Impossible is a step

We are still in the so called country side 38km from the center of Warsaw. No change in that respect...Life is moving as it used to in the 18th century - I just read fathers and sons by Turgenev and could identify myself with the relaxed pace of the 18th century Russian country side :))

Anyway continuing with our explorations of the neighborhood we decided to check out the train station - last stop of the suburban train from Warsaw. Takes around 55 minutes according to what it says on the internet to get to the center. We decided that some day we might want to try out the this option. It is kind of difficult because unlike in any other place I know so far the suburban trains go only every hour or sometimes even only every two hours. So it is kind of difficult to just show up and expect the train to show up as well. Since the traffic jams are pretty bad someday we might be willing to change to the trains anyway. Now we have the schedule now. The train station is kind of abandoned. There is however something what you can call park and ride. A place in mud under this tree for two cars I would say. Next to this interesting building at the entry point to the platform - the coolest double toilets ever! As we checked they are also used :))) No danger of vandalism.


Anyway I found this interesting post on the internet- the logic somehow should make sense if applied to this train station either way. I copy & pasted it from here. Perhaps this is what I am missing in understanding how is it possible to have such a cool toilet and train station basically right next to Warsaw. Make your own conclusion :)

Sometimes, you have to take a trip through the impossible to find your way from one possible to a better one.

This is otherwise known in popular culture as the milder “things are going to get worse before they get better”. Conceptually, however, this idea can be pushed to its extreme. Not only are things going to get worse, they’re going to get unthinkably, impossibly worse, in a way that is completely unacceptable.

This is universally useful. When applied to design, this translates into considering and trying out unacceptable solutions that fly in the face of your design principles, as possible stepping stones to an acceptable result. When applied to implementation, it means being willing to try something with no apparent chance of success to probe the problem and discover something more.

When applied to thought, it means being willing to consider all variations of ideas, no matter how bizarre, unpleasant, or repugnant, to respect that they may lead to greater ideas than those we came from. When applied to discussion, it means being willing to embrace strong disagreement and confrontation as a building block of consensus.

This is a dangerous idea, and it demands a caveat. Impossible is only a useful step if you can escape from it back into the acceptable. Some steps into the dark are irreversibly harmful. The means does not justify the end.