Division of tasks can be pushed as far as to have one person thinking and another person executing. That is not uncommon today. After all, it does cost time to think. And I am not productive while thinking. So, when there is something to do, it is efficient to think once and then note down what needs to be done. Based on that follows the execution, and not necessarily by the person who thought, but possibly by a lot of other people. Many busy hands bring the idea into reality, without ever having thought about it. They are productive, they create something in the world, they can immediately see the result of their work. And they will be replaced by machines as soon as those are able to do the job cheaper. And that is good, because a job that does not require thinking, as it is the case with some assembly-line work, underchallenges a human and does not allow fulfillment. It will make them unhappy. Machines on the other hand are very good executers. They do what they are made for. They do not think, their output is predictable, and when they are well constructed and maintained, all runs like a clockwork.
Despite all machines, craftsmen are still in high demand. That is not only because of their craftsmanship, which is still unmatched by machines in many cases. It is also because they often work in an existing, naturally grown environment, need to consider customer requests and can rarely do the exact same thing twice. They must think, plan each order they get. They must think about what can be done how in the given context. In his profession, a craftsman unites the capabilities of thinking and doing. How much thinking is required in our professions often goes unnoticed, because we think with such casualness that we barely notice. Only when something cannot be automated do we notice that there is some thinking necessary here.
How important thinking is can also be noticed when engineers need to design a product. An engineer also usually works with given constraints, and has to find a solution close to the optimum within those boundaries. I did this myself for several years. How good the product becomes is not only dependent on the talent of the engineers, but also by the demands that they were facing. Especially for complex products, which require hundreds or thousands of engineers to contribute, those demands are very important. I worked as an engineer in the automotive industry. Besides the interests of customers and company owners, there are additional, extensive and dynamic regulations made by politics. Contributing to a product in this environment can be very challenging and frustrating. This made me wonder what thoughts might have caused all those requirements that were imposed on my work. My interest in the product got lost, as the new versions did not become any better in my view. And my interest in the social background of trends and regulations came more and more to the fore.
With no doubt we could do many things better, including our cars. So what drives us, to do things as we do them today? What are the motives? Are there even motives, or has our evolution become a self-controlled process that unfolds unstoppable the way it was once put into motion? This question quickly brings us to philosophy, to the freedom of will, to the fundamental worldviews, which we use too try and understand the world and ourselves. I do no longer wish to simply accept things the way they are. To be turned like a gear the way it is required at each moment. That is a job I gladly give to the machines. I want to understand how we got into this dilemma, and how we get out of it again. Additionally, I want to know why we got into this. Is it really all just by chance, like we often are told today? Or are we supposed to learn something here?
So what do I have to offer the world with my philosophical ambitions? It does not seem to be much at the moment, at least the interest is very limited. And still, I keep going. As a first step I wish to try and get a holistic picture of the worlds we live in. That requires observation. But with that alone it cannot be achieved. The perception of side by side in space and succession in time does not give the full picture. I want to grasp the patterns, the laws, the ideas that express themselves in the visible world. That can only be done with thinking. That is how I ended up with an interest for thinking. I wish to investigate closer what thinking really is.
Anyone simply looking for some entertainment and distraction, to endure the incomprehensible impositions of life a little easier, or to forget them for a short time, is probably not at the right address here. For that there are already countless offers available, made by wonderful people, and some of them I also accept regularly and gladly. Here, however, I wish to prepare the mind for an understanding of the incomprehensible impositions of life. I attempt to expand my worldview to an extend that allows comprehension. I invite you to accompany me on this journey, hoping that both of us succeed in recognizing the beauty of this world and the idea of humanity, or at least get a bit closer to it.