“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke xiv, 28, King James Bible) The verse seems like a reasonable approach to reaching any goal. But in life, we don’t always have goals. We have challenges and opportunities that appear by chance, and both make counting the cost difficult.
Still, “counting the cost” might be applicable even in chance circumstances. Given a problem, most of us probably favor looking for the most efficient solution even though we might not see one. We adopt an Occam’s-Razor approach unless we immediately see and understand the complexity associated with any new circumstance.
Most of life’s towers we construct wouldn’t win an architectural award. They are not the product of long-term planning, but are the result of our responses to unexpected problems and circumstances. We build with whatever is both immediate and useful. Look back at the structure of your life. In the words of Cedric Price, “Architecture is too slow in its realisation [sic.] to be a ‘problem solver.’”
When you gaze at those towers, you’ll probably say, “I think I’ve been building lean-tos. But what choice did I have other than using that which was available at the moment?”
Throwing together one lean-to after another, you’ve done pretty well. There’s always some learning going on, so chances are that your most recent lean-to is better than your first. You’ve learned that some materials are neither durable nor strong, and you’ve learned that certain arrangements of even weak and temporary materials afford better protection and stability than others. You—and everyone else—learned the cost and principles of architecture by building.
You are always in the process of building towers even when you have only the change in your pocket to cover the cost.
Still, “counting the cost” might be applicable even in chance circumstances. Given a problem, most of us probably favor looking for the most efficient solution even though we might not see one. We adopt an Occam’s-Razor approach unless we immediately see and understand the complexity associated with any new circumstance.
Most of life’s towers we construct wouldn’t win an architectural award. They are not the product of long-term planning, but are the result of our responses to unexpected problems and circumstances. We build with whatever is both immediate and useful. Look back at the structure of your life. In the words of Cedric Price, “Architecture is too slow in its realisation [sic.] to be a ‘problem solver.’”
When you gaze at those towers, you’ll probably say, “I think I’ve been building lean-tos. But what choice did I have other than using that which was available at the moment?”
Throwing together one lean-to after another, you’ve done pretty well. There’s always some learning going on, so chances are that your most recent lean-to is better than your first. You’ve learned that some materials are neither durable nor strong, and you’ve learned that certain arrangements of even weak and temporary materials afford better protection and stability than others. You—and everyone else—learned the cost and principles of architecture by building.
You are always in the process of building towers even when you have only the change in your pocket to cover the cost.
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