January 8, 2013

Multi-polar Disorder and Steve Jobs

Keynes, a British economist who pioneered modern macroeconomics, when accused of being a flip flop, retorted, "When facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Konosuke Matsushita, Panasonic founder, quoted an ancient Japanese saying, "The sage changes his mind at least three times a day."

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, in a recent BusinessWeek interview, said that Jobs was sold on one direction in one moment and a nano second later, sold on in a totally opposite direction. At first, Cook thought of this as "strange." Gradually, though, he came to see it as a rare gift and a talent. He wished his fellow CEO's and national leaders could be as flexible of thoughts as Jobs was.

Contrast them with Hitler. When told of Russia's superior monthly tank production statistics, Hitler accused his cabinet of sabotaging his war efforts.

Bipolar is a well known disorder, defined here. Multipolar disorder is a term I coined just now.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” says F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Bohr also wonders at our ability to hold paradoxical views in our mind at the same time, a la Yin and Yang style.

What if we can hold more than 2 views?

What if, like Feynman's scientists, we subscribe to 6 or 7 perspectives at the same time?

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