Why We Must Wash Our Old Ideas
They gather as much dust as everything else around us — mind hygiene is essential.
I remember this washing-up liquid TV ad from my childhood in which one flatmate shouted to another from the kitchen, ‘Hey! Check this out: the saucepan wasn’t black after all!’ Recently, I was ready to bin my laptop case when I was advised to try washing it first. Unbelievably, as if by magic, I now possess this pristine fabric sleeve in mint condition with hardly a cat hair on it. You would think it’s new. All it needed was an hour and a half in the washing machine.
These silly moments when reality slaps me in the face always make me wonder about my limitations. If I didn’t see that, what else am I missing right here and right now? In any case, I cannot help but love a good mind-shake. This one reminded me that our ideas also gather dust, get dirty and risk obsolescence if we don’t revisit them often enough.
I must admit I don’t particularly enjoy looking back. While it can be delightful to encounter an old work of ours and reminisce about the time when we created it, the delight tends to be fleeting, and I soon find myself pulled toward that period and away from what I was planning to do next. Memories have this gravitational force of sorts that threatens to suck us into a past time — or at least a…