On Imagination
OK, I get it, that Scott Adams uses his non-Sunday Dilbert blog posts as silly stuff. I get it. Today he mentions how the amount of imagination a person has will relate to an inverse amount of social interaction.
I think there is something there, but I don’t think it is imagination, exactly. Scott’s premise that it is imagination that entertains an individual alone doesn’t quite fit.
I think of two kinds of concentration. One kind, the ability (discipline?) to finish a task, to observe a sunset from late afternoon to full dark, to watch a herd of cows, horses, pigs, or a forest for a half an hour at a time, to study extended periods. I don’t think imagination, necessarily, explains the capacity for observing and evaluating. Certainly, external sights and sounds are providing almost all the ‘entertainment’.
There is another kind of concentration. This has more to do with following and completing a conversation beyond three exchanges. The person that never, ever gets and impulse to tell someone (shorter? younger?) not to interrupt. The person that never forgets where they are in the conversation. This is a fundamental ‘social interaction’ skill.
Is it imagination that separates the man who sees a deer or cow, and wonders ‘I wonder how that would taste?’ or ‘I wonder what that critter is thinking?’, from the man that sees a deer or cow, and thinks, ‘I hope I don’t step in it’s crap’ or ‘I hope it doesn’t break my fences, run into my car,’ etc.
Most people seem to be very tactile, very aware of being touched. Some avoid others, others are drawn to contact. Socially adept people seem to be drawn, and evolve from physical touching, holding to intangible touches — a glance, a word, an intellectual sharing of substance.
Many of the distinctions, I think, are really skills, and accumulations of experience. Some people that spend a lot of time alone choose their own company, others flee the company of others. Some seek safety and assurance in a crowd, others look to dominate others.
Yep. I am as confused as I can be, trying to explain where Scott went wrong. I just don’t think he is right.
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