Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

Reddit had its IPO this week, which got me all nostalgic about how Reddit used to be and its effect on my career (I got my first job through Reddit). In case you weren't online 10 years ago, Reddit used to be an amazing source of community information, like-minded discussion, and memes. It still does those things (albeit to a lesser extent due to the broader enshittification of the Internet), but I suppose as things age, their novelty fades and people stop sticking around. Communities that were once vibrant dwindle, jokes become tired, and corporate greed makes the place less welcoming.

Now that I think about it, that's a great analogy for what happens when we go deeper into spiritual life.

This is the IQ bell curve/midwit meme. It's one of the memes that Reddit took to the mainstream. This obviously is a great way to mock anyone who considers your (likely minority) opinion unintelligent, because you can frame their opinion as ignorant - so it's no wonder that this meme originated in the alt-right forums of 4chan. But it's also valuable for challenging popular thought and giving life advice, as editorialized here in this Twitter thread.

What I like the most about this meme is how it's a great framing of one of the fundamental growth problems: we complicate the middle. Complicating the middle is the result of going deeper: if you're going to dig, you're inevitably going to create a bit of a mess. The solution, then, is to simplify. But how?

As we start to go deeper into any area of life - nutrition, exercise, our careers, spirituality, philosophy, etc. - it becomes very easy and natural to see things as extremely complex. Think about diet. It's common to see people getting into various diets and eating habits, resulting in complicated recipes and meal preps that take hours. This has minimal benefit, and the difficulty of keeping up with the diet makes it far more likely that people stop following said diet.

In decision-making thought circles, this idea of a razor is given. It's called a razor because it cuts through (or shaves off) whole branches of explanations or possibilities. Famous razors include:

• Occam's Razor: The explanation with fewer variables is more likely correct.
• Einstein's Razor: Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.
• Hanlen's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

In the same Twitter thread linked above, the author lays out the concept of the Midwit Razor.

"What simple idea would the idiot and the genius agree upon?"

The simple idea that the idiot and the genius would agree on with regard to diet is to eat food you like to eat - only the genius would also stipulate that it should be moderated, healthy, and nutritious. This stipulation of the genius is like the asterisk that follows a promotional offer: it's all the fine print that the people who want to go deeper into something start looking at.

In spiritual life, this same principle can be found. Every spiritual tradition has a promotional offer that they advertise. There is a Promised Land™; you can get there by performing this easy task! Terms and conditions apply.

When people first come to spiritual life, people often have the Idiot mindset. Not to say they're stupid! It's very natural to be attracted by the promotional message. But if they're serious, they'll notice the fine print and go through it to see what else they need to do to get to the promised goal. After all, it can't be as easy as doing just one simple thing, can it?

The fine print deals with the hard work of engaging with our human existence and struggles - embodying seemingly perfect ideals in an imperfect world. In reality, unless we're exceedingly rare - which we're not - we probably won't be able to follow the fine print perfectly, which is why the main thing is given so much emphasis.

The fine print is also where all the rules are found. One hallmark of those in the complicated middle is that they are obsessed with the rules for themselves and others. This is one of the causes of judgemental and controlling behavior from seemingly spiritual people of all traditions and is also a large turn-off to people looking in - because this group of people, by virtue of being in the middle, is also the largest and most visible demographic.

What's common to find as we spend more time in spiritual communities and practicing spirituality is that we lose focus on the Main Thing. Similar to what's happened in other situations (see Reddit), the natural entropy of the universe will have its effect. We may see the community around us disintegrate or be replaced by people with differing visions. We may find that we become fixated on these terms and conditions, and start to add all sorts of complications to the process - when, in reality, it's quite simple.

The genius separates themselves from the idiot by knowing about the fine print and separates themselves from the midwit by being flexible. As the majority of us midwits are knee-deep in fine print, we need to look to the genius for how to be rigid about the important principles and let the lesser rules go. The solution to the problem of complicating the middle is to identify the Main Thing - and to keep it the Main Thing!

I'm speaking as much to myself as to you, the reader: I'm nowhere near genius when it comes to spiritual life. But I've observed my teachers and guides and seen firsthand how they prioritize the same things newcomers will, but in a holistic way that allows for the fine print to be accommodated without letting it overtake the Main Thing.

Happy to be here,
-Sid