Digging Deeper

I have always heard that once you find yourself in a hole you should stop digging, but each saying has a contrary one, and in this case, there are times when not only is it wise to dig in deeper, it could prove essential  and critical. If you are a fan, you have probably read about alternate thinking, and when it is about to kick in, my mind just goes off a tangent that normally it wouldn’t and does iterations that, in retrospect, are mostly useless but hilarious. It can prove useful however as this article is a result of the said deeper exploration but some would say it a case and point of my previous assertion.

Jokes

Normally, when I heard a joke that’s really funny, I laugh and if not, try to find what whoever is saying it found humorous and if I can’t, smile good naturedly. When digging deeper, however, they are mental torture: not only do I want to determine what could possibly count as humour in an anhydrously dry joke, but also try to understand the joke on more levels than one. Here is an example:

Three rats are arguing, trying to decide who is the bravest and most daring of them all. They decide that each will tell of the most dare devil thing they have done.

Rat 1: I have eaten poisoned food so many times I have developed a taste for it.

Rat 2: That is nothing, roach stuff. I always eat cheese when I feel like; cheese used to bait rat traps!!

The third cat says matter-of-factly, “I impregnated a cat”.

I immediately got and liked the joke, but alternate thinking would not simply let me enjoy the joke. Immediately, I tried to think of how each could have accomplished its feat. Being the game that it is too my mind, game theory came into playJ.

 Players make moves determined by their knowledge of the game and of other players in the game. K=0 move players make the best move as if it were a one-off game without considering other players’ moves. K=0 move players know the most likely move k=0 move players are likely to make and thus take it into consideration. K=2 move players know the most likely move k=1 move players and lower are likely to make and thus take it into consideration. In general, K=n move players know the most likely move k=n-1 move players and lower are likely to make their moves accordingly.

What the hell has that got to do with brave rats? Players make moves based on their perceived view of the game and the rats were in the game of death. The first rat drank water after taking poison, making it a K=0 move player. The second used something to set off the trap before making off with the cheese which makes it a k=1 move player. The third rat truly had balls, no pun intended. It stood close to the trap and when the cat pounced, set off the trap at the last moment, trapping it by the neck. It the fucked the cat before eating the piece of cheese as an afterglow snack, gnawed on the rat’s tail before wiping its paw on the cat’s fur and scurrying off like a boss, or at least like a rat boss does.

Miners, gold-diggers and the population at large

As has often been said, people give up when they are just about to cross the finish line. When you are just about to win, the chances of fucking up increase exponentially: Abraham Lincoln's civil war general Ambrose Burnside is said to have been the only person who could have managed such a coup, wringing one last spectacular defeat from the jaws of victory. All cultures have stories or myths about characters who stopped just when they were about to have it wrapped. The problem is that we all see what it is instead of what it could be, and you do not want to be the fool who sold the company’s stock just before the share price doubled or who did not invest in the breakaway product because the inventor seemed weird.

 Rebels, Soldiers, Rearing Horses/Donkeys a la Asses

If you are in any of the just mentioned categories, you really do have to dig in deeper, not only in the figurative sense but in the literally, you could say mainly for practical reasons: you do not want to the guy in a dig out with bombs and shells falling around you knowing you were too lazy too to make a sturdy one and so retarded and lazy that you got into it. The same goes for rearing horses and asses: if you are going to make a stand, make sure you can stay on your hooves/ feet J