Maslow’s hammer
I love the phrase, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The idea is that people over-use familiar tools. It was rephrased at one point into, “Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” And now you understand why we’re so obsessed with the penis, yeah?
We have a tendency to favor one direction of thought, whether it is philosophical, professional, or personal. It’s part of why many people (myself included) have fairly predictable viewpoints once you get to know them – you know the tools in their toolbox, if you will.
All of the best conversations, it seems to me, happen with people who force me to let go of my favorite tools and try using another – often by example.
caadn (Scott Thom, for you Castle folk) has always been good for this, for example: if you could avoid being enraged at how he can pick apart your favorite perspective, you find yourself taking a tour with him of the various possibilities in a given discussion. He’s got a whole bag of hammers (some say in his face, but that’s not very charitable), and he forces you to widen your view or perish.
(Which, by the way, is why some people find him so maddening – if you’re so completely invested in your viewpoint that it will destroy you to have it challenged… well, the end is nigh.)
What hammer do you over-use, professionally, philosophically, or personally?
I take the gentler approach, when I think someone needs a new tool. I try to find a way in which that tool has played a role in my life (or a way in which I’ve made a mistake with the wrong tool) and talk about that.
The problem is that indirect conversation, while more polite and respectful of a person’s “right” to continue on their own route, has no definite conclusion. There is no reason why the person you’re encouraging to think a little differently is going to understand the point you’re beating around the bush to make.
On the other hand, most people (myself included) find it much easier to consider an alternative viewpoint when their own viewpoint hasn’t just been utterly destroyed in a direct intellectual confrontation.
Maslow’s a popular guy today.
On a complete tangent, you’re only three posts separated on my friends list from this post:
http://ferrouswheel.livejournal.com/201084.html
That’s a difficult question, by the way. I have a few hammers. I think to some degree what I over-use is employing too many hammers when one would do. Sometimes you can gain from using the approach that’s most readily apparent, rather than overanalyzing and deliberating about what the optimal mix of approaches is.
Logic. Sometimes, things are simply illogical.
So true. I try to tell myself once in awhile that our default inherent mode of behavior is not reason, it’s instinct, which is not subject to rationality.
My brain went a different way with that phrase – if all you have is a hammer, then with a little ingenuity all manner of things can be made to function as nails. Basically, that the single tool at your disposal can be applied to all manner of solutions. Kind of like MacGyver’s pocket knife and duct tape.
It works in a literal physical context, but I think it’s problematic when you take it into metaphor.
Let me give you an example from recent events at work:
We share our new studio with two other publications. In one of them, they hired a photographer to come in and determine what will be necessary to shoot a car in our new studio.
He came in and ultimately said “It is just impossible.” The ceiling is 10 ft too low, the studio is not nearly large enough, the walls are missing the gentle sloping he requires.
HOWEVER, the individual is a AAA magazine photographer. The studio was designed for video-for-the-web, at a fraction of the resolution. He is absolutely correct that, for the tool he uses, the studio is wrong, wrong, wrong. In this circumstance though, he has the wrong tool.
It’s not that he can’t make his tool do the job, just like using a hammer to put in a screw. That screw will be flush against the wall, for sure.
I don’t blame him for this, naturally – if anyone was to be called in, a professional for lighting film and web video would be a more appropriate choice. His tool, at least, is the one necessary for the job.
I’ll call it the “third option hammer”. It is a mystical bronze ball-peen that breaks all questions of moral restriction…Secretly I think I’ll refer to it from now on as the “Vash-hammer”, after Vash the Stampede, who’s famous for claiming there’s “always another way”. I’ve never been good at accepting questions like “Well but if you HAD TO CHOOSE between lying to your mom or eating a fresh corpse, obviously it’d be better to lie, right?” I almost always tend to resort to my hammer: That’s a false hypothetical choice. In the real world there WOULD be another option.
It’s my inner young teenager, I think, screaming “Fuck you” to everyone who sighed and said it “just is that way”.
My hammer keeps me creative and committed to my morals, so that’s a good thing I guess. But it also makes for some serious philosophical angst (and possibly other types of commitment) if it doesn’t work out that way.
P.S.! My husband can’t come tomorrow night, but I might be able to come by myself. (You’ll get to warm up on the less-interesting of us, if that happens. ;) …If I can pull it off, where do I go? And do I need a password to avoid getting tazed at the door? And should I bring anything? Also, what is the air-speed ratio of an unladen swallow?
Here is the post about the gathering itself! If you would like to partake in food with us, you can of course bring something for the potato bar or something compatible with such. :) Otherwise, yourself is just fine!
They live on Deering, just north of 6 mile, west of Inkster (east of Middlebelt). When turning onto Deering, it’s the second house on the right, park anywhere on the street, you should see my silver Mazda3 somewheres nearby and hear the chatter. Could be inside, could be in back!
As for the tazer, I guess that depends on whether you want to be tazed. *ahem*
I usually go with “Hi, my name is *insert name you want to be known by forevermore*, and I brought free food!”. That should at least get you in the door. ;)
We’ll just have to survive without your man, but we’ll except him to entertain us next time. Juggle, damnit!
Also, 3ft/sec. It’s a fact.
1) what the heck is a potato bar, and
2) i cannot cook. you do not want me to try.
Anything you can think of that would be a good offering, or type of offering? B33r?
(I still have to check what time my class is on Wed., so all this may have to wait. But I wanna go, darnit, so I’m pretending as motivation. ;)
They are buying and preparing potatoes.
You can bring something that goes with potatoes – doesn’t have to be cooked, mind you. Bacon bits, or cookies.
And yes, beer goes well with potatoes, though I don’t know how many people are beer drinkers as such. mojito mix might be popular with Sheryl. :D
I am very concerned that you think “cookies” are a good thing to go with potatoes…but I think I catch your drift. Mayhap I will rustle up some mead…Chaucer’s goes awesome with potatoes. ;)
Eek, that is a webpage to which I am forbidden.
Hrm! Well until I get ahold of sheryl, I’ll just say that it says:
Hope to see you on Wednesday, we’re having a potato bar. We will be providing the potatoes, butter, salsa, salt, pepper, and chives. I’ll also be making a tossed salad.
Ideas for things to bring…
Sour Cream
Pre-cooked bacon
cheese
chili
nacho cheese
Be creative!
Don’t forget if you are coming to Construct, our room block closes on this Thursday! Don’t delay.
Hey yo — What time is this here shindig? I’d really like to come, but work is looking like it won’t be short today. *damn work*
With any luck I’ll see you guys soon…Thanks again for the invite(s)!
Relating to the subject at hand, by the way – I try to play people’s games when I can, ’cause it is a given that no true situation will play out like that. I think of it like improv comedy, where the only rule is that you never say “no” to your partner.
That’s improv? I thought that was called “seven minutes in the closet”!
You will get along with everyone just fine. :D