On paradox and contradictions.

This is a huge topic. But let me try to make a stab here.

You see big picture thinking is about paradoxes. It's about both/and. Let me try to give an example here. Lets take the American intervention in Iraq. The Americans considered the technical aspects of war, they did not factor in sufficiently the depth of resistance from the Iraqis, the depth of resistance from their own citizens. And so they didnt see the big picture and evidenced by why they are still struggling to exit now.

In paradoxical thinking, things are both good and bad, good in one instance and bad in another. You can be both happy and sad at the same time. Things can be both bitter and sweet. So paradoxical thinking is hard. Big picture thinking is hard. What to consider and what not to consider. How things work.

On the other hand, operational thinking is about contradictions. It's either/or thinking. Once you have determined the big picture you are either moving towards the end goal or you are not. Contradictions exist only in those terms. Can you see that?

Let me talk a little now about this phenomenon we see in chess. I have heard so many say that chess people are wierd. Actually we are not. The thing is chess is full of technical people, operational people. People who say it's either/or. People who talk about, think in terms of contradictions because that is the way they are trained.

Or put in another way. Their big picture thinking is not big enough.

I think the secret to that GM lies in paradox. Just like the American example I used above, considering just the technical doesnt bring us the results we want.

And so we talk about the operations but we do not share the same big picture. And then we get lost in the forest for the trees.