Mental Traps_ The Overthinker's Guide to a Happier Life - Andre Kukla [7]
Vertical amplification is more intriguing. Here the completion of the major task requires the prior completion of a subtask, whose completion in turn requires the prior completion of a sub-subtask, and so on. Wishing to convey our meaning precisely when we speak, we begin with a prefatory qualification designed to allay misunderstanding:
Not that I insist on this myself, but—
In the midst of our qualification, it occurs to us that the qualification may itself be misunderstood. So we launch into a qualification of the qualification:
Not that I insist on this myself—nor on any of the other options, for that matter—but—
Of course, the qualification of the qualification is also liable to certain misconstructions:
Not that I insist on this myself—nor on any of the other options, for that matter—of course I do have preferences—but—
In this way we’re led backward away from the goal of deciding on a pizza to considerations of the origin of social contracts, the meaning of life, and the definition of “definition.”
Or suppose we try to decide whether to buy a modest but affordable cottage or the sumptuous mansion of our dreams. We reason that our choice depends largely on how financially secure we expect our future to be. But we can’t know whether our financial future is secure until we know how likely it is that our particular sector of the economy will flourish in the long term. The probability that our sector will flourish depends in turn on energy prices. Energy prices will depend on our foreign policy. Our foreign policy will depend on the results of the next election. The next election will be decided by attitudes toward gay rights …
The result of vertical amplification is a paradoxical movement further and further away from the goal. The more we work, the more there is left to do before we’re finished. A bottomless abyss opens up between the beginning and the end.
In its fullest flower, amplification unfolds in both the horizontal and the vertical directions at once. The task calls forth endless subtasks, each of which requires endless sub-subtasks for their completion, and so on. Can such monstrous mental growths really exist? Where else does chronic indecision come from? If indecision were nothing more than finding the alternatives exactly equal, we would simply flip a coin and be done with it. There would be no reason to abide in the undecided state. We remain undecided because we don’t know whether the alternatives are equal or not. We can’t arrive at their values at all. We’re lost in endless calculations.
Accumulation is a particularly insidious form of vertical amplification. We fall into this subtle trap when the goal admits of unlimited degrees of realization. Getting pregnant proverbially does not admit of degrees—either we are, or we aren’t. Nor does coming to a decision—having decided, the job is done. But if we aim at wealth, fame, wisdom, power, or virtue, there is no absolute token of attainment. A millionaire is wealthy compared to the average person. But millionaires are more apt to look to multimillionaires for their standard of comparison. The same relativity affects our judgments of wisdom, power, and virtue. If a turnip were elevated to the station of the average man, it would suppose itself to be a god.
But only for a moment. In fact, no amount of power can make us feel powerful for very long, nor does any amount of recognition continue to be experienced as great fame. The attainment of any degree of these indefinite goals, rather than signaling an end to our striving, inevitably becomes the occasion for raising our standard of achievement. Every step forward makes the goal move one step back. Thus we can never arrive. Many lives are given up entirely to these fruitless journeys.
The curious phenomenon of repetition occurs in amplification, as well as in several other traps. In all cases the outward manifestation is the same. Having finished