Friction- the stuff of miracles

• "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Seneca. 

• “Live a life of friction. Let yourself be disturbed as much as possible, but observe.” G.I. Gurdjieff

• "First rule of change is controversy. You can't get away from it for the simple reason all issues are controversial. Change means movement, and movement means friction, and friction means heat, and heat means controversy." Saul Alinsky

Everybody hates friction, but without it, we wouldn't exist. Friction is defined as the resistance to the motion of two objects against each other. That resistance slows both bodies down and produces heat. In real life, friction can be described as the obstacles, conflicts, and resistance that block us from a life of ease. A difficult experience, a mean boss, a traffic jam, a minor inconvenience- all can be examples of everyday friction in our lives. But what would life be like if it were truly frictionless? Where would we find meaning?

As humans live more and more of their lives online, much of the friction that is inevitable in life has been hidden away. Shopping becomes so easy that just a click can accomplish what once took hours. Cooking a meal can also be replaced with a quick click. And deciphering the news of the world is so much easier with carefully cultivated information bubbles that filter out information that goes against our basic assumptions and opinions. Computers and AI are working overtime to make our decisions quicker and easier.

There is a delicate balance at play. Too much friction prevents anything from happening. Tasks that seem impossible rarely get taken on. Bumping up against obstacles regularly can discourage even the most ambitious among us. So in many cases, removing bottlenecks and pain points make a lot of sense. The opposite problem comes when there's too little friction, which is where we're headed now.

Living life inside of an information bubble can seem be the perfect frictionless experience. Basic assumptions are rarely challenged, and new information is carefully screened to conform to prejudices and feelings. But bubbles are also a dangerous illusion, just waiting to be popped. Curated news is not news. It's propaganda with an agenda. The agenda makes us feel good about ourselves and bad about those poor saps outside of the bubble.

The latest inventions, Artificial Intelligence and chatbots, go one step further and produce friendly companions that try to make your life easier while shielding you from unpleasant truths. The entire business model of cyberspace and AI is to keep us engaged at all times. Don't let humans turn them off. To do that the machines entertain, entice, and occasionally enrage us to keep us on the engagement treadmill. But they'll never contradict us or recommend real-world solutions.

Meanwhile, real-life projects, relationships, and problems take a back seat because they all require some friction. Relationships are messy and require negotiation and empathy. Problems and goals entail roadblocks, compromises, and new learning, and that can be hard work. It's so much easier to let an algorithm figure it out.

The scientific method is superior to blind faith in utilizing friction. Observe with an open mind, make hypotheses as to why things are happening, and test yourself with experiments in the real world. Then have others check your work and find your mistakes. Friction all along the way gets us closer to what works. Blind faith assumes that we already know everything we need to know- there's no need to ask any more questions. And that just makes us blind.

The phrase "no pain, no gain" applies to most of the important things in life, especially in education. Learning and growth requires new brain pathways and connections, and those can only be produced when the brain is challenged. We only let go of the old pathways when they go dead, or when we find new ones that work better. Old habits die hard, so the only to true way to learn anything meaningful is by challenging oneself, and that requires friction between reality and the models of it in our head.

AI is making education dumber, by letting the computers do most of the work and not challenging students to do the critical thinking and experimentation that comes with deep learning. Thinking is hard work, and most of us would prefer to be entertained. AI promises to accomplish both for us, but the hard work of problem-solving cannot be ignored. This applies not only to schools, but to adult education, which is supposed to last a lifetime. If someone's basic opinions, assumptions and beliefs at age 65 are the same that they were at age 20, that person has missed out on much of what life is all about. One of our most sacred duties in this lifetime is to grow and learn- from our experiences, mistakes, and from those who influenced us.

The lack of learning from experiences is all around us. Politicians no longer have to face tough issues or compromise. All they need to do is spout the same talking points to the same true believers and hope to overcome their opponents. These policies and talking points are often far removed from actual needs or priorities, and tailored to get the most visceral response from those who don't want to think too hard. That, plus the obscene amounts of money in politics makes sure that little, if nothing of substance ever gets done to help real people. Thus far, the 21st century seems to be about going back to simpler times, and not facing the new challenges of the future.

Change is inevitable. What worked fifty years ago won't necessarily work today. People who yearn to go back in time imagine an illusory past when friction didn't exist and things seemed more orderly. Friction produces heat, and heat produces energy that can spark change. Change is not only inevitable, but it is the one constant that has guided our evolution for millions of years. Avoiding friction only promotes stagnation, complacency, and ignorance.

As the quotes at the top encourage, we all need to embrace more friction in our lives. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Don't lazily watch the next television show- take initiative and seek out something that actually appeals to you. Read a book, preferably one that expands your frame of reference. Get out from your bubble and try to see things from a variety of perspectives.

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was quoted as saying "The unexamined life is not worth living." I would add to that with "The easy, frictionless life is a road to nowhere. Only by overcoming challenges can we discover who we are and why we're here."