if I would to ask you, you would say that this is the thing I just don’t do, it goes against who I am, I believe it is wrong.
Our beliefs are probably the biggest and most important system there is, we don’t know fundamentally the most important thing, what is the meaning if it all, with life, universe and everything. So we make up a set of rules, a story about our selves which we follow. It can be religious, it is very convenient to have religious rituals to follow, but it can also be anything else, being vegetarian, workaholic, anything as long as you have some steps you can take every day without thinking about the big picture.
Because often when you confront someones system, which is very strongly related to their ego, something that in their world is certain, and you explain that it is not, you often hear the argument that anything is possible then, it is madness, you take away the stairway from underneath their feet which they claimed with great certainty. Therefore when a person used certain strong belief as the fundamental basis for their actions for a long time, it becomes who they are, and trying to question the system, is to question them. It doesn’t need to be religion, for example people that associate them selves strongly with their nationality, have a very hard time accepting criticism of their country.
By the time I wrote all this, I forgot what the real point of it all was, except for be careful with your system.
Sorry for the quality. It is summer.
