We have so many different ways of looking at the world and ourselves. Sometimes we see ourselves as powerful, other times as powerless, victim or victor, forces of nature or helpless souls at the mercy of nature.
The fact is, the way we look at ourselves, often imbues us with certain qualities. Some of it makes us powerful, some of it makes us clever. It’s as if we are like water. Sometimes we can be a panther, a fox, a rabbit, a snake, a lion, a dragon, a giraffe, a snail, a rock, a river, a mountain, a worm, an idea.
Today I would like to invite you to ask yourself this question: Are you a VECTOR or a SCALER ?
A bit mathematical maybe, but in this world where artificial intelligence is becoming a household name, these concepts will soon come into everyday use. So, let us understand them. They are actually very simple ideas.
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In maths, a vector is something that has a value and a direction. It can be like 20 to the right, 30 north east, 400 straight down.
Think of it like an arrow. Not only does it have a value, which can be anything, it has a direction. It moves ! -
A scalar on the other hand is just a number. It’s a value. The value might change from time to time but by itself it does not change. It does not move. It is what it is: 20, 45, 3000, 10 million.
Quite simple yes ?, but these are also ideas and often they neatly map into who we think of ourselves.
A human being as a scaler can be something like :
- Strong
- Weak
- Intelligent
- King
- Pawn
- Knave
- General
- Noble
- Peasant
- Slave
- Good
- Evil
- Victim
- Victor
All the above titles I just mentioned, which describe human beings at various stages of their life, are scalars. We know what they are, at a specific point, but we have no idea what is happening to them, which is sad.
Now let me describe human beings as vectors.
- Someone who is always moving forward
- Someone who is always getting up after falling down
- Someone moving towards the north
- A Vigilante Who Is Always Rushing Towards Crime : Batman !
- A social worker who is always fighting injustice, moving towards injustice to fix it.
- A man incessantly moving towards his purpose
- A man steadfast in his growth
- A mother who is always busy with the nourishment and nurturing of her children
- A king who is always worried about expanding his dominion, always warring.
- A judge, who is always worried about justice, seeking injustice wherever he finds : Judge Dredd
You see, suddenly something very different has happened. When you describe human beings as vectors, they not only have some stable value locked in time, but what overshadows this number, is the aliveness of movement suddenly found within them.
And that, is so much closer to what we are as human beings, isn’t it ?
We are often so desperate to lock ourselves into molds for safety, that we miss the very purpose of life: to fly up into the high flame and burn before our time is up and to burn brightly in a manner of our own choosing.
A flame is the ultimate form of vector, because even though it feels like it’s static, a flame is always burning away, always moving towards getting extinguished, always eating that, which is dead and turning it into life.
I would like to invite you to this thought experiment, to this way of looking at yourself, to think of yourself not as a scalar but as a vector, not just as who you are, but what is in you, that moves, and towards what.
You are not just a number. You are something, that moves.
You, my friend, are a VECTOR.