From Signal to Action: How to prevent errors and failures

By Taesoo Bae

Initially, this book was intended to give advice to my children about their works or everyday lives. There might be many problems and questions unanswered for a considerable time until they finally find solutions and answers through their own experience. It might be the same with other youngsters who began their works recently. So, I would like to help them find their ways with more ease by showing them where and how people make errors and meet failures.

In this book, I introduced some new concepts, such as 'signal process' or 'signal and action pole', which could help us to find diverse causes of errors and failures more effectively. Also, I suggested some remedies that could be employed when we should face such problems in the signal process. Though many of them are based on my limited experience and observations, they might be able to enlighten young people's agony or burden to a certain degree.

Reading this book, I hope, young people could better understand the workings of the society they live in and find out solutions and answers more quickly. Additionally, I hope young people could develop their own tools or frameworks to deal with various kinds of questions and problems in the signal process with more confidence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: K&E Sharing House
• Release date: Apr 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9788967843885

Book preview

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From Signal to Action

How to prevent errors and failures

Taesoo Bae

From Signal to Action

How to prevent errors and failures

First Printing | 04. 2023, South Korea.

Author | Taesoo Bae

Publisher | K&E Sharing House

ISBN | 978-89-6784-388-5 (15300)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

COPYRIGHT © 2023 K&E Sharing House

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Dream

Chapter 2

Signals

Chapter 3

Tools for Interpretation and Prediction

Chapter 4

Interpretation of Signals

Chapter 5

Prediction on Signals

Chapter 6

Explanation and Theories

Chapter 7

Action

Chapter 8

Feedback

Chapter 9

Environment box

Chapter 10

Dangers in the Signal and Action Pole

Chapter 11

Conflict Along the Signal Process

Chapter 12

Communication in the Signal Process

Chapter 13

Attack on the Boundary

Chapter 14

Back to the Signal Making

Chapter 15

Diverse Frameworks of the Signal Process

Conclusion

Preface

T

he world we live in might be working with things, people and their interactions that could be called facts or events. And we make actions based on our judgement about them. 

However, when we make judgements or actions, we usually do not have perfect knowledge about related things, facts and their interactions. Rather, many of them might have clouds surrounding them, showing us only a part of reality. Some others appear dimly only in our mental screen. It must be more so when they should be related with interactions between people. We could call such unclear, partial, or immature pictures of them as uncertainties. However, fortunately, signals give us hints or clues about them, even though some of them often mislead us toward wrong directions. 

Though, as signals themselves also could be vague or partial, we might have to make analyses, interpretations or predictions about them, so as to get near the reality of things and facts. Based on such a process, we make judgements about them, and take actions. 

Nevertheless, we often have to recognize errors and mistakes we made in the course of making judgement about things and facts, despite all such efforts. Looking back, we can realize that some important signals went unnoticed; some noises caused confusion; we met unexpected interventions from outside. Besides, we could have committed errors in interpretation and prediction of signals, taking inappropriate actions due to lack of understanding about things, facts or signals. 

How to lessen such failures and accompanying dangers? So as to find their causes, we might have to follow along the flow of signals, from signal to action, which could be called the signal process.

The first step of the signal process might be the reception or arrival of signals at the port of an individual people or collectivity, which we could call ‘signal pole’. What kind of signals we are going to take in might depends on our concern as individual, family, nation or other unit of accounting center. And such concern would originate from our desires, dreams, objectives, tasks or subjects we should be pursuing. 

Regarding signals, we have to recognize that we could miss important ones. And we also have to take into account the fact that there could be not only noises and false signals, but also incomplete or flawed signals.

The second step might be interpretation and prediction of signals, for which we would employ many kinds of tools, such as knowledge, experience and intuition. We depend largely on knowledge and experience accumulated and transmitted from teachers, ancestors, predecessors or even colleagues, to understand things and facts in our life. However, we have to take into account biases or prejudices that could have been included in such tools we use. 

The third step is taking action in response to signals with our own judgement, based on our value system and principles. For the judgement, we not only have to evaluate needs and opportunities of an action, but also should take into account related costs and benefits. 

The next step is the feedback after action, followed by corrective responses on the feedback. It is necessary not only because our interpretation, prediction and actions could be fallible, but also because things change continuously. 

The last step might be the storage of experiences in the box of knowledge and experience; some of them might be kept in our memories, while some other irrelevant ones flow away, though sometimes they could come up sporadically later in other cases.   

Through the whole process, diverse characteristics of individuals or collectivities who navigates the sea of signals should be taken seriously. This is because such characteristics could make a considerable difference in their reception, interpretation or prediction of signals as well as in their judgement or actions. Therefore, we also should be attentive to the interaction between signals and poles through the signal process; how the characteristics of poles wield influence on their reception, interpretation, prediction or actions. 

And in the signal the process, we could call people or their group with different names; signal pole, interpretation and prediction pole, judgement pole or action pole. However, it might be better to incorporate interpretation and prediction poles into the ’signal pole’, because the result of interpretation or prediction could be also taken as a ‘signal’. And judgement on the action plan could be included in the activities of the ‘action pole’. 

In this book, I introduced intentionally two concepts that could help us to lead our work, ‘pole’ and ‘box’. We could be able to use the terms ‘signal pole’ or ‘action pole’ for human beings or other entities who respond to signals. It can help us to better describe their multiple components and diverse characteristics. And by introducing the ‘box’, we could be able to make an imaginative space in which to put in related things or facts of the same kind or function, like a ‘dream box’, ‘signal box’, or ‘knowledge box’, which could give us an overall view on their contents. And these boxes are expected to be open and flexible to take in new things and kick out irrelevant ones. 

Chater

1

Dream

1.  Dream and Objectives as a Compass

When entering into the sea of signals, we have to know what kind of sea we are going to navigate as well as the destination and possible routes we are going to follow. Such a sea and destination would be our dreams or goals in life, while routes could be objectives or strategies, whether they should be for an individual or for a society.

Dreams not only show us the sea we have to enter and the direction we have to take, but also might be the gate through which signals enter into our grounds. We might respond to signals that could be related to the dream or destination that we are going toward. We also have to be aware of the fact that those dreams sometimes could be hidden from our sight, appearing only when they are called for. We often miss them even in the case when some of them should be on the surface with their accompanying objectives. 

By demanding us to focus on our destination, dreams would save us a lot of energy or resources. Otherwise, we could be easily drawn into others’ lives or dreams that have little to do with ours, wasting our precious time. Imitating idol stars or blindly following other people on social media might not give us much in return from the perspective of our own dreams.

Besides, dreams could encourage us when we find ourselves in difficulty or when we are wandering without purpose, or when we are bored or lazy. We could take out our dreams from the storage in our mind, refresh ourselves and start anew. If we find the storage of our dream is poor, we have to dig deeper and wider to reach the origin of our dream, making the house of our dreams richer and more abundant. If we were not successful in one dream, we could rely on another.

Every living creature might have its own desire and dream, as well as objectives to realize them. When it comes to human beings and their groups, the content of dreams might be more diversified and more complex. Our dreams and objectives could be different, from one person to another. However, we could have some dreams in common in a specific subject, despite differences in other areas. A strong collective desire or dream might be able to cover small differences and put us on the same road.

A dream could be broken down into small pieces. To realize our dream, we have to transform it into many goals or objectives and then, we could make strategies, plans or tasks to realize them, taking into account signals and their future prospects, as well as resources and environmental situations.

What is the origin of a dream?

A dream might come from the desire whose specific content could be widely different from one to another. This desire could come from diverse origins: personal ambition, jealousy, envy, hate, fear or even from a sense of duty. Such a desire could make a dream, even when there should be a big gap between the desire and the present situation. Though dreams are our own making, teachers, parents, friends, neighbors or even enemies could lead us to find them by pointing out what have been concealed in ourselves. 

As with other things in the world, these dreams and desires are also going to change during the voyage to the destination, because there might be unexpected wind, barriers, or changes in the environment. We could also reformulate previous dreams, reflecting the level of achievement and changing desires.

Whatever dream we might have, or whether we have a more specific dream or not, it might be our duty as human beings to set a destination and do our best to get there with tools or resources permitted to us, even in the face of uncertainties ahead of us. 

2. Resources as the Foundation of Dreams

A dream needs resources to support it. Without relevant resources, a dream cannot be materialized and sustained. What kinds of resource might be necessary depends on the sort of dream and our own characteristics. 

For economic development of a country, we need human and material capital as resources. For an individual, health, wealth, knowledge, network of cooperation would be major resources. Some of them could stay relatively long, while some others could be available only for a short time. 

If we have a dream or desire to attain, we might have to make and develop resources by using savings and investments, while restraining ourselves to prevent unnecessary consumption that could eat away at available resources. Or else, when there are no resources available at the moment, we can borrow them from others. 

We may also need psychological resources, like psychological support or sympathy from outside. Sometimes, we might find that they are much more important than physical resources. For example, a pure dream without the backup of the will cannot drive a ship into the sea, and only a strong will often takes the ship to the destination in a rough sea. A strong will is a necessary item not to be laid aside during our journey. 

Furthermore, if we look from the psychological aspect, paradoxically, lacking some indispensable physical resources, like wealth, could stimulate latent desire and lay the foundation that could stir the will and push the dream forward. Students from impoverished families could be much more desperate in following their dreams than students from wealthier families. 

3. Anxiety, Shadow of the Dream

Even if dreams lead us forward, we often find a shadow behind us, following closely behind, ready to occupy the possible vacuum. It might be the anxiety that lives in the bottom of our mind. It sometimes comes up on the deck and tries to steer our ship away from the original destination. 

What does it do once on the ship? Sometimes, it could help us find problems by making us more careful. But mostly, it can delay our arrival at the destination and generate confusion and disorder in the signal process. Anxiety interferes not only with the signal reception, but also interpretation, prediction and action. The danger is that it could smother our dream by expanding its area of occupation in our mind.

Why does anxiety live in our minds? It is mainly because the future before us is uncertain and that some uneasy pictures, like failure or difficulty, could be looming ahead. In addition, people around us, from parents, friends, teachers, doctors, competitors to adversaries, could give us anxiety continuously either with good or bad intention. Other than that, failures or accidents around us can make it worse, more powerful.

How are we going to deal with anxiety? We probably cannot destroy it entirely, with a single blow. So, we might have to live with it, and in a size that we can manage with our mental capacity. We should strike a balance between our hope and anxiety inside of us, making use of it for our journey as a source of caution and vigilance. And when overloaded, we could reduce it with some medicine, meditation, religion we believe in, or by taking a rest.

4. Dream Box and Conductor

The dream box in which we keep our dreams inside does not stand still but change its contents from one time to another. If we look back, a childhood dream might have been quite different from those that we are following. And in the future, we could again try to change our dreams and objectives, reflecting new realities, which might make our dreams more dynamic. It is because our dreams do not stay in a vacuum, but rather work continuously in an environment where they meet many different peoples, things, and events. Such an interaction with them might require of us to change the content of our dream boxes.   

We hope that the box could be more plentiful and meaningful for our lives. We could enrich our dream box with new signals that could incite new ideas and dreams. Sometimes, signals, even though seemingly meaningless to others, they not only could invoke forgotten dreams but also invite new ones. 

Different from the signal-action process, that goes from reception, interpretation, prediction to action, the signal-dream process could be more flexible, with signals easily making new dreams. We could hit upon a new idea or make a new dream at the meeting of a new signal, or during interpretation, prediction of signals, or even in the process of action.

As a result, creative ideas or new perspectives could be more easily born here rather than in the signal-action process, because our thoughts are given more liberty to fly from one to another without the burden of verification of reality. 

Therefore, it would be preferable to give more space for liberty in our minds. And it would be necessary for us to be sensitive enough not to lose opportunities of new ideas and dreams. Because, if we are not sensitive enough, signals could walk away from us without waiting. 

If there should be a dream box, who manage it? Is there anyone or anything that leads our dreams and keeps the dream box in order? If we should be devoid of a conductor or a compass to rely on, we could get lost and fall into confusion about the future destination we are going to toward. Therefore, we need a master who not only controls the dream box but could also continuously check what might happen in each step of the signal process.

If we should have a conductor or a compass, should it be inside or outside of ourselves? Many of us might have the conductor of dreams inside of us, which might have been cultivated in ourselves. Otherwise, we could borrow it from outside, like religions. It might be an easy way to follow, because it does not ask us much effort to find dreams, as they might be given as a well-arranged set.  

However, it might be more meaningful for us to have the conductor of the dream box inside of us, because we could become the master of our lives only when we could guide our own dreams.

Chater

2

Signals

A. Understanding of Signals

We live among various signals which could help us to find the way toward our destinations in this world. What kind of signals we might need depend not only on ourselves, but also on the environment we live in. Depending on our destination and the character of the environment we live in, we might meet different kinds of signals. 

As individuals, we might be interested in signals related with daily life, like health check results, traffic signals, interest rates, stock market index or trends in the housing market, for example. And any group of people also might get signals that should be related with their own objectives; the advent of a new technology might be an important signal for a company; a nation could be concerned with the birth rate, money supply, investments or the unemployment rate; the spread of pandemic disease or global warming might be important signals for the global community, for example.

1. Characteristics of Signals

To better understand signals, we might have to find their main characteristics in some major respects.

Firstly, signals could be in many different forms: number, word, color, shape, personal feeling, gesture, action, etc. Even people’s attitude or atmosphere in the workplace could also become an important signal.

Secondly, we get signals in many ways. We can get signals from our own experiences. And we could find signals in data or statistics. Or we can get signals by survey or investigation. To find signals, we can use our five senses, brain or other various kinds of tools, like mass media, internet.

Also, we get or receive information that has been prepared by other people. Nowadays, information is expanding its area or importance, because we need more wide and deep knowledge as our lives become more complex, while it is nearly impossible to get all necessary information only with our own efforts. 

However, we have to be careful with such signals and information. It is not only because signals we receive could give us conflicting ideas, but also because some information can mislead us with their unjustifiable prejudice or preference. 

Thirdly, signals might be positioned at the gate of the signal process, demanding us to act or react as a response. Some of them might become material for our action, while some others could linger around us and finally go away from us when they cannot get our attention. That is, signals do not stay long around us.

Lastly, signals reflect our own interest or desire. When we should be occupied with a certain problem or have a keen interest in something, we might be more sensitive to related signals. Some of us could be interested in signals from politics or business, while others should have more interest in natural phenomena or science. It might be the same with bigger groups of people, like a company or a government. 

As a consequence, the same signal could be received differently according to the interest or the concern structure of those who receive them; some might be more sensitive than others to a certain category of signals.

2. Basic Elements of the Signal

If we look into signals, whether they should be about human affairs or natural phenomena, there should be some basic elements that make signals. With such basic elements, things or facts could be identified and distinguished from others, and finally become signals. For example, winds or diseases could be identified and distinguished with their relative size or speed.

Then, what should be such basic elements? We could classify them in some categories: identity, relation, movement, comparison, change elements, if we make any simplification. If we dig deeper into signals, we could find that identity, relation and movement elements are on the front, while comparison and change elements are in the rear. A signal might be a combination of front elements and rear elements.

Among such basic elements, identity elements might be at the core. When we take things or facts in the natural or social phenomena, there would be such elements as boundary, size, density, material, composition, structure, chemical traits, etc. In the case of living creatures or their society, there might be other elements such as position, power, capacity or resources, character, preferences, attitudes, and defects that show their psychological or sociological traits.

Another important element that makes signals might be relation elements. In the case of non-living things, they might have various kinds of physical or chemical relationships between them, which could be explained by theories about their cause-and-effect relations. In the case of living creatures and their society, there could be much greater number of relationships that could make explication more complicated: competition or cooperation, coalition or isolation, dominance or subordination, for example.    

And also, movement elements such as speed, direction, period, trajectory, origin can make signals. Those movement elements could appear not only in things of nature, but also in social phenomena or human actions.

Besides such front elements, there might be other sorts of element that can give them additional meaning.

One of them might be ‘comparison element’. We can make comparison on such elements as identity, relation or movement about things or facts. Comparison of identity could be done not only between things or human beings, but also with a certain standard or criteria. Likewise, comparison could be made also on relation or movement elements. And we can compare them with each other or with certain criteria to derive more significant signals.  

Lastly, there should be ‘change elements’ in signals. Changes might appear in identity, relation, movement or comparison elements of things or facts, which can make additional signals. For example, if previously independent things or facts come into meaningful relationship with a lapse of time, it can make a new signal.

3. Set of Signals

Every day we receive, analyze, transfer signals, and store them in our memory. Then, how many signals and what kind of signals do we have at the moment? The contents of signals we are keeping or following would tell who we are, and what our concern is at this moment. 

People or collectivities might have their own diverse concerns and corresponding sets of signals, basically for their own existence or development. As a consequence, some might have a relatively bigger or smaller volume of signals, while others have a more diversified signal set than others. Such differences come not only from the structure of their respective concerns but also from