But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
- Ode to a mouse, Robert Burns
In honour of Burns' night, I would like to explore this often misinterpreted quote. Although it is sometimes necessary to abandon plans in favour of a fresh perspective, there is nothing to say that planning itself is without value. Unlike field mice, humans are prone to making plans. While such plans are coming together, there is often anxiety. When such plans go awry, there is often a great deal of doubt that follows. Such feelings may often be fallacious though. This is often due to one common flaw in many plans: we plan for things that we can't control.
It may not be the case that we outright expect unpredictable things to happen. Unless we have reason to hope, loss aversion naturally makes us reticent of such gambling. This is often achieved through the use of conditional statements. Although such conditions may account for many possibilities, we open ourselves up to chaos, "grief an' pain" nonetheless. Specifically, it is subjective possibilities that we cannot plan for. People are not machines. Although the details of a solid plan are often unchanging, our subjective view is not.
We are constantly acquiring new and random pieces of information. Seemingly irrelevant things can take on a much larger meaning when they enter our minds. Perhaps they may trigger memories that we are yet to process or form new patterns that no longer fit our existing schema. In such instances, we may find ourselves subject to new trains of thought that are simply incompatible with our current plan. The plan remains the same but we are no longer able to complete it without ignoring our own minds. A man may form a variety of contingency plans in the event that his car breaks down. He may take the train or bus or call in to say that he can't make it to a meeting. What he cannot account for is that the love of his life may, unbeknownst to him, be waiting to on that same train. He is unlikely to be able to ignore her in the same manner he would any other attractive woman. She has subjective value.
Therefore, in order to successfully go through with a plan, it is necessary to block out such intrusive information. Greater, more meaningful information that may distract from the necessary task at hand is ignored, not by our own will, but rather by our preparations. This is discipline. It is the denial of our intuition, emotion and sensation in favour of what has been logically determined. This may be achieved in any number of ways. As a capstan shanty could quell the potentially mutinous chatter aboard a tea clipper, as a quart of rum could steady a shivering hand, we too find similar methods to those used in the golden age of sail. Admittedly the stakes are a little lower when we drown out noise with generic, lo-fi beats for studying. It is the same idea though. We switch potentially meaningful or distracting information with that which is meaningless, predictable and undramatic. Preparing such methods of emotional, intellectual or sensory deprivation during the planning stage is perhaps the best way to mitigate subjective factors.
At what cost do we do this though? It can never be known for sure. We may miss out on great things, terrifying things and all the experiences that are the spice of life to follow through with our plans. Hence, a short term plan for brief, individual tasks is perhaps the most efficient way to use such discipline. This way we may reduce the time a given task will take to complete and allow ourselves to maximise the time we spend being our fun-loving, distractible selves. The same cannot be said for long term plans though. For such strategies the price is often much higher. It's possible to lose friends, miss out on better opportunities and generally lack an objective perspective of oneself when too many distractions are ignored. So, while our schemes may often go awry, we should be grateful when they do, just as we are glad when they don't.
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