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How to Topple a Tree With Two Fingers
Thinking Big, Acting Small, and Understanding the Limiting Tendencies of the Mind
Our minds are wonderful machines. At any given moment, they can be zooming through numerous different operations: thoughts, feelings, plans, inklings, and processing thousands of pieces of data from our senses. We can drive ourselves to work while listening intently to talk radio, and tapping an unrelated rhythm on the steering wheel — all while eating a breakfast sandwich. So much of the marvelous stuff our minds do happens automatically. It’s like magic — magic that happens every day.
But that can be kind of a problem, too. Here’s a quick riddle to illustrate that:
Q: How do you topple a tree with only two fingers?
A: When it’s still a sapling, pinch it and rip it out of the ground.
This little riddle teaches us two important lessons. One lesson is about how our mind’s greatest strength can also be a great weakness. Our ability to create stories and meaning from sparse details can end up manufacturing unnecessary constraints on our thinking that limit the breadth of our thinking. The other lesson is that we can often confuse thinking big with thinking small — and…
