Sunday, March 4, 2007

23. The beetle in the box

Ludwig and Bertie have come up with a game, a personal plot to amuse themselves and confuse others. Should we be concerned with their imaginative musings? Perhaps not. But the point about the "pain in the knee" is something to think about a little more.
I work in an interactive agency and we get clients who sometimes tell us that they don't like the mockups. They can't explain why, they just don't seem to agree with the creatives/copy etc. It's their "pain in the knee", something they feel but someone else can't really identify or identify with. We use these euphemisms to get through life, and it seriously doesn't sound like a big deal.

Until, we look at the meaning of words at the very basic level. Imagine a scenario where the words don't mean what we are used to.

"This is an apple. It is an apple because
- your sense of sight tells you it is an an apple
- your sense of smells tells you it is an apple
- you expect the taste of apple if you were to bite into it
You bite into it and it's chocolate, not apple."

Sometimes, the beetle isn't a beetle. So keep an open mind about the world around you. Expect the unexpected.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes - if not most of the times - your 'gut feel' is the best indication of the Truth.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the blog owner. What a blog! nice idea.

jeevan said...

I think its beyond the association of word to objects. Its the association of ideas to objects; just expressed though language.

You 'know' its an apple when you bite in to it, because that comes from experience. You are aware of the idea of the apple, you already know what it tastes like, if you went to a part of the world where the call the apple by another name, you would'nt refute it. thats because the idea has not changed, the expression/language has changed.

The question that arises in a deeper sense, is is an apple really an apple ? what does it mean ? and am I feeling the same experience that you are when we both eat the same apple ? We use language, a relative medium, to communicate feelings and ideas. How accurate is it ?