Extremes

Life is full of mysteries and unknowns, and that is good-enough reason to search for answers. But, sometimes, we get tired of looking. We decide there’s nothing to find. Or, at least, we act like it. Then, we are in danger of missing the truth.

Let’s assume that the truth is useful. It helps us live a better life. We should know where to look, and we should be motivated to look.

I found one very useful way to create motivation, and to know where to look. I call it finding the extremes.

The idea is simple. If you can find two extremes of the truth, then you know two things: (1) the truth exists, and (2) the truth is between those two extremes.

This simple concept is often used in mathematics. For example, if you had a line on a graph and you were trying to find where the line crosses zero, you may not know where to start your search. However, if you can find two points on the line, such that one is positive and one is negative, then you know the line segment between those two points contains a zero crossing.

Anyways, if you can find two extreme answers to a dilemma, then you know where to look for the best answer. Fortunately, the two extreme answers are usually easy to find. We might call one answer the worst-case scenario and the other answer the best-case scenario. We might call one pure evil and the other pure good. At least, the outcome of the two answers should be clear. Then, it’s our job to aim for the best outcome—between the two extremes. I believe this plan will leads us to the truth.

Here is one simple example. The dilemma: is drinking alcohol bad? As simple as the question is, it can be very difficult to agree on an answer. Many people prefer to not confront this question at all. However, it’s easy to find two extreme answers. One extreme is that drinking alcohol is completely bad. The natural outcome of this answer is to not drink alcohol at all. The other extreme is that drinking alcohol is completely good. However, we all know the harmful outcomes of drinking too much. This leads us to a universal truth: drinking may be okay, but only in moderation. In other words, we find the truth in between the extremes.

Of course, we may each place our extremes using various guiding principles. So, we may still come to different final answers. If you want to find a better answer, and a “true-er” truth, you learn to place the extremes using more robust and universal principles. You use long-standing concepts (like the idea of good vs. evil) and use those as rigid boundaries for all truths.