Occam's razor for my garden
Part of my relationship with writing is that it is intrinsic to my process of thinking. By writing, I have a chance to catch the thought and look at it. It is almost as if by writing, I could step out of my system of thinking, and enter another, second order system, that of the written text. This allows me to have a chance to shape the thought, to tender it, to water it like a plant, and observe it grow. I like this metaphor, probably because plants are such a bliss to me. They remind me of home, a home that exists only in the saudades that I feel of it, but for which there is no "real" referent... it is the beautiful idea of belonging; something that I prefer to live more a process than as a state.
My thoughts are like my plants; there is much joy for me in observing them grow, in letting their cells divide and spread, more leaves, more stems, more roots. My thoughts are like a forest in formation, and I am the forest itself, the forces that bring rain, wind, cold and warmth to let these wild plants--that are me--grow.
A thesis, though, is more like a garden. The plants of a garden require the same type of energy to grow as the ones in the forest, but they have to be tended and controlled so that the garden acquires the shape the gardener wants it to have. And in the same way that a forest can correct for differences in water and wind distribution, in soil quality and presence of species throught time and chaotic competition and symbiosis, the garden also requires a way to deal with those needs, but in a shortened spam. A garden, as a controlled ecosystem, cannot wait for several generations of plants to grow and die in order to correct for where each plant needs to be to support their neighbors.
The gardener has to make choices to anticipate those needs, and put the seeds in the place where they better grow with their environment. And another thing that the gardener must do to the plants of the garden (something that does not apply to the plants of a forest) is to prune them, so that they are exactly the size they need to be for the health of the rest of the garden, and so that their growth is in the right direction. Someone suggested that I use Occam’s razor to trim my plants... but I will need to make some compromises.
When I trim my plants, I must be careful to know when and what to prune, otherwise I might have bad consequences. Pruning too early or too late might kill the flowers and fruits. Pruning the wrong thing might kill the whole plant or staunch its growth for many seasons. And finally, and most importantly, the choice of what to prune also depends on the results I seek for my garden... I mean, my thesis.
My thoughts are like my plants; there is much joy for me in observing them grow, in letting their cells divide and spread, more leaves, more stems, more roots. My thoughts are like a forest in formation, and I am the forest itself, the forces that bring rain, wind, cold and warmth to let these wild plants--that are me--grow.
A thesis, though, is more like a garden. The plants of a garden require the same type of energy to grow as the ones in the forest, but they have to be tended and controlled so that the garden acquires the shape the gardener wants it to have. And in the same way that a forest can correct for differences in water and wind distribution, in soil quality and presence of species throught time and chaotic competition and symbiosis, the garden also requires a way to deal with those needs, but in a shortened spam. A garden, as a controlled ecosystem, cannot wait for several generations of plants to grow and die in order to correct for where each plant needs to be to support their neighbors.
The gardener has to make choices to anticipate those needs, and put the seeds in the place where they better grow with their environment. And another thing that the gardener must do to the plants of the garden (something that does not apply to the plants of a forest) is to prune them, so that they are exactly the size they need to be for the health of the rest of the garden, and so that their growth is in the right direction. Someone suggested that I use Occam’s razor to trim my plants... but I will need to make some compromises.
When I trim my plants, I must be careful to know when and what to prune, otherwise I might have bad consequences. Pruning too early or too late might kill the flowers and fruits. Pruning the wrong thing might kill the whole plant or staunch its growth for many seasons. And finally, and most importantly, the choice of what to prune also depends on the results I seek for my garden... I mean, my thesis.
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