Lessons from the Dodo on solitude

In his story of the Dodo’s Tale, Richard Dawkins talks about how a species (and indirectly a gene pool) can go from prospering to extinction if kept in a closed ecosystem (e.g. in an island). The Dodo is the story of a bird that became the dominant one in its food chain on a small Pacific island when it flew from the ocean from a nearby continent. As this bird found plenty of food on the ground, and no predators to fly away from, it wasn’t making any use of its wings any longer. In fact, after a few generations, wings were completely out-of-fashion, and instead of wings, the Dodos invested most of their bodily resources making more eggs, and thus breeding more short-winged egg-producing Dodos. By the time the first humans arrived on this tiny island, none of the Dodos could fly anymore. And while the Dodo weren’t particularly good sandwich meat, they proved to be such easy targets that the entire species disappeared shortly thereafter. Apparently, there were so defenceless and goofy, that humans couldn’t resist the urge to kick them or use them for cricket practice. Nature didn’t wait for humans to be cruel, and there are countless cases of species extinguishing when their isolated ecosystems changes, for example the disappearance of Tasmanian devils after dingoes arrived in Australia 3000 years ago.

Let’s make an analogy to the world of memes. Just as the genes can be protected by physical barriers (sea or mountains), mental constructs can also be kept from external influencers: a person can just keep his own thoughts and shut his ears, physically or consciously. Alone with one’s thoughts and cementing one’s worldview, this person can sort out things out, much in the same way an ecosystem finds its own balance on an island. In solitude ideas/memes can grow and flourish just as the Dodo did on his island. Unchallenged, a value system can become far reaching and begin to entirely dictate one’s actions. This is the beauty of solitude, a place where our character becomes complete, where opinions can exist without external validation. Many philosophers across all cultures and epochs, from Tao to Rousseau to Montaigne, have advocated for solitude, saying confinement helps to avoid the traumas of social life. On the other hand, society/others are clearly a source of information, knowledge and wealth, so it’s difficult to find the ‘right dose’ of socializing – is there even such a thing?

Let’s turn to the Dodo to answer that question. Had the Dodo been exposed even on rare occasions to predators on his island, it’s likely the wing gene would have survived. The Dodos would’ve lost a few members to predators and they wouldn’t have been able to produce as many eggs as they did over the years but ultimately they would’ve likely survived man’s arrival on the island if they had kept their wings. Continuing my analogy, if we are open to conflicting views, we may face periods of doubt and anguish, we may feel worthless at times, but as a result, we stand a better choice of avoiding a complete meltdown (such as a suicide or a mid-life crisis).

In conclusion, when your ideas are growing bigger and more comfortable in your meme-depositary of a brain, study the opposition in earnest. Listen to your body when it screams at you: “leave the house, go meet people”, an urge as physical and real as hunger or thirst, but don’t waste your social time looking for signs reaffirming your existing value system: facebook groups, ‘likes’, and articles that support your investment strategy. Don’t mingle with like-minded geniuses; aim to hang out with (who you think are) stubborn idiots instead. Do what George Soros does instead and look for instances that disprove your theories. As Nassim Taleb points out: true self-confidence is “the ability to look at the world without the need to find signs that stroke one’s ego.” Next time you find peace within, remember the Dodo, and be wary that a cricket bat might be the next thing hitting your skull.

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