Birth of “theparallel”
The motivations and mental model behind this blog
I’ve always been fascinated by the connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, due to a belief that innovation is a result of interdisciplinary thinking. In the past, this perspective has led me to (attempt to) design home insulation inspired by beehives, and co-found a nonprofit organization that uses photography to promote mental health in the Canadian North. All clearly distinct concepts, with beautiful outcomes once overlapped.
Lately, this interest has manifested in the form of a blog, “theparallel”. I started writing as an opportunity to explore topics capturing my imagination, usually relating to society and sustainability. Since this is a relatively selfish pursuit — a personal thought experiment — its format represents how my brain prefers to manage information. I thrive by applying structure to potentially messy ideas. As legendary entrepreneur/investor Naval Ravikant has said:
“The smartest people can explain things to a child; if you can’t do that, you don’t understand the concept.”
So, in my quest to be a little bit smarter, I’m embracing getting a whole lot simpler.
I believe only when information is structured can it be a starting point for greater creativity and meaningful application. We all learned in high school how to build on the “hamburger essay” framework. However, the end product will be far from juicy if not marinated in metaphors. And the reader will be left unsatisfied without a finishing bite of some call to action. Writing about parallels is my attempt to better understand analogous ideas, and eventually articulate an implication.
Analogous: comparable in certain respects, typically in a way which makes clearer the nature of the things compared.
Here’s how I see it: the topic introduced first forms the foundation. The second topic can be represented as a set of four flimsy walls. Independently, these components have little value. However together, each of their individual purposes are revealed, and the structure is in place for a much stronger idea with obvious utility.
Effectively, that first subject serves as a mental model to be applied to the second. Shane Parrish of Farnam Street says mental models let us explain past phenomena, but also empower us to anticipate what will happen next. In short, they are both descriptive and predictive.
