Black and White

Too many people see the world in black and white - complex issues reduced to overly simple binary resolution. This can be beneficial when the speed of a decision is important, buy or sell stocks, overtake or not - when split seconds count. Why then do so many of us use the same fight or flee biological reflex when faced with problems that require detailed thought and examination? The world is full of examples where complex issues are reduced to the binary - Brexit as just one example. To present the choice for staying in the EU as a simple in/out is a masterclass in crass management - the management in this case being a political party who literally gambled the entire UK on the spin of a coin.

Consider your own business dealings, how you analyse problems and opportunities. Are the daily decisions you make reduced to a simple choice or do you consider the nuances. Does anyone have the time to consider any one of many business decisions in any depth, and if not, how do you select what is pertinent and what can be discarded?

Life isn't binary. Perhaps the invention of binary has influenced more than simple computing, perhaps the efficiencies of digitising data to a stream of 1's and 0's has cost us more than the great sound of vinyl audio recordings. Am I the only one who sees the blockiness of blacks in streamed HDTV as MPEG compression artefacts intrude on my enjoyment, who hears the overley brittle and strangely empty sound of MP3's? Are we losing the ability of our analogue brain to assess multiple information streams in full colour and present a rational response? Maybe with the computer screen becoming our window to the world we are already on a path to losing the ability to see life as it is, analogue, messy - and in colours that Instagram can't reproduce.