Have you ever tried solving a problem,

But the more you try solving it, the more complicated it gets and then you just have a billion unanswered questions and, maybe, like one answer but you’re not even sure of that one?

Just like a can of worms-ception?

Well, I recently read about a concept, called Bonini’s Paradox, and kind of fell in love with the complexity of it.

Bonini’s Paradox is basically the idea that it is super difficult to create accurate models of complex structures because the closer you get to completing a complex model, the less you end up understanding.

Most professors or scientists correlate this paradox with the understanding of the human brain. The more we try to conduct a million different types of research on the inner workings of one of the most complex systems we know of, the more questions we end up asking and less questions end up being answered.

Sure, this concept is based on models but it got me thinking.

Why bother, then? If we’re never going to understand it, why bother?

Okay, but get this: We are all insanely complex, too. But does that mean we stop figuring ourselves out?

Do you have a habit and just kind of assume you’ve always had it, and don’t even try to figure out where it came from? Don’t you ask questions? Don’t you challenge yourself? We all have a brain, contrary to popular belief. Diving head-first into figuring ourselves out might not have immediate results, but it’s a step in the right direction.

One step in the dark is still one more step than before. Just because something is impossible to figure out, doesn’t mean we won’t learn from trying.

And, as someone who wants to be a psychologist, the complexity of this paradox is fascinating.

We’re all unsolvable puzzles.

We still don’t completely know how the brain works, and this paradox might be the reason as to why there hasn’t been a complete model, yet. Everybody is different and every brain is unique. We can generalize all we want, but an “average brain” is just not possible to compare everyone else to. So the more we dig into the system, the more things start to contradict other things and the more we realize we know a lot less that we thought we did.

Okay Trishna, we get your nerdy rant, but like why should we care? What do we gain from knowing this?

Besides this just being super cool, I think this is a good way to look at ourselves. We’re not always going to have answers for ourselves. Don’t be too hard on yourself for that.

If scientists couldn’t find answers about why we work the way we do for centuries, don’t be too hard on yourself for not finding them now.

Always ask questions and challenge things that confuse you.

Because this paradox inspires me to keep pushing, even when I’m lost with no clue.

Get knee-deep in questions and never give up.

Keep moving forward.