Horizontal Integration over Vertical Intensification

I have a hot pot of coffee brewing beside me and I'm ready to dive into this week's blog article. Today, I decided to work from my apartment and I had just enjoyed a nice poke bowl lunch which I ordered via Grab. In between sips of coffee, I'll try to articulate how I feel about the week that just passed.

The tariff war between United States (or more accurately, President Trump) and China (and the rest of the world too) has simply escalated to an unprecedented level, creating havoc in the stock markets worldwide, threatening the global economy. No one knows how this is going to play out because the economies of countries in the world today are so integrated that any major event has ripple and cascading effects across the globe.

Economics is not an exact science like physics. What makes economics so unpredictable is because people themselves are in the equation. Resources are finite and people have to make compromises to decide what they really want. In the real world, there are simply too many variables involved, compounded by the fact that people do not always behave rationally. 

Economists believe that human desires are infinite. It is this limitless desire inherent in us that fuels economic growth. Even when all our basic needs like food, shelter and cloths are fulfilled, we still need more. More entertainment, more content, higher processing power, higher bandwidth, more stimulus for the senses. This is what drives our consumerist society--having more equals happiness.

But unfortunately our attention is finite. We are trying to squeeze more and more into our 24-hour day through the 5 input channels of our senses. It comes a point when we saturate our ability to consume. Will we then achieve maximum satisfaction and happiness? 

That I believe is the root of our spiritual malaise. We seem to believe that having more peak experiences will fulfil us better. The truth is that the higher the sensory peak that we reach, the harder it is when we fall back to ground. Reality always hits us hard with a thud.  When 'nothing' is happening, we become intensely bored and depressed.

How then do we achieve real and lasting happiness? By seeking integration, rather than ramping up the volume of our sensory experiences. What do I mean by that?  

If you watch 2 movies over the weekend, you'd probably get 2 pleasurable experiences. But if you then distill the essence from each movie and compare them against each other, you'll probably come to appreciate certain common themes and stylistic differences between them. This produces another layer of meaning and satisfaction. One plus one has become more than two.

Extend that from movies to any experience in general. Insight can only emerge from a horizontal integration of multiple experiences, not from their vertical intensification. Integration happens when you are mindful of each experience; that you see it as it is in relation to the whole, in a flash, grasping its cause and effect, its past and its future, its appearance and extinction. 

Each experience is a nutrient, absorbed into to the mind, and not merely a stimulation. And it is through this process of integration that learning, growth, transformation and ultimately happiness arise.