Today's blog, more than most, is an exercise in futility. I want to communicate an idea to you, an endeavor that is doomed before I begin.
In today's world, communication can happen quicker than ever before in human history. I type my words here and press "Post" and you will have access before I leave the room. That's true wherever you are, be it your own home in Cincinnati, or halfway around the world in a Malaysian coffee shop. (Hey, Jason!)
And yet, the probability that you will perfectly understand my idea closely approaches zero. You'll get the upshot, the gist, and the broad strokes, but you will never completely grasp the idea and what it means to me, because human communication is an oxymoron. Here's why:
1) Person A collects input from the world around them.
2) Person A has an idea, based on associations their brain makes with the input.
3) Person A expresses idea through words (or some other means of transmission such as art or music).
4) Person B receives words or other transmission.
5) Person B interprets transmission as input.
6) Person B forms independent idea, based on interpretation and associations their brain makes.
7) Idea from Person A does not equal Idea in Person B.
Of course this failure to communicate occurs in varying degrees depending on all sorts of factors, but it always happens, turning human discourse into a giant game of "Telephone" with real-world stakes. It's a wonder that humans manage to accomplish anything together, really.
So that's the idea I want to pass along to you, but it doesn't matter what I want. The idea has already entered your brain, mutated and grown and begun to eat away at you. Good luck trying to get someone else to understand it.