The thing about… thing.

While thinking about a name for a series of articles about all kinds of stuff,  the word "thing" came to mind a lot. It seems such a simple word, so why does it feel so heavy? 

Well, our mind can't give it a good place.

We have a great file system. Ever since scientists realized the power of a hierarchical file system, "Big Data" became bigger. The systems became smarter. 

At lower levels of the hierarchy, you need lots of space and energy to store information and much is misunderstood until you get to higher levels. There the information all gets clearer and better understood. The space and energy necessary to categorize and store the information are also reduced at high levels of the hierarchy. 

So when we're learning something new, we get tired, because all this new knowledge needs to get organized and transferred from the lower levels to the higher levels. It takes a lot of energy to give it all a place. 

Now imagine what would happen with information that can't get organized and transferred to higher levels of the hierarchy. We would keep on feeling tired and get confused. 

Now, that's where it gets tricky with the word "thing". It can mean anything and therefore cannot be given a good place. 

So a sentence where "thing" is used, will be tiresome. 

Here's an example: 

"Where's the thing that was above this thing where there is something else covering that thing now?" 

People don't want their brain to work overtime on stuff that can't be understood in the first place. A nice place where proof can be found that "thing" is a heavy word, is on Wolfram|Alpha where it has twelve meanings that in their self still can mean anything: 

 1 | a special situation.

 2 | an action.

 3 | a special abstraction.

 4 | an artifact.

 5 | an event.

 6 | a vaguely specified concern.

 7 | a statement regarded as an object.

 8 | an entity that is not named specifically.

 9 | any attribute or quality considered as having its own existence.

10 | a special objective.

11 | a persistent illogical feeling of desire or aversion.

12 | a separate and self-contained entity.

(Source: Wolfram|Alpha->thing) 

On "dictionary.reference.com" thing has 22 definitions. 

(Source: Dictionary.com->thing) 

Of course, there are words with a lot more meanings like "Set", "Run", "go", "take", "stand", "get", "turn", "put", "fall" and "strike”. 

(Source: Dictionary.com->What word has the most definitions?) 

But these words are different. They can be used as a verb, noun or adjective. 

And they can be organized easily at higher levels of the hierarchy when you know their context. 

"Thing" can only be used as a noun and will not get organized until you find out exactly what it is about. And even then is just gets replaced and cannot be at a high level of the hierarchy, unless it is the definition of itself. Try saying: "a thing is just a thing" and you may feel a little relieved as it just defined itself. 

This is the first article with the word "thing" in the name. 

As this blog is about random subjects, the word "thing" is great for the name of this series of articles about random subjects. 

That is the reason why this series of articles will be called: "The thing about.. x" where x is a random subject. 

And this was the first "The thing about.. " article where the article itself is about "Thing". 

Hope this "thing" thing didn't confuse you too much. 'Till the next post. 

Be creative. 

Why the creativity blog?

The Creativity blog was started because of the believe that being creative, in the widest sense of the word (creativity), is very important for existence. 

Or in other words, anything that isn't creative is either dying, or already dead. Also, the more creative someone or something is, the more alive he, she or it is considered to be. 

When people speak of death, most think it must have been about something that was living (biological). We tend to give words the meaning of what we fear (being dead) or desire (being alive) the most, even if the word has multiple meanings. 

Just like with the word snake. Most will think of the reptile. Few will think of a garden snake to water plants. And plumbers will think of a long, flexible wire for clearing obstacles in piping. 

So what is meant by dead depends on the point of view. 

Here are some examples where the end of creativity means the "thing" is "dead":

Biological
- Cells keep on repeating creative actions and can form a whole organism. When the creativity of the cells ends, the organism will eventually die.

Philosophical 

- When a philosophy stops creating interest in our minds, the philosophy will die. 

Technological
- We invented all kinds of tools to make our lives easier. But when a tool fails to create what it was invented for, we will get rid of it. 

When you realize how these examples all interact with each other, you will notice that creativity never ends. The end of one form of creativity can be the start of another form. 

Anyone can create other examples like the examples above, or think of new ones like scientific, physical, etc. 

The possibilities are endless.

Be creative.