Estimated reading time: 6 min
Songs to listen in the meanwhile: aisatsana [102] by Aphex Twin
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ESsjKqrj3M79I8sSZieK3
Hi Steemers, I'm a man facing a white paper (nothing to do with THE Steemit Whitepaper).
The pen points to a piece of paper. A big, white surface, like thick milk. ‘Facing a blank piece of paper’ is one of the places to be, somehow one of the places to be, one that makes me really happy. It is both a place of the mind and a metaphor, but also a well defined space. The inviolable geometry of the quadrilateral makes standing next to a white paper like a mission with a well defined objective in mind.
Paraphrasing Woody Allen, the same thing happens to me when facing a blank paper. A blank paper generates a desire of conquer of ideas, implementation of projects, unleashing my most hare-brained ideas. Every day should start with a blank paper to flank your coffee, cigarette, whichever habit you have.
Today this is my blank paper. It is dedicated to Steemit. I should actually introduce myself, say a few things about me, but it’s something I am not crazy about. Partly because it’s the way I am, introverted, vaguely a sociopath, partly because I like thinking of Steemit as a network where people don't talk about people.
So, why talk about me? I decided to write this first post talking about ‘blank papers,’ how the changed my life and have made me who I am.
Blank Paper 1
3, 6 and 9 or 'To Infinite and Beyond'.
I was seven. I asked my grandfather a squared paper exercise book as a gift. I still remember how big the first page was, as it was still here in front of me (to a seven year little boy who just learned to stay within the boundaries when writing, the blank page of an exercise book always looks immense.) I can still smell the paper, its thickness under my fingers, a piece of paper ready to fight my eraser. I remember my excitement: finally an exercise book where nobody could tell me what and how to write. I remember my embarrassment: what to write now? I was very good at mathematics as a child and numbers fascinated me. Given that pure curiosity, it was almost inevitable to sail for a journey to the discovery of numbers. I started filling that blank paper with the three times table, eager to see ‘what would have happened.’ deep inside I knew numbers were endless and that my journey was a personal way to try do tame something big. At some point I would have reached such a big number to fill an entire line. A number not even an adult could imagine. But it was something I generated, something I completed step by step. All I need was constancy, dedication and zeal to reach the infinite, or something very similar (thinking backwards, that reminds me mining for cryptocurrencies.) I don’t remember what point I reached. And who knows where that exercise book is.
Blank Paper 2
The Robbery, Or ‘Please, Say Something Nobody Has ever Said, Do Something Unusual’.
That was what I tried to ask an imaginary character. I was 20, just dropped the faculty of mathematics after six months to try to follow my dreams of making movies. It was the end of the first academic year and my assignment was to write the screenplay for a short. If was different blank paper. Different from the previous ones I had experienced so far. It was not about solving a problem, it was not a theorem, nor a demonstration. For the first time, that blank paper would have been ME. it’s a secret that reality has always annoyed me. It took the first 20 years of my life to realize that and dropping mathematics for cinema was my act of defiance (and not a symbolic one) to swear allegiance to my imagination. Cinema was my way to step out of the box, avoiding previsions, results, trying to imagine combination of events that bent reality, turning it into a surreal paradox. I want to challenge the possibility of reality, adding elements that somehow generated an amused and sardonic grin. I had eight pages and lots of naivety. I wrote the entire screenplay in a weekend of great rapture and rare enthusiasm. And I really liked what I had conquered. It was called The Robbery and despite its rawness that short had a lot about me. It represented me, which is maybe one of the biggest things you can ask a film. I haven’t seen The Robbery for more than ten years, and it is right and proper.
The invented theorem of the blank paper:
"It is inevitable to feel embarrassed and ashamed When reading blank papers that are older than five years".
Blank Paper 3
I'm allin, or ‘I don’t care about the result’.
People think about poker as a game of instinct, courage and… luck. Oh, yes, luck! Nothing could be further from the truth. Poker is more similar to chess. It’s a solvable riddle made of hard work, sacrifices and constance. Lots of mathematics and simulations trying to forecast all the players’ possible choices and the many outcomes each choice could bring. Every hand is like a big chaos that can be tamed, unveiling a series of decisions that will make us invincible: whichever choice he makes, our strategy will be impregnable. I’ve been a professional poker player for ten years. This fantastic game flanked my passion for cinema, reminding me of my ‘mathematical’ nature. My blank paper were often filled with formulas trying to solve many situations, defining hand ranges, despite my uncertainty to have actually achieved it. The really intriguing thing about the outcome of the presumed correct choices is that they make us win in 51% of cases, maybe a little more. To be perfect in poker doesn’t mean to always win. It means winning a little more often than when you lose. This is a perverse and brutal process. Despite our ability to take the right decision (something we will never be sure of,) that makes us win only in 51% of cases (which means we will often lose anyway.)
In short: -luck is not involved; -we can find the perfect choice; -we will never know we found it; -if we knew the perfect choice, we will often lose in any case. We will be winners only in the long run.
Winning at poker is like looking for a black cat in a dark room...that is not there.
Not giving a damn about the outcome is somehow vital, the biggest teaching poker can give you. Focus on the choice, not on the outcome. Our society tends to be result oriented: if you get a good result, you were great, otherwise you were wrong. And this way of thinking is as ferocious as poker.
There is no point in not caring about the outcome because in the end nobody will tell us we did not make mistakes when the result is poor. The doubt we make a mistake will obsess us anyway, making the positive moments less rewarding, as we will say to ourselves: ‘It’s not time to be result oriented, maybe I am just lucky!’
(I will try to focus on these aspects as this post reaches two votes, one comment and no interest, but I will be satisfied anyway with its content.)
The Epilogue or “How I decided to stop worrying and save the human race”
What I absolutely love about Steemit is that it stimulate people to fill blank papers every day. Every contribution on the social network needs the right tension, it must move something in order to keep the system in motion. It is our duty to push great stuff and criticize what doesn't make Steemit grow. To be honest I'm not fully aware about what Steemit will be, but so far its potential tickles my mind in a unprecedented way.
One of the greatest '900 minds, Werner Herzog, once said:
"Nuclear power is a real danger for mankind, that over-crowding of the planet is the greatest danger of all. We have understood that the destruction of the environment is another enormous danger. But I truly believe that the lack of adequate imagery is a danger of the same magnitude. It is as serious a defect as being without memory. What have we done to our images? What have we done to our embarrassed landscapes? I have said this before and will repeat it again as long as I am able to talk: if we do not develop adequate images we will die out like dinosaurs".
Perhaps Steemit is our evolutionary reaction to the lack of ideas and human solution to start developing adequate contents. Is Steemit the big blank paper that will save the world?