# Spiral Staircase

Here was the life cycle of an insight:

> *“If I put this candle in an all-white gallery space, it looks like a piece of art. If I put it in a garage, it looks like a piece of trash. \[...\] I often use this analogy in design. I could either design the candle, \[...\] or I could just design the room that it sits in.”*
> 
> *— Virgil Abloh (1980-2021), founder of Off-White & former artistic director at LVMH*

> That’s pretty insightful, I thought, so let’s look for evidence of earnestly genius insight in Virgil's designs. And I searched on Google images, “off-white clothes,” and I didn’t find any genius innovation in his designs. Disappointing.
> 
> But wait—*of course* I wouldn’t find evidence *in the products themselves*. The *whole point* was the surrounding context, invisible to Google images and me: the store displays, the scarce releases, the source material being subverted.
> 
> But wait again—isn’t that just the 4 P’s of marketing? The ones you learn in highschool business class? Product, price, place, and promotion. What Virgil said is, don’t merely design the product, but also the other three P’s. Disappointing.

Classic. An idea seems insightful, until you realize it’s just a reskin of one you already know. Except, you *can* choose how to react. Either, the idea is trite, commonplace, and nothing new under the sun... Or, the idea is a new aspect of the same essence, another facet of the same diamond, another petal from the same flower; there is nothing new under the sun!

When you “rederive” the same insight from a different direction, you aren’t merely back where you started. You are earning the intuition to notice an idea when it comes up, grasp which of its levers you can pull, and in which situations it applies differently. And you do all this easily, even subconsciously; because once you understand the way broadly, you see it in all things.

If you recognized Abloh’s quote as analogous to the 4 P’s of marketing, you’re closer to sensing the world like a marketing executive: naturally seeing the concept, its extensions and limitations, and using it to explain reality around you. This is far different from sensing the world like a highschooler: having just learned the 4 P’s, and straining to apply it in an exam.

Instead of pawing the idea like a beginner, you wield it like a master. You aren’t back where you started, you’re one level higher. You aren’t walking in circles, you’re climbing up a spiral staircase.

* * *

Months after I conceived of this idea, I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, written about a hundred years ago. In it, Siddhartha and his friend Govinda meditate for years, short breaks from the pain and pointlessness of life. But every time they escape the self, they inevitably reinhabit their selves. Siddhartha complains that they achieve nothing different than an alcoholic, guzzling to briefly drown his senses. Govinda argues, no, that’s not the same; they return more enlightened after each meditation, but the alcoholic is still that after waking from his delusion. Siddhartha reflects:

> *“What now, oh Govinda, might we be on the right path? Might we get closer to enlightenment? Might we get closer to salvation? Or do we perhaps live in a circle—we, who have thought we were escaping the cycle?”*
> 
> *Quoth Govinda: “We have learned a lot, Siddhartha, there is still much to learn. We are not going around in circles, we are moving up, the circle is a spiral, we have already ascended many a level.”*

Classic. Turns out, my treasured insight was long-trodden ground, trite down to the choice of imagery. I can’t help but feel disappointed... But wait a second—