4 P.M. notes #3: the connection between Fibonacci sequence and poetry

Five notes on observation, being offline, coherence, Fibonacci sequence, and FOMO

Five notes on observation, being offline, coherence, Fibonacci sequence, and FOMO. At the end a prompt! And something for The Writer’s Table subscribers.

1. OBSERVE
   So I was looking for an etymology dictionary - a book that explains the origins of words rather than just their meanings. I couldn’t find one, which was good, because it prompted me to make my own. A personal encyclopedia. A book of words that matter to me or that I’m interested in, their concept and meaning in my life as well as their origin and evolution in culture.
   
   I was sharing this with a friend who brought to my attention that the etymology of “observe” has its root in the Proto-Indo-European word “ser” which means to protect. He was talking about how all art begins with observation and therefore is a way to protect - both what we observe as well as our ideas. That makes us observers, guards. But raises the question, who are we serving? Who are we guarding this for?
   
   This will go in my book.
   

2. OFFLINE

   Stumbled upon this list about ways to spend time offline. Every time I come across such a list or a concern or a discussion, useful as they are, I find it a sad kind of funny. We used to live like this. This was life, not some self-care-ritual. Now we need instructions and reminders and training to return offline. It’s shocking how quickly we adapt, how quickly something ordinary becomes alien, something simple becomes complex. In Common Discourse, Alex Tan writes: “One of the most intelligent case studies in design is the Chinese tea cup. They’re made without handles simply because if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to drink.
   Humans naturally want to add more. Add a cardboard sleeve, add a warning on the outside of the cup, add a handle. The result of all these things never cools down the actual contents. And in the end, you’ll still burn your mouth from drinking too early. It’s not that people don’t see the warnings, we’re just adding more layers of separation between us and the answer.
   Simplify until it’s obvious.”

   

3. THE LIE ABOUT THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE
   

   The most mind-blowing discovery of this week for me is that the Fibonacci sequence—that mathematical pattern we see throughout nature—was first discovered and documented in India in the process of writing metred poetry (!) And it had nothing to do with anyone named Fibonacci.

   Here's what happened: