Everything has infinite depth
Or no depth
We call something “deep”, or call something “shallow”
When in reality — it’s as deep as deep we are willing to put our heads
Or as shallow as we need it to be
A spade is a spade, is it not?
A spade is a spade and you use it to dig out earth
What else is there to know?
Well perhaps you could learn what the spade is made of
What’s the difference between your spade and your neighbour’s spade
What’s else can you do with this spade
We have already added some depth
But now we could go even deeper,
We wondered what the spade was made of
Why not ask ourselves about the properties of this material
Why was it so fit for the spade?
What other material could have been fit?
What properties characterise this material and made it fit to comprise a fucking spade?
Etc.
You’ll find that you can go infinitely deep
The deeper — the less pertinence this has to whatever original use this spade had in your life
But NOT necessarily complete irrelevance
What if there’s a super-light and super-hard material from which you could have made your spade? And one which cuts through the ground like a knife? Etc.
I wrote of similar themes in “The Level of Detail”
That text pertained to how DEEP you should look into any given subject
This text pertains to how DEEP any GIVEN THING CAN POTENTIALLY BE
And it can be very deep, or very shallow, and it depends on you, rather than on the subject itself
Therefore the entire point I’m making is that:
1. You calling something “shallow”, or “deep”, is typically MEANINGLESS.
It only acquires meaning in a context
It can be “shallow” as compared to similar work on the subject
Or it can be “deep” as compared to prevailing beliefs and practices
Etc.
You merely calling it “shallow” or “deep”, without defining it carefully, is you saying nothing
2. You finding it “deep” or “shallow” speaks more of you than of the thing
EVERYTHING is deep
It’s your failure to see it
Likewise everything is shallow, when you need it to be, when you have to be practical
It’s just your failure to abstract the essence
Indeed you should simultaneously get better at both
You should, as you go through life, find more and MORE DEPTH, in everything:
-books you read
-things you see
-people you meet
-choices you make
-options you consider
-things you think you know
-etc
And simultaneously develop ability to immediately reveal the essence to the surface:
-what’s the message
-what am I dealing with
-who is this
-what to do
-etc
I dislike the smug “it’s shallow”,
It’s typically what ignorants say
“It’s deep” is what few say — since typically when you go deep — you only realise how much deeper it yet goes (scio me nihil scire)
The latter of course is a trap too, equating value to depth. Anything is as useful as it is practical, not as useful as “deep” it is
Learn to both go deeper,
As deep as where the pearls are found
and then learn to resurface