One System vs Many: The Climbing Risk We're Not Seeing

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I am an admirer of Tim Minchin. Now, when I say “admirer,” no I don’t know everything he’s ever done. I don’t know if he was ever mean to his wife. I don’t know enough about him (or pretty much anyone in the public eye) to know if I can just lift his life views and graft them onto my life.

(As an aside, I tire of the idea that if I agree with a person’s point on one topic then I must be tacitly endorsing everything he or she has ever said.)

Anyway, about 2013, he gave a commencement speech at the University of Western Australia. He lays out nine life lessons to a new set of graduates about to enter the world. Number five has stuck with me, and I quote it here:

“Be hard on your opinions. A famous bon mot asserts that ‘opinions are like assholes in that everyone has one.’ There is great wisdom in this, but I would add that opinions differ significantly from assholes in that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined… We must think critically and not just about the ideas of others. Be hard on your beliefs. Take them out onto the verandah and hit them with a cricket bat. Be intellectually rigorous. Identify your biases, your prejudices, your privileges. Most of society’s arguments are kept alive by a failure to acknowledge nuance. We tend to generate false dichotomies and then try to argue one point using two entirely different sets of assumptions, like two tennis players trying to win a match by hitting beautifully executed shots from either end of separate tennis courts.”

I bring this up for two reasons in the context of this particular video: 1) This video is one of my attempts to examine my own biases, prejudices, and privileges; and 2) I try to embrace (maybe infuriatingly to some) nuance.

Let’s start with the first point. I clearly have a bias towards having many techniques and systems at my disposal in order to optimize a particular system to the idiosyncrasies of a given situation. Now, in the video (so I am not going to repeat the analysis, here… you should watch it) I try to be intellectually honest about the pros and cons of that approach. Likewise, however, I try to perform a similar honest assessment of the alternative: to narrow one’s techniques and systems to a critical few. In essence, I am trying to understand, for myself, why I choose to path I have chosen in regards to this particular choice.

Hopefully what I am also doing, then, is encouraging others to perform a similar analysis of their own choice. I don’t see my particular choice is inherently superior. I think there is a very good justification for something like a “keep it simple, stupid” approach. But is my choice inherently bad, either? I think I’ve landed in the “I don’t think so” camp. More interesting to me, however, is what are the ramifications of making that choice (one way or the other) and are we prepared to pay the costs (again, see the video on the pros and cons) that come with our choice?

To the second point, I hope that one of the overarching themes of the channel is that I “don’t tell you what to do.” I don’t think there are very many “must always” and “never ever” tools, techniques, or systems in climbing (unless we get absurd; sure, never ever throw rocks at your climbing partner). Most tools, techniques, and systems have been used historically or are still used now because they provide some benefit. Most tools, techniques, and systems evolve because the imperfections of any one of them might make them less effective in a given situation, so an improvement in safety or efficiency or both can be developed.

This is why I try to do lots of “pros and cons” style videos, like this one. I just want people to carefully examine their own biases, prejudices, and privileges. I think that keeps us safer because it keeps us open to learning.

I should meet my own standard, too, I guess.