On 09/14/2016 12:56 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
Similar psychology: Putting off writing a talk in order to get results you "like" better, but that no one else will notice. No, I would never do that!
Heh, my entire life seems to orbit around doing things nobody (but me) cares about. I was at an atheist meeting awhile back where they asked the question: From what do atheists derive life's value and satisfaction? Most of them are humanists and, therefore, yapped about human things, relationships, artifacts, social structures they work on, elimination of cruelty or whatever. Some of them hold animals and plants to equal esteem and talked about environmental stewardship, etc. I trotted out my old saw about how each being is/maintains a completely closed-off, private, unique world within themselves that, when they die, disappears completely from the universe never to arise again. So, for me, the value, satisfaction, and purpose to life is to explore the nooks and crannies of the universe that you and only you are uniquely poised to explore, think thoughts nobody else thinks, act in ways nobody else acts, modify the world in ways nobody else modifies it, etc. By so doing, we fulfil our evolutionary mandate to discover and exploit (or make available for exploitation by some other being) as many possibilities before the biosphere collapses (or the supernova or whatever kills us all). In other words, your very purpose is exactly that, to work your way to results that no one else will notice ... until you tell them to notice it, of course. -- ☣ glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
