Language
There are many entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts in Bay Area, but contrary to the startup culture and corporate grind I decided to spend some time reading books and trying to build up a little knowledge tree in my mind. It seems like a pretty naive and dumb idea, but you only live once. So, you might as well try things you are craving for and do something differently.
There is really no right approach of doing this, so I have just been reading about reading, then reading about philosophy, then reading classics, and finally expanding a little more on “science”. For example, I was going over this series called “Essential Knowledge” published by MIT and sometimes I was searching for specific categories of literature from the top school publishers. Anyway, I could write a lot about reading, but this essay is about Language.
So! At some point I’ve dived a little bit into human consciousness, brain, memory, psychology, neuroscience, and general information theory. And there was just something stuck in me about truth, knowledge, and language. I was really curious about how truth is formed, what we call knowledge, and how languages described the truth. It was quite ridiculous though. Like I would be hanging out with my friends having casual dinners and constantly being surprised why noone thinks about this!!! At the end of the day, we are using Language to talk that entire time!!!
EPIPHANY MOMENT
I very vividly remember the day I was in the Cupertino public library (Thank you, Benjamin Franklin!) reading another book called “Strategy” by Lawrence Freedman. It’s written in chronological order with every chapter describing what strategies were like in different times starting with Trojan war and ending with modern business development. I was reading the book backwards, because I was able to relate to things more effectively that way knowing more what corporate is. At the end of the day, I am working in one of these bigger companies. So, might as well be learning something practical.
And although this book didn’t have anything to do with Language, I suddenly got it!!!
I was in the middle of technological revolution looking for some kind of truth by reading books. I deliberately chose to ignore everything related to technology, but then I realized that one of the biggest things happening in the world right now is the Artifical Intelligence. And the very thing that’s actually disrupting it is the large language models (LLMs).
SO, WHAT IS THIS LANGUAGE REALLY?
I mean, it’s everywhere. You are thinking, reading, writing, talking Language. You have been using a language while thinking, communicating, and listening to someone. You are able to read this essay because of the language. How can someone not be thinking how important languages are? They are everywhere!
Very naively I would define Language as a linear and very lossy representation of reality (physicists whispering “so dumb”). It allows us to think and communicate. I am less sure about memory and feelings, but language is certainly a huge part of those things as well. There are words, sentences, and gestures. It can be verbal and written. There are different languages. For example, I know Kyrgyz, Russian, and American English and each comes with oceans of culture.
The other interesting thing is that languages are trained in us. We are not born knowing one, but are born capable of learning and using it. And so, the better you are at using the language, the more you can do.
WE NEED A BETTER LANGUAGE, MAYBE EVEN SOMETHING ELSE
Now think about how much is happening in your mind. It’s a very huge world that’s constantly changing. However, most of us don’t know more than 50,000 words. So, if you imagine for a little moment how complicated every person is, simply compressing daily communication to a few thousand words sounds like living in a cage.
I mean, even if you are saying something to the other person, what are the chances they fully understand you? What does fully understand even mean? And yet oftentimes good understanding between people leads to so much more in life.
Once in a while in the morning I will go for a coffee run at a local coffee shop and very often I keep ordering the same thing. However, it’s always sort of a gamble how this interaction is going to go. Like I may say “may I please get a medium size non-fat vanilla latte and a cold chocolate croissant” while the person taking the order (hopefully it’s Zain this time, the nice guy) will smile and say “got it”! But then more often than not I will get back something like “sorry, did you say you want your chocolate croissant warmed up?”. But then other times, someone may ask “How are you doing?” and you reply “Good, good..” with a certain facial expression, and somehow this person knows more than just what you said about how you feel.
HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LANGUAGE?
For most of us the language is formed based on who we interact with on a daily basis. It also depends on the media you are consuming. So, really the pool of words and sentences you are exposed isn’t that much. How can you expand your language? Is it even worth it?
One great answer would be reading voraciously! I have already written an essay on reading you can read in my blog. That would provide with some insights on how I read. Hope that works out well for you. But that’s going to enrich your vocabulary and more advanced ways of coming up with various sentences to say or write.
However, still the linear medium for thoughts, doesn’t that sound very limiting? I mean really informationally you are transferring kilobytes of data in minutes. That’s very underwhelming!!! So, how come a simple “How are you?” triggers something more. Maybe, there is another medium that transfers information faster, better! Emotions?? Maybe… But thaaat would be another essay. :)