Concordance & Discordance

For when the vibe is indulgent, meandering, and dreamy.

Concordance is defined variously as, ‘a list of principal words in a text together with immediate context,’ ‘a genetic trait present in a pair twins,’ ‘the involvement of patients in decision-making to improve compliance with medical advice,’ ‘when all major parties are represented in the Swiss Federal Council,’ and, ‘when a person’s actions agree with their words.’ The theme that ties them all together is harmony. Synergy. Agreement. Commonality. Concordance is also the antonym of discordance. Discordance happens when variables or observations are inconsistent in statistics (suggesting the model being tested is not accurate), inconsistent genetics (those twins again), or inconsistent medical assessments. While all of this disharmony might seem frustrating and useless, discordance can be important for identifying weaknesses in a model, understanding the relationship between variables, or deducing the cause for a disagreement.

With the traditional definitions out of the way, I’d like offer a froofier understanding behind this pair of words, loosely based on the Law of Attraction, and closely associated with the principle of ‘The Vibe.’ That is, an action, a choice, an activity, a movement, or a venture feels concordant it is the vibe, and if it feels discordant then it is the anti-vibe. Concordant decisions can become discordant over time, but decisions, once discordant can serve to illuminate the next concordant decisions. Relationships may be right for a time, and they can teach us marvelous things about ourselves, about the world. When they go bad, they tell us what we want out of our next relationship. An apartment above a bodega and across from a bar might be everything you need at 21, but once you have a child the noise and lack of parking might become unbearable.

Concordant decisions feel right in the moment. If you pay attention to them they probably feel like the only decisions available. They seem to unfold in ways that didn’t seem possible, that wouldn’t have been predictable. Discordant decisions may make logical sense but ultimately fall apart in unexpected ways. Even if the discordant choice makes logical sense, it is wise to follow the concordant path.