I cannot, for the life of me, stop thinking in metaphor. My speech is riddled with simile. I understand the world best when I apply a reductive approach to it. I get animated and my arms start waving when I hit upon the right metaphor.
The other day I was talking about software design. We had a team that had gone and built a sub-system that did not talk to any others and just quietly did what it was supposed to. Now the task at hand was to integrate it into an ecosystem of other sub-systems. The only way I could talk about it was to compare it to an internal combustion engine that had been designed in isolation but now the block needed to be lowered into a chassis, and we needed to make sure all the connections were made and the structural integrity was OK and so on. I probably sounded incredibly patronizing as I said it, but I could not help myself. I was dazzled by the image. People likely went on mute and groaned...
Thing is I don't even like cars, and the only thing I've done with engines is maybe check if the radiator still has water in it.
I wonder if it is an enabler, allowing me to think and understand or a serious impediment. Metaphors almost always imply simplification and generalization. There are abstract concepts that do not lend themselves to metaphor. How would you explain what a logarithm is using metaphor? It is impossible to talk about the concept of carbon to carbon bonding without oversimplifying and therefore misunderstanding how it works. How many people misunderstand special and general relativity because of the wrong explanation about sitting on a hot plate for a minute versus sitting on a bench?
I think this is something that goes to the core of my identity. Any number of inferences can be drawn based on my liking for metaphor. No wonder I love imaginative fiction, especially high fantasy and grandiose science fiction - so much of fantasy is brave speech that uses metaphor to address burning topics without risking anyone's ire!
I'm not sure how many others have the same affliction, or even whether it is an affliction at all. The fact is we think using language, and languages evolve based on everyday experience. Eventually they come to incorporate more and more abstract concepts and this is usually explained through metaphor. A good example might be how the color green came to mean envy in the Bard's writing - or perhaps the fact that most kids come to understand the concept of cooperation and working together through sports (literally learning about life through metaphor).
So anyway, just thought I'd drop this little insight into my blog, which of course, I think of as my pensieve...
The other day I was talking about software design. We had a team that had gone and built a sub-system that did not talk to any others and just quietly did what it was supposed to. Now the task at hand was to integrate it into an ecosystem of other sub-systems. The only way I could talk about it was to compare it to an internal combustion engine that had been designed in isolation but now the block needed to be lowered into a chassis, and we needed to make sure all the connections were made and the structural integrity was OK and so on. I probably sounded incredibly patronizing as I said it, but I could not help myself. I was dazzled by the image. People likely went on mute and groaned...
Thing is I don't even like cars, and the only thing I've done with engines is maybe check if the radiator still has water in it.
I wonder if it is an enabler, allowing me to think and understand or a serious impediment. Metaphors almost always imply simplification and generalization. There are abstract concepts that do not lend themselves to metaphor. How would you explain what a logarithm is using metaphor? It is impossible to talk about the concept of carbon to carbon bonding without oversimplifying and therefore misunderstanding how it works. How many people misunderstand special and general relativity because of the wrong explanation about sitting on a hot plate for a minute versus sitting on a bench?
I think this is something that goes to the core of my identity. Any number of inferences can be drawn based on my liking for metaphor. No wonder I love imaginative fiction, especially high fantasy and grandiose science fiction - so much of fantasy is brave speech that uses metaphor to address burning topics without risking anyone's ire!
I'm not sure how many others have the same affliction, or even whether it is an affliction at all. The fact is we think using language, and languages evolve based on everyday experience. Eventually they come to incorporate more and more abstract concepts and this is usually explained through metaphor. A good example might be how the color green came to mean envy in the Bard's writing - or perhaps the fact that most kids come to understand the concept of cooperation and working together through sports (literally learning about life through metaphor).
So anyway, just thought I'd drop this little insight into my blog, which of course, I think of as my pensieve...
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