Episode Minus 9: WTH is All This “IndSteada…” Stuff

The Etymology and Insectual Psychology Behind “IndSteada”

Here’s the thing: My imaginary friend, Bug Stu, has written a series of stories, mostly about looking at things in different ways even while standing in one place (see that compound eye analogy?!). You might be like him. And the implications might be bigger than you might realize. But that’s the beginning of IndSteadavision.

The Etymology: We’re working these things out together, and the question of “IndStead” vs. “Instead” came up. The trouble with Instead is that it kind of implies the old “thinking outside of the box” trope. We decided that independent thought was better than a deliberate effort to think outside of the box or to oppose the box. I mean, there are lots of boxes, right? And maybe the box has great stuff. Maybe it’s just better to ignore the box(es) rather than to intentionally avoid it or them. So, the word independence comes up again in that. Thus the Ind.

“Stead” by itself means place. That could be a physical place or a place in thought. That place in thought could be a belief, a direction, an idea, an approach, etc. But also, we’re kind of into physical places and sense of place as having more value than modern and postmodern paradigms have generally imagined. Between those two factors plus just the appearance of the word, IndStead seemed better than Instead for what we’re doing.

And then…adding the “a” at the end lets it connect to words like “vision”, or just IndSteadavist—a person who tends to consider alternative perspectives and conclusions.

Insectual Psychology: Never mind the intriguing sound of that term, it’s just something Stu made up when he was feeling a bit cheeky, but it stuck. It’s referring partly to his familiarity with social psychology in us humies, owing to ants, honeybees, and other social insects (and larger animals) that have actually helped us understand ourselves better recently.

It also has to do with focus, blindered focus sometimes, derived from social cues as well as an internal cost/risk/benefit analyses on whether to stay the course or leave the mainstream herd mentality. One’s not always better than the other—once having decided what “better” means.

I probably better start working on that identification quiz. (It’s striking me as funny now that Buzzfeed became the queen of these.)

Thanks for reading. : )

Tim