A concepts by bonnitta-roy.
ownership is progressively monopolized until it is too big to fail, while the system, that is already too big to fix,becomes increasingly vulnerable to local data and fluctuations that are too small to detect.
- distributing ownership
- Releasing complexity is a much different process than reducing complexity.
- A useful way to think about complexity
- power asymmetry between people
- path dependencies in operational frameworks
- level of abstraction needed to describe “the system”
- zero-cost-abstractions
- euclid-postulates
In the context of the self-understanding
releasing complexity refers to the process of moving away from the "cognitive heavy lifting" of constant self-analysis and the "infinite" nature of modern identity projects,,. Instead of becoming trapped in a cycle of intellectualizing one's history or trauma, the goal is to simplify self-understanding so one can "get on with life".
Key aspects of this concept include:
- Moving Beyond the "Identity Project": Roy explains that many people get stuck in an "autobiographical coherence" stage, where they spend an endless amount of time analyzing why they are traumatized or why they act a certain way,. She characterizes this as just another complex version of an identity project that doesn't necessarily help the individual move forward.
- Cutting the Fat: The model Roy presents is intended to "cut the fat" out of self-understanding. She argues that understanding oneself should not be "rocket science" and that a useful map of the self should eventually be "meant to die" or "blow away in the wind" once it has grounded the person, rather than becoming a permanent intellectual burden,.
- Shifting from Egocentric to Allocentric Focus: Releasing complexity involves breaking out of the "self-referential psychic meaning making loop". Instead of constantly referencing every experience back to one’s own story and valence (is this good or bad for me?), Roy suggests engaging in allocentric processing—focusing on the relationships between things in the world and physical reality,.
- Practical, Physical Service: A primary way to "drop the complexity" is to stop the "meaning making" and perform physical service in the world. Roy suggests doing something that "has no meaning" in an intellectual sense, such as working at a food bank, which allows the individual to be a "body in space" contributing to the world rather than an ego lost in its own narrative,.
- Resisting Intellectualization: Releasing complexity means resisting the urge to constantly ask "why" or to create a "justification system" for one's existence,. By grounding oneself in what the body does—the "real"—rather than psychic or mental projects, one can find a simpler, more intuitive way of being,,.