I heard a new theory today.

I'm giving it time to ferment, so I'm not going to talk about it.

Instead, I'm going to talk about what theory means to me, briefly.

I'm an engineer, by temperment, choice, and vocation. That means that when I speak of theory it is not to diminish the authenticity of something but rather to clarify its status as a lens for understanding reality.

In engineering work we do a great deal of modeling, often of systems where one (or many) of the properties are unknown and represented using only variables. The models we create give us a conceptual and mathematical understanding of the system we are modeling.

I extend this concept to all other aspects of my life. I have applied the theory of modeling complex interactions to everything from my love life to the way I cook. I use method planning for simple tasks and high level conceptual modeling for understanding complex emotions and feelings like love or loyalty.

When people give me analogies, concepts, or principles, my mind automatically begins to churn them into some sort of mental model of the phenomena they are describing.

These models are often then reinterpreted and reworded to better suit how my personal understanding has coupled with the model they've given me to consider.

I'm not really advocating this as a good way to do things. I'm not really going anywhere at all with this description, I'm just logging a little bit of my mental process. Giving you, the reader, one of many models of how and why I think the way I do.

And because it's late and I have work tomorrow--(internal monologue: "WORK! AHAHAaHaha! I am EMPLOYED! WEEEE!") [hits internal monologue with a shoe]--I'm going to crash now.