Chinese water torture for clear thinking
Last week after it rained, I got woken up at this strange time called "two in the morning".
Two o'clock belongs in the afternoon. If I'm not partying with hookers and elbow-deep into a bottle of single-malt, I don't want to know about any two in the morning.
I don't trust hours so late that they're early. Like make up your mind.
But that morning, I was rustled to unhappy consciousness by a drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip sound coming from right outside the window.
This sounded like wet rubber slapping sloppy wet rubber. Like a tire blew out on a big rig and the driver said, nah, ain't stopping.
SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP
SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP
Few things are more obnoxious than dripping water when you're trying to sleep. The Chinese called it water torture for a reason. That sound bores into your mind like a maggot searching for a warm place to lay eggs.
I had to go outside in the cold rain and fidget around, three quarters asleep, to restore my sanity. Profanity was allegedly involved.
I tell you what though. Obnoxious as the drip may be, the ruthlessness of falling water contains an important lesson.
A lesson that might be the key to thinking clearly and learning anything you want to learn.
In this week's Mattcast, I get on to a rant about why mental models, critical thinking, and lists of logical fallacies are probably a waste of time if you want to be a better thinker.
There's a trick to clear, deep thinking, and I reveal it inside.
You'll have to be a member of my Night's Gate group to listen. You can apply for your invitation with this link:
Make sure you use that link. The post won't be visible from the main feed inside the group.
Be good & take it easy.
Matt Perryman