Check Loops
This is intended to be a new Meme, because I want to know what makes people tick, in a very general sort of way... but of course, I can't make you participate, eh? Respond here if you like, or propagate it in your own journal if it's interesting.
I have this theory that everybody's underlying, deepest motivation runs on check-loops. The loops may run at very different rates. Some of them are obviously physical: "Do I need to use the restroom?" "Do I need to eat?" (If "Do I need to breathe?" is a loop on this level you probably need a C-PAP machine...)
Some of them are emotional. The most influential, I think, are the very frequent emotional checkloops - loops that pop up several times per hour, at least. Checkloops are most obvious in folks whose loops make them needy, because they end up requiring frequent external reassurance that whatever they are checking about is not an issue right now. Most folks probably have checkloops that merely get them through the day without causing a stir in their lives.
I suspect most folks have two or three checkloops that create conflicting drives, the intersection of which keeps them going.
I think mine are thus:
"Am I bored?"
"Am I hurting anybody?"
The practical upshot is that the primary loop - "Am I bored?" keeps me going pretty much all the time. The "Am I hurting anybody?" loop keeps the primary loop from destroying my life.
Some of my most comfortable hobbies are those that keep me entertained indefinitely, while having no chance at all of my hurting anybody. Of course, the only way to guarantee I can't possibly be hurting anybody is for me to not be around anybody at all. So a lot of my downtime hobbies are solitary. If I'm alone, I'm definitely safe from hurting anybody, and my secondary checkloop can shut up for a while. Until I get bored, of course, and then I tend to go looking for stimulation - which, by default, involves human interaction. So really... I'm doooomed.
What are your loops?"
--Ember--
I have this theory that everybody's underlying, deepest motivation runs on check-loops. The loops may run at very different rates. Some of them are obviously physical: "Do I need to use the restroom?" "Do I need to eat?" (If "Do I need to breathe?" is a loop on this level you probably need a C-PAP machine...)
Some of them are emotional. The most influential, I think, are the very frequent emotional checkloops - loops that pop up several times per hour, at least. Checkloops are most obvious in folks whose loops make them needy, because they end up requiring frequent external reassurance that whatever they are checking about is not an issue right now. Most folks probably have checkloops that merely get them through the day without causing a stir in their lives.
I suspect most folks have two or three checkloops that create conflicting drives, the intersection of which keeps them going.
I think mine are thus:
"Am I bored?"
"Am I hurting anybody?"
The practical upshot is that the primary loop - "Am I bored?" keeps me going pretty much all the time. The "Am I hurting anybody?" loop keeps the primary loop from destroying my life.
Some of my most comfortable hobbies are those that keep me entertained indefinitely, while having no chance at all of my hurting anybody. Of course, the only way to guarantee I can't possibly be hurting anybody is for me to not be around anybody at all. So a lot of my downtime hobbies are solitary. If I'm alone, I'm definitely safe from hurting anybody, and my secondary checkloop can shut up for a while. Until I get bored, of course, and then I tend to go looking for stimulation - which, by default, involves human interaction. So really... I'm doooomed.
What are your loops?"
--Ember--