A quotation by Descartes popped up twice in my reading for the week, in two different sources. I feel like the universe is trying to tell me something.
The quotation in question is the second of four points that Descartes made in 1637 in part II of his work Discourse on Method:
“The second, to divide each of the difficulties I examined into as many parts as possible and as may be required in order to resolve them better.”
—René Descartes, as quoted by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Divide and conquer. Makes sense, yes? I immediately thought of my post-concussion syndrome problem. Big problem, hard to tackle, yes?
But what if I divide this large problem into smaller parts? For example, one smaller part I identified was the problem of which doctor to see. My neurologist told me to see a psychiatrist, while my psychiatrist told me to see a neurologist.
This problem was also too big for me. So I divided it into a smaller problem: talk to people in your trusted circle of friends and family to see if they have insights on whether to seek out another neurologist or another psychiatrist.
I spoke with two people, explaining my problem in detail, and they both resoundingly said, psychiatrist.
Okay, so then I divided this problem into a smaller problem: how can I identify psychiatrists who specialize in post-concussion syndrome who are in my area and who take my insurance?
I discovered that the online version of Psychology Today has a web page that offers such filters.
Have I solved my post-concussion syndrome problem? Not there yet. But I’ve come a long way from where I was a few weeks ago. I now have a psychiatrist who specializes in post-concussion syndrome who says he can help me.
I’ll take it.
What large problems do you have? Can you break them into smaller parts and solve them one by one?
Dear Liza,
That’s great news! Thank you for posting this way to help solve a problem. We all have problems, some more confounding then others. I had a dream this morning, I was on my bike coming home and there was a big hill. I didn’t remember there being a big hill before. “Must be on the wrong road.” I turned back. Another person on a bike said my usual road was one block East and had the same hill. “Strange.” Then I remembered that I never rode my bike north and south where there is the big hill. I only rode it east and west where it was mostly flat. But I had to get home. I semi woke up and realized, ah ha, My dream is telling me to get on another road, and it’s close, even though the climb is the same, being on another road (different mind set) will be helpful. Over and over I was telling myself or being told, to get on a different road.
Thanks, Jean! I hope you find the right road to be on!
In science, to solve a big problem we just hop onto the path, any path to journey into uncertainty. It feels like being in dense fog with a cheap flashlight with the beam just illuminating enough to know if we’re about to fall off a cliff or into someone’s embrace. We can go with no results from our efforts, feeling we’re wasting our time, on the wrong path and so forth until it happens, the quantum leap. That leap would never have occurred without taking that first step which turned into many. Then that leap just provided no answers but more questions. So we never solved the so-called larger problem. But without out that horizon, or goal there’s no journey which is really what we had wanted all along.
Your explanation sounds very similar to Descartes’. In the absence of sureness about how to proceed, sometimes it’s best to pick a related action and see where that takes you. It certainly beats doing nothing! Thanks as always for the insightful comment.