Formulas

Living in the States as a foreigner gives the opportunity for some interesting observations: it fascinates me to see how different certain behaviors, approaches and reactions are.
Today I want to mention formulas. Americans live by formulas. For the outsider it’s mind blowing to notice how this applies to virtually anything, from complex work issues to interpersonal relationships.
Formulas have a great strength: they simplify and frame a problem, making it easier to deal with it, sometimes removing the need to understand the problem entirely. At the same time, for the very reason that creates their strength (simplify), they remove or disregard parts of the situation. In an world where everybody, or most players (including the problem) play by the rules, this approach works pretty well. And the US, in many ways, are that world.
The only danger is that the little bits left out by the simplification could pile up into a big issue, therefore although the process runs smoothly, and all the steps are respected, the outcome can turn into a disaster.
Furthermore, in certain fields (such as when dealing with emotional issues), the simplification required to define an actionable formula is even further from the complete picture of the problem, given that there are added layers of interpretation. There might still be an illusion of positive outcome, since the steps and results compute properly, but the real problem, or a portion of it, could be hiding in the missing pieces, and it’s hard to even see that the solution isn’t really solving anything.
In Italy we don’t believe in formulas much, probably because it’s hard to find somebody (or something) that plays by the rules. Or, perhaps, because the longer and more fragmented historical past has generated layers of complexity that make the formulaic approach much harder to apply. In any case, our approach to things is to try and understand the problem from any angle possible, and then just go in and face it, ready to improvise our way through it.Less efficient, for sure. Far more adaptable though.
In my mind it’s obvious that we should learn from each other: there’s no need to question the structure of everything all the time (like Italians do), it’s a terrible time sink, and in a lot of situation the benefits are marginal compared to the resulting inefficiency; on the other hand, the world is getting more and more complex, and the formulaic approach (at least for some issues) becomes more and more dangerous.
Something to think about.
mahalo

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