This week marks the debut in Futures of Blaize M. Kaye with his story Revision theory. Based in Kwazulu-Natal, Blaize spends some of his time programming and, fortunately, some of his time writing. You can find out more about him at his website or by following him on Twitter. Here he reveals what helped inspire his latest tale — as ever it pays to read the story first.

Writing Revision theory

Revision theory is a dramatization of a personal insight, followed by its immediate collapse.

It was early evening and I was in my study, working, when I heard my daughter, who had just learned to speak, laughing and playing in her bedroom with my wife. Hearing how happy they were, I considered how insignificant my work was compared with spending time with my little girl. Moreover, it struck me how often I prioritized ‘just finishing something up’ over spending time with my family.

The prioritizing of smaller, sooner rewards over larger, delayed rewards is something that’s familiar to almost everyone, not just fathers of girls with bright smiles and unruly blonde hair. In my case I was prioritizing having happy clients over, potentially, building a closer relationship with my daughter as she grows up.

We all do this though. We do this when we overeat, prioritizing our present satisfaction over our long-term health goals. We do this when we choose to stay up late at the expense of being well rested the whole of the next day. Arguably, addicts of various kinds exhibit this same behavioural pattern. Although this is no place to get technical, the literature on this phenomenon is fascinating and I highly recommend anyone interested to look at the books of George Ainslie and Howard Rachlin, who are giants in a field of giants (I give some suggested reading below).

The irony of my ‘insight’ was that my first instinct wasn’t to get up off my chair and go play with my little girl, but rather to sketch out a time-travel story.

After a moment I saw that I was being an idiot, cursed myself, and stepped away from the keyboard.

But that collapse of my insight, my instinct to do more work rather than simply act on the little bit of self-knowledge I’d been afforded, ultimately, gave structure to the story.

In that moment, I was Themba, hand suspended in mid-air.

Suggested reading:

Ainslie, G. Breakdown of Will (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Rachlin, H. The Science of Self-control. (Harvard University Press, 2009).

Ross, D., Sharp, C., Vuchinich, R. & Spurrett, D. Midbrain Mutiny: The Picoeconomics and Neuroeconomics of Disordered Gambling. (MIT Press, 2008).

Wolfram, S. Reward. Scholarpedia 2(3), 1652 (2007).