People's minds arent made for large problems
As I prepare to leave The/Nudge Institute, I am reminded yet again of the conversation Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister had on the cliff at Dragonstone (The TV Series)
Jon had just arrived and was asking for help defeating the night king, white walkers and the army of the dead but nobody believes him or even understands him.
Tyrion later tell Jon - “People’s minds are not made for problems that large”
And I thought of this everytime I tried to explain what The/Nudge does. At one point I stopped trying to explain. Not that people don’t try to understand, but I never could get them to empathize with the scale and severity of it.
Most are like the citizens of the 7 kingdoms, busy in their own battles and politics. They don’t know about army of the dead, it’s true scale and why they should be bothered.
Neither can I claim to fully understand it, I don’t. Some days it truly scared me that I did not have enough skills, experience or understanding to help.
But It was a good sort of overwhelm. Thanks to my now reduced anxiety, My mind at times was able to perform true multi-threaded async operations. But also sometimes crash and not boot for a few days 😅
Tyrion then tells Jon - “It’s almost a relief to confront a comfortable, familiar monster…”
So, today I temporarily give up on the fight, I am going to try and fight more comfortable, familiar monsters… Maybe not fight at all. Maybe one day I can return when I feel more equipped, when I don’t have too many personal responsibilities… but until then I know that everyone I have worked with will continue fighting determined to make it through winter.
I am not trying to downplay the comfortable, familiar monsters we are battling with, those are all valid. But to be ignorant to the larger ones and to not try and understand them in not a sustainable direction for humanity. Try to forget the fact that you are normal citizen of the 7 kingdoms and zoom out.
There is a thin line between what are advertised as large problems and those that are actually pertinent and matter. Will leave it up to you to be the judge.
p.s. the quotes are from S07E03 - The entire episode (and series) has parallels to our world today.
** I do not know why I write these, but once in a while that annoying background process in my head refuses to accept a kill command until I write/share