Philosophy's Craft; the Picture of Digging.

The problem is that you think like an accordion. By this I do not mean that you are flighty – most surely you are not – I mean that you set out to discover gold by digging multiple holes at the same time with one shovel-scoop each. It is not really like digging for gold, however, because the holes you set yourself upon are never “pot luck.” You already know something is there; you just need to “unearth it.” One or two shovel digs here, and then you are taken upon one or two over there. You have no control over this; it is the way you think.

Imagine someone with “X-ray vision,” only it occurs through “spider sense” rather than through the eyes. And instead of it being “seeing,” it simply provides “clarity.” You have a sense of clarity that you can “see” for a moment. As if it tells you that treasure X can be found through paths A B and C. But it is only a momentary picture -- a flash in the brain. And when you set about to see it as a map (in detail), it is gone. And so, from memory or instinct, you take a shovel dig here, there, and somewhere else all at once and do not know exactly where to shovel next. Nothing then results but three shallow holes. But you know there exists both a treasure and its path in the proximate regions where you are digging.

In mathematics, one does not either look for treasure or see a picture of its path.