Importance of Random
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1/ How do you connect from A to B?
2/ When you know all the nodes, it will be very easy.
3/ When you don’t, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you just won’t.
4/ This unrelated node C thus serves an exceptionally important function.
5/ There’s a saying —
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
6/ The main reason that most people don’t see is because they are missing the node C in a problem requiring one to connect from A to B.
And it’s impossible to know beforehand what that node C is.
7/ There is however a way to solve most problems connecting most node A’s to most node B’s — knowing as many node C’s as possible.
i.e. knowing as many random nodes as possible.
8/ That’s why I explore the random universe.
As as a random universe explorer, I’m progressively expanding the probability of me solving problems.
9/ Did you know that a group of individuals exists whose genetic makup inherently drives them to explore the universe randomly, and to learn about every random facts that are seemingly unimportant?
They’re the people with ADHD.
10/ It’s not a coincidence that people who have ADHD are often the people who are solving the most problems in the workplace.
To some people, ADHD is a disability. For me, ADHD is a superpower.
Immersing myself in a community of individuals with ADHD significantly broadens the scope of my network coverage.
Questions and Feedback
I’ve received a few comments and questions regarding this post, which I shall include here for completeness.
What are the nodes?
Consider the world of concepts as a network of nodes, which each node being a unique concept or subject matter. Often, to be able to see how something could be something else depends on being able to see the hidden pattern within that link them together.
For simple things, the connection would be direct. For example, for photojournalism, which is linking photography with journalism — the field of using photography as a medium to tell a journalistic story.
For more complex topics, to see the solution would require knowledge of multiple fields. For example, to understand how you could create solution that would allow autonomous vehicle navigation — aka self-driving cars — you would have to know about sensor data, traffic laws, analysis of environmental conditions, predictive modeling, etc.
To have a hunch that a problem is even potentially solvable, it requires at least some knowledge of these fields. Then a hypothesis can be formed and ask the questions “what if”.
Partially, I wrote this because often people would comment that people with ADHD (or other types of neurodivergent people) of “wasting time to mind about unnecessary knowledge”.
I’d like to show, through this example, that maybe there are exceptional advantages offered by exploring the random universe.
— that potentially, if we would have the open heart to embrace and appreciate these efforts, and to allow people to be who they are, then potentially more problems would be solved.
— by simply allowing people who are genetically predisposed to do what they are capable of doing
It’s more than adhd. It occurs in asd and mania As well. It’s pattern recognition and synthesis. And we are all wired for it
Thanks — I can’t speak for other neurodivergent types because I don’t have them — but yes, largely, it’s pattern recognition.
Using TuGraph（Graph Processing）to calculate and predict the future
- Article: 支付寶有多狠？ 當年為抓騙子搞出“圖計算”，現在竟用它預測未來
- How ruthless is Alipay? Back then, they developed “graph computing” to catch scammers, and now they’re using it to predict the future.
- Article Translation by Google Translate
Sketches
Sometimes people ask me if I draw. I do draw — but the type of drawings that I do is never intended to be final works, so they have no fidelity to them.
I draw them purely as ideas — enough for me to know what I need to do to realize it.
Sketches are visual notes and diaries. There are ideas that I’ve jotted on my Moleskines dating as far as 30 years ago that I haven’t realized because of time. But when I look at them, I could remember what I was thinking as if I just drew them a second ago.
Sketches for “The Importance of Random”
Concept Map of connecting A to B, spanning multiple categories and subject matters
2024-03-26 / SML