Think Small to Think Big

The prompt to myself:

Describing Something Mundane but Accurately in A Beautiful Way

I look at my desk and I see objects there, a tripod for a camera, a glass fitting perfectly inside a donut shape lamp base. A timer that I bought from taobao and broke easily.

As I explore the desk I realise something more profound.

That there is something powerful in the micro.

I think this is a philosophy I’ve had for whole my life when I reflect on my career.

I wanted to do something small very well, and I knew that by doing that I could do something big very well.

I started recruiting first for a law university, partly because i was recommended to it by a friend, but I was also drawn and called to it.

I wanted to do something like that, combining people and technology, but I also wanted to do something small, exceptionally well.

I chose a small problem and became the only person tackling it, there was no competition, and I could own it.

I may have chosen the small problem because I knew it was safe.

Safe from big companies, safe to be explored. Safe to own.

On reflection, the initial opportunity was inherently capped, but the lessons were definitely there, and the opportunity was.

I’ve also read that many people look at a niche and then explore it outwards.

Almost like a sandbox.

This is why I think focusing on a micro thing is really so valuable.

Because the world we live in is infinitely complex, and there are new insights to be found everywhere.

And in order to understand the macro you have to understand the micro.

To understand the economy you have to understand people. To understand people you have to understand diet, cells, energy.

And this principle is also one of the reasons why individualism is so powerful. It’s bottoms up thinking. Scaling the micro to the macro.

It’s:

• First principles thinking

• Reductionism

• Microcosm reflects macrocosm

• Fractal Symmetry

• Emergence

• The Butterfly Effect and Entropy

If you can understand DNA you can understand the person.

Like a seed provides a blueprint for a forest.

This article is an exact example of what I mean.

I started this article with the goal of just describing my desk, and here I am having discovered a deep principle that I didn’t know about myself, and having written it, I feel I understand it much better.

There are also multiple other directions I could have taken this article. I could have continued describing the desk in more detail, or the items and their stories, or whether I should clean my desk or not, which could have led to various other directions.

But that is a far easier way to start an article than to look at something big. But of course to every principle there is a counter principle depending on the topic.

And I also get incredibly motivated by big things, because now I’m not afraid to fail. I am prepared to give it my shot, and go for it. I understand myself and the world much better.

And thats what I’m ready for next.