The Search (Part 2/3 - extended)

Let's talk about how "Order of Search" could be used to better explain many things.

Teenage Behaviour and Choice Making

Teenage behavour is a direct result of one's state of mind. Regardless of one's chronological age, the maturity level of a person is determined by his or her mental age. The model says that the difference between "mature" and "immature" can be distinguished by finding out whether a person is searching for "answers" or "reasons".

Take the case where a principal at high school X made it clear to his students that he will not tolerate anyone being intoxicated at the school dance.

At stage two, a discontent teenager at high school who feels suppressed by his or her authority is likely to seek support from a group of friends who share similar ideology. By finding support from each other, they may purposely conduct activities to upset school authority in order to "send a message". From such action, teenagers feel that they've found the answers to solve the problems with school authority. In this case, the mentality of a person seeking for answer would be: "The principal says not to get drunk at the school dance, that sucks, but we're going to do it anyways to show him we, the students, are the majority. Problem 'solved'".

A mature teenager who feels discontent is one who searches for reasons in this case. He or she looks for reasons that caused the problems in the first place instead of looking for answers to the problems. He thinks to himself: "The reason principal X bans alcohol is because it is illegal and if something terrible happens as a result of intoxication, he's going to get into deep trouble from his authorities. However, as long as I don't cause any problems things will be fine. Therefore, we can still have some alcohol but we must control our limit so we can have a good time without making fools of ourselves."

Although in both scenarios the teen does end up going to the dance intoxicated, the teen who searches reasons considered the perspective of his authority before making his choice. In this model, we conclude the second is the more mature student.

Searching for answer: Problem ===> Answer.

Searching for reasons: Reason ===> Problems, Reason ===> Solution

Geniuses/Child-prodigy

In the case of persons with incredible IQ, the Order of Search model places them under "Search for meanings", which in terms of state of mind, is no better than other kids their age. Suppose a child with deep knowledge of mathematics and physics (which is a typical evaluation of genius at young age), the child is nevertheless still seeking for meanings for all these knowledge they have acquired and trying to make sense of them through problem solving.

In the case a genius, who has achieved the highest level of "needs" in Maslow's model and feels rejected, we can conclude he is yet searching for answers to solve his feeling of rejection. We can make such conclusion because the child does not understand exactly what the problem is, nor does he know that by taking another's perspective is an answer to his problems.

An older kid (pre-teen) in such case is in better position if he has grasped enough meanings; then he is able to find the problem and find answers to them.

Meanings ===> Problems

However

Not all child-prodigy has that problem. Take the case of young musicians. If they are searching for truth at such a young age. In fine tuning the most minute detail of their work, it shows that they have in their mind clear meanings, answers, reasons for their music. At such a high level, their goal is to communicate the findings of their inner truth in their music. In such case, the child has reached the highest level of state of mind and also fulfilled all the levels in Maslow's model. Empirical evidence supports that such child does not have social problems

The young musician's thinking would fall like this:"So I'm writing a composition for a large audience to tell the tragic story of Ralph and Lisa (meaning), and I feel the best way to use contrasting pieces to draw parallels to the plot in the story (answer). Doing so portrays the emotions that the characters are going through (reason), but I'm struggling with finding the perfect ending because I feel the ending is especially important in this story (search for truth)"

In the next and final part, I'll talk about more abstract topics of Happiness, Life, and Love. Stay tuned...

The Search (Part 1/2)

Entire life, we're constantly looking, searching for something. From infants to old-age, we are trying to fulfill different needs, as described by "Maslow's hierchy of needs". But that model has became a cliche; you've probably seen it a thousand times in different contexts.

However, there are many cases where Maslow's hierchy fails. Consider a genius with IQ over 150. Though he has fulfilled what Maslow would call the "highest level of needs", which are creativity, problem solving, acceptance of facts etc. However, these geniuses may lack their more-basic need for belonging. A significant number of cases have suggested geniuses and child-prodigies have anti-social behaviour and relatively lower EQ compared to their IQ. This phenomenon falsifies Maslow's claim that the highest level of needs can only be fulfilled once the lower ones are fulfilled.

Because of these evident flaws in Maslow's model, it's time we have a new model. I'm going to call it, Guo's Order of Search. Although "Search" and "Need" can be used interchangeably in this context, I decided on "Search" because it has a more active connotation than "Need".

So, here is a very brief version of my model. In Part 2, I'll use this model to explain many social phenomena.

In this model, I'm going to categorize people's psychological state of mind in a very abstract way based on the question "what is it that we're searching for?", of which I broke into four stages: Search for meaning, Search for answers, Search for reasons, and Search for truth. Like Maslow's model, each stage is associated with an age by empirical evidence. However, age is not bounded to any particular stage by any means. This model exceeds Maslow's in that higher state of mind cannot be reached without reaching the lower levels first, thus it can precisely pin-point a personal "mental age".

Search for meaning:

Entering this world, we had blank minds filled with nothing other than basic 'animalistic' instinct. In a world so new to us, our objective is to make sense of our surrounding. We're constantly looking for meanings of things, starting with the meanings of sounds and facial expressions. We cry in discomfort, and as such, sound of our cry gathers the attention of care-takers who then reduces the level of discomfort. We associate 'crying' as means to get attention, and the learning process continues.

As the world makes more sense to us, we begin to ask questions to further our database of 'meanings'. The search for meaning peaks in childhood and pre-teen; remember how much questions your younger siblins/cousins used to ask?

Search for Answers:

Unfortunately, the innocence of childhood ends when we begin to search for answers. Needing answers implies that we now have problems of our own that are yet to have an explanation.

No other stage where we dedicate most of our time to answers than those dreamy teenage years; we were quite fascinated yet puzzled by natural and social phenomena. Instead of searching meaning of things, we engage in a more active way of searching for answers to our questions. Instead of asking "What is the meaning of life?" the person enters the next level by actively searching for answers to answer his own question.

Search for Reasons.

In the search for reason, a person evolves into a higher-order of state of mind. One is to realize that previous answers could be short-lived, and many came about emotional responses. This for most people occur at college years and carries into mid-age. Through this time, we find many answers no longer apply to our questions. Yet instead of looking for answers, we are looking for reasons for the origin of questions and why things ought to be. Relying less on emotional responses and more on logic, people at this stage has the maturity to face future with a high degree of certainty.

Search for Truth

As bulletproof as sound logical reasons are, they can still be falsified in some circumstances. If reason is to logical truth, truth is to tautology. In the last stage, a person grasps inner truth. The person is not using logical analysis to seek reasons, rather the person goes through an intrinsic search that breaks logical rules in attempt to understanding questions of metaphysics....this, ladies and gentlemen, is the highest state of mind.

For some, this highest state occurs at young age, for some, it is the brief period of life before death. Looking at a person's tombstone, the most important thing on there is not the name, not the year of birth, no the year of death, but it's that tiny line that connects the two numbers. That tiny line is when a person's life happens

.

Letting it Fall

The temperature fluctuates quite frequently these days. The day would start off sunny, and suddenly turn cloudy, next thing you know, you're hiding underneath your sweater, dashing across campus to get to the next lecture. But some times before dusk, the sky would clear and fill the spaces with ever-so-refreshing air.

I suppose nature takes time to adjust, from summer to fall. I, too, am making the same transition.

There're moments in days when I get flashbacks of my summer travels; the days when I have total control of my destiny and destination. There're people I miss and days I reminisce. I thought about a lot of things when I was out on the road, one of them being about 'moving on'.

Life happens fast, chances and misses go by ever-so-often. We love the things we hang-on to, and hang on to the things we love. Such dilemma is there to choose, how are we to live life fully if all we ever want are things we already have? But if so, how are infinite desires to be satisfied?

Desperately searching and with nature's inspiration, I found a compromise.

In your travels, you'll form special connection with particular places and people. Enjoy the moment while it lasts, then let go and move on for there are many more places to see, people to meet. Desire comes with age; at different age there's different desire. Having desire is to have personal goals, the infinite desire is therefore not greed, but essence to live an eventful and meaningful life. So never let the past dictate you, rather let the future inspire you. Forget about the unhappiness, move on from the friendships that sunk and things that don't work. With time, truth will withstand. Truthfuls will always hang onto you.

As temperature drops lower and lower with consecutive rainfall, I can sense the nature letting go the vibrancy and brilliance of summer. Leaves on the trees are letting go of their green summer coat, for in the spring, they shall receive a new one. Summer of 2010 has been memorable. But I've moved on.

So here I am sitting on my balcony, drinking a glass of wine, and watching the city lights and cars go by. I'm back; back in Montreal, back to McGill, and tomorrow, I'll be back to that 8th row seat in Maass Auditorium.