Words — Part 4 Identity

Words correspond to some set of features in reality and must be useful and concise for communication. For communication between people, we must all generally agree about a word’s definition. So we are all constantly redefining our boundaries of what a word is and what it isn’t.

Similarly, we go through the world constantly redefining what we are, our identity, and what we aren’t. Often our identity is externally thrust upon us at a young age and we carry it with us into adulthood. People tell us we are stupid, attractive, disabled, or white and we believe them.

When we tell ourselves the story of our lives, these words inevitably come up along with their boundaries. And as we go through our lives refining the boundaries of words we associate with ourselves we also refine our own. That is the problem with an identity. By defining what you are, you are defining what you are not.

Let’s say you have a single apple in front of you. Since two apples have many different properties like size, freshness, and origin, you can say infinitely more about this specific apple then you can about all the apples in the world.

Calling this apple just an apple ignores all its uniqueness and special properties. Sub-categories like Granny Smith or Fuji offer some more information about the color and taste, but many more details are missed. You could imagine a grocery store organizing apples by ripeness, acidity, and size, but just throwing all green and tart apples in a pile with a Granny Smith label is simpler and easier.

Similarly, every day we use words to describe someone because it is simpler and easier. But we are missing the vast majority of their details with any word we chose. Imprecision is baked into the system and it has a tangible impact on people’s perceptions of others and of themselves.

But we are not the words we use to define ourselves. More can be said about you, then about all the engineers or idiots in the world. Instead of thinking within the boundaries of labels, you can start just from the core reality of who you are. You will find there are no words to describe your unique set of features except maybe one: your name.