One Dot At A Time
Think about the beauty of a single letter in the alphabet. Any letter. They are fascinating instruments that don’t usually get a second thought, especially the handwritten ones. In the circus-like frenzy of our fast-paced days, we don’t think about the power that exists in each letter of the scribbled message in our notebook or the last line of our grocery list. These little devices enable marvelous feats of communication like knowledge transfer, history, financial transactions, safety instructions, and storytelling. With all of the technology available today, the art of the handwritten note has been discarded at the intersection of multitasking and productivity. Handwriting was actually considered a sketchy new technology when it was first introduced. Similar to Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) today, this technology was met with a similar onslaught of naysayers that any new technology is often greeted.
Let’s jump back to the 4th Century BC. We stumble upon Socrates and Plato arguing about the detrimental effects the written word will have on humanity. As an orator, Socrates viewed written language as a way to remember things, while Plato believed in the more expansive benefits of the written word. Nicholas Carr’s article The Oral World Vs. The Written Word provides a high-level view of this epic debate. If you want the deep dive, you can read Plato’s Phaedrus.
Carr writes, “We see evidence of the strains created by the transition from an oral to literary culture. It was, as both Plato and Socrates recognized in their different ways, a shift that was set in motion by the invention of a tool, the alphabet, and that would have profound consequences for our language and our minds.”
Buckle up. Here is the light-speed version of the history of the written word.
A cutting edge thinker in Mesopotamia puts together wedge shapes to build something called cuneiform. In Egypt, people start using pictographic symbols called hieroglyphics. Hundreds of years later, the Phoenicians put together 22 “letters” and call it an alphabet. With the influence of several cultures and a thousand years, we find ourselves with ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.
I love the simplicity of basic forward progress. One step at a time. All letters start one dot at a time. Dots lead to letters, letters produce words, words fill sentences, sentences build stories, books, articles, screenplays, research studies, and so on. Creating something can be daunting. Blank pages are intimidating, but there is zero anxiety in making a single dot. No expectations, just forward progress. Worry about what it is later.
For now, just open up and give something new a chance to live, breathe, and grow.
Let it be something more than a missed opportunity … one dot at a time.
