dichotomy: day job vs. my job.
dichotomy: work vs. life balance
dichotomy: my view on things vs. most peoples.
dichotomy: my aspirations vs. those of the people around me
dichotomy: a meaningful relationship vs. a meaningful purpose
i wrote the following junior year, while in the Kendall Marriott. sf had already gone to bed, haha.
The Dichotomy
It seems to me that there are many people in the world who think in very concrete, perhaps empirical, or discrete terms. As a computer engineering student, we are taught to strive towards a 1 or a 0, yes or no, black or white. We try to transcend the confines of the dirty, real world to attain a higher system of judgment or truth. However, I believe that this notion of concrete separation, this barrier between two truths may be misguided. The dichotomy is better-put, a duality.
The Abrahamic faiths preach in some sense a discrete notion of God, and this notion permeates into society. Whether we follow Unity or the Trinity, God has been quantified. Something that has been lost here is the sense of connection between the self and God. The duality lies between one and his God, and none other. For whatever reason, it seems that people would like to disassociate the notion of God from themselves.
Perhaps a bad example, especially if the reader does not believe in God, but I want to stress that there is a need for balance. In any case of conflict, with two endpoints, we need not wholly choose one side over another. Instead of black and white, we either superimpose one on the other, or we become grey, and tending either towards black or white as we will, adjusting our position as we live, and learn more.
In the design of any system, whether it is a lifestyle, product, or society, there are often seemingly binary choices. These choices need not be made between discrete results, but made in the gradient space between the two, or by combining the two choices. Binary decisions have carried over from on/off decisions to deciding between two items.
Society vs. Individual
Central vs. Personalized
Recommended vs. Serendipity
Philanthropy vs. Self gratification
Connections vs. Barriers of separation
Happiness vs. Pleasure
Bliss vs. Ecstasy
Real vs. Fake
Actuality vs. Image
Custom vs. Unilateral monolith
Encyclopedia Galactica vs. Individual know-how
Psychohistory vs. Speculation
Planning vs. Spontaneity
Causality vs. Chance
Thinking vs. Doing
While these examples may not apply to everyone, I have found that either myself, or my personal contacts often make decisions between the duals presented. The choices made in 2-dimensional domains can influence mindsets, approaches, and paradigms. Therefore I believe it is necessary to retain some, if not all, of all domains.