I’m going to create a metaphor for creative behavior using a scientific principle. I’m doing it because the comparison helps illustrate the behavior, and because I really like it. The concept is called the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I know, relax.
Werner Heisenberg was a physicist in the 1920’s through 60’s.He noticed that when you observe a particle (stay with me fuck you) when you observe a particle’s position in quantum mechanics that the mere OBSERVATION of the particle affects the particle’s velocity and when you observe a particle’s velocity that the observation affects its position. (Stay with me, fuck it). He noticed that THAT you were measuring it affected the outcome of the particle’s position and velocity. So, listen! Before you can even determine those two factors, velocity and position, you must factor in that you are measuring it in the first place, because the action of measuring it affects the very thing you are measuring! That you measure it affects it’s outcome!
Great! Who gives a fuck!?
So, Heisenberg developed a degree of uncertainty in the measurement of a particle’s position or a particle’s velocity, given the influence of the measuring, itself. He created a constant equation for the UNCERTAINTY. He called this UNCERTAINTY, what else? ….The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The mathematical construct that allows for the uncertainty of a particle’s position and or velocity given that it is being observed. That it is measured affects the outcome so therefore an uncertainty principle became a certain constant in mathematically calculating a particle’s position or velocity to the closest degree possible.
AND NOW who gives a fucking shit? How do you apply this as a metaphor to human behavior and creating? I’ll tell you right now! Remember, THAT something is measured affects its outcome.
With that, I’d like to first enter another conversation about the rational brain and the intuitive brain. Now I am the first to be skeptical about bullshit, that is…well, bullshit. So for a long time, the right/left brain break-down was something that was a convenient model for describing different types of thinking, but I was a bit skeptical as to whether anything was really going on in the physiological realm. Well lately, there is more physiological proof, that there is an actual processing difference in the right and left hemisphere of the brain, and then more lately than that there is more contrary evidence. So it goes. Whether there is a hard-line difference in the wiring or not, there is at least agreement that the left tends toward a particular type of thinking and processing, as does the right. Nonetheless, it is probably more likely that the left and right theory is a grey area, absolutely no pun intended, so as I said earlier I will continue to use these and other words to distinguish these types of thinking and the “voice in your head” or your “annoying sidekick”. Regardless, the left or rational construct does remain a side of the brain, that is actually the measurement of YOU and YOUR thinking. And. Here’s where Mr.Heisenberg enters the stage. If you are only in the state of being or a state of measuring the being, of doing or measuring the doing, then the “THAT you are measuring it” actually affects the outcome of the doing itself. And yes, this is a metaphor between a scientific principle and human behavior, but an apt one. That’s why I LIKE it. That you measure the creation affects the outcome of the creation. It’s not WHAT you measure it with or the content of the judgment, it is the act of measuring it, in and of itself. The analytical brain’s job is to measure all of the time. It’s the voice in your head that is constantly measuring everything. It often talks you out of things from a space of fear, mainly, in order to keep you from harm. It also talks you into things by creating a safe construct from which you can enter a particular scenario and achieve success. It is the part of you that predicts all possible interactions and predicts all possible consequences of every instance. Once again, it creates safety.
Your right crazy brain is reckless creation. It has reckless abandon for consequence. It doesn’t even know to give a damn. THAT you measure your creation affects the creation, itself. So, as with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, THAT you measure it affects its outcome.
Learning when to measure, and when to absolutely fucking not to measure, is key in creation success.
Later we will explore the “Uncertainty Principles” of innovative thinking. Please live the good life.