I was a freshman electrical engineering student when I was
introduced to the Karnaugh map in my digital logic class. It is a method of reasoning
out the decision logic for a digital circuit design by using Boolean algebra.
While I never entered the world of digital design, I did
take away a rudimentary idea of what Karnaugh Maps is, how it is used, and most
importantly, I was introduced to the idea of “Don’t Care” cells.
“Don’t Care” cells are the outputs to a logical circuit that
has no effect on the overall problem solution, so that you really “Don’t Care”
what the result is. You mark that cell with a capital D and you move on to the
meat of the digital logic design. It makes designing so much simpler and
relieves a lot of unnecessary work. The simpler work and alleviating of extra
work definitely appealed to this lazy freshman.
The “Don’t Care” idea stuck with me for some reason, I guess
the elegance and simplicity of the idea appealed to me so much that my mind
grasped it and held on to it as a guiding light to the rest of my life, pretty
soon I found myself saying “Don’t Care” to things that have no impact on me;
that is, I extrapolated the digital logic lesson to the rest of my life.
Freshmen engineering students will do that.
It was a great filter for me to apply to sorting through all
the different decisions, events, issues, distractions and assorted nonsense
that came through my life. By saying “Don’t Care” I was able to focus on what I
was interested in and what I knew to be important for my future work as well as
my future life.
It soon became a dominant mindset that allowed me to be more
efficient and effective. I no longer dwelled on those things I felt I didn’t
care about.
Unfortunately, this mindset can also backfire on you and
make you realize that, indeed, you should care about certain things. It was
good seasoning and great lessons in learning to make decisions and being
careful when you do triage on the things that life throws at you.
In time, this mindset evolved into a reasonable facsimile of
the Stoic’s dichotomy of control. Those things I have no control over are
thrown into the “Don’t Care” pile, and I don’t worry about them. I am thinking
now that this is a reason that the dichotomy of control was so easy for me to
accept out of all the Stoic practices, because it fit so well within my natural
preferences regarding my decision making and outlook on life. This unintentional
attitude was serendipity blessing me with great wisdom even though I was
ignorant of its impact on my life. Or it may just be a coalescing of fate. Not
quite sure which it is.
