IMO, disconnection is a tool to look at identities, ideas, perceptions, emotions, and circumstances objectively. It is the art of ceasing to flow like a lifeless log of wood on the river – unattached to it roots or purpose; trapped in the flow of subjective meaning imparted from impressions of assumed meaning of the world. The trick is to figure out that – It is NOT a question of right or wrong; it is a question of transcendence. I had this fleeting thought for a very long time, both from the philosophical aspect and from the aspect of discovering meaning such as to fit myself in the piece of this puzzle.
It is only recently that I could ask the right question when I read the book – The Moment of Clarity. I learnt a great deal and the words go something like this: “Our understanding of the world is based entirely on context, we can only ever truly understand our tools— our mobile phones, our coffee, our cars— when these objects break down. We can only understand what it means to be online when, suddenly, we are unable to get online. Our phones only make sense to us when someone takes them away. A line for a coffee cart outside our office only becomes clear to us when we are from a culture that does not stand in line for coffee. Things withdrawn from our understanding, from our mere consideration, come to the fore when they are disconnected from their chains of meaning. Only through this disconnection do we gain true understanding about our worlds.”
Isn’t that so true? – I asked myself. I thought about great products shipped from companies like Apple and Google and their key underlying ability to continue to do this. How could Google know Search was so important that it would become an inevitable part of our day-to-day live? How could Steve Jobs possibly know what he knew about the users needs? Is it just a natural order of nature or is it conscious intelligence to change for the better? I think it is the latter; Mother Nature just provides the playground and lessons for those who disconnect to listen. And then the answer came to me like it had been hiding in plain sight. The idea is to attach to the context but also disconnect in-order to break away from the shackles of what we define as established and impossible to truly discover – the new.
Give it a minute to digest and have a creative and productive day.