What are you waiting for really

There's a term in geo-politics called "linkage", the idea that between two negotiating parties with a large number of issues between them, one can bargin on issue A by utilizing issue B, and problems in issue B can be addressed via issue A. This was particularly popular during the Cold War.

Yeah, "linkage" usually doesn't work out too well.

Because, inherently you take a gamble that the other side views these issues as linked the way you do + ranks them with similar importance + views them as similarly mutable. Essentially you're expanding your negotiating from a bunch of small issues to one giant one, and the thing is, when behind the whole negotiations is a fundamental difference, then you're just screwing yourself because that one big issue can't be resolved without one side losing entirely. However, split the issues into small chunks, break them down one by one, and sometimes you can cut down the whole slew of dangerous issues between two sides into a still-existing but non-deadly array of problems.

Sometimes, with some problems, you just got to admit, I don't know how to solve this, and I can't let that screw up everything.

I could go on more on the historical implications of that (especially in terms of Kissinger), but I'd like to instead reframe it in a personal way of viewing.

(HAH! you thought I was going to zig but I zagged! Watch out or I just might zog!)

I have a tendency for obsessions, on matters of joy but also on matters of pain. When I face an insurmountable problem, I like to tackle it on all angles to see if there's some possible, tiny chink. But that obsession can become, well an obsession. And sometimes problems are truly insurmountable, or at least, insurmountable for you. And at that point you need to defuse the linkage.

That is to say, when you put that much focus on a single problem, it easy to be swept away by it, enveloped by it, and all else is put on hold, moreover all else is seen through the lens of this issue, and when it's irresolvable everything is tainted by it and...

And then you need to de-link things. Separate this one problem from all your others, seal it off in a certain part of your mind, and live your life in the rest.

For the world will try to keep you down, but you got to always, always just keep on keeping on.

Anywho, sleep does call me, so take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.