Comments | kchark: Motivation

kchark

Motivation

Feb 10, 2010 06:49

This is an overly philosophical essay, and you don't have to read it if you don't want to waste your time. It's just here for my enjoyment.

( My essay on motivation and the end of human society. )

Comments 13

josshouse February 10 2010, 13:46:59 UTC

This.

I've often wondered what it was like to live in a world where you really had nothing else to do all day except, you know, something.

The only answer I've found is to find anything you enjoy that's even remotely constructive and make that your life. I'm not doing a great job of that since I have probably 5-8 'what if' possibilities that keep distracting me, and it really come down to your ability to CHOOSE a potential life and then pursue it.

Which can be hard because damnit, I have fanfics to read.

kchark February 10 2010, 15:27:14 UTC

Yeah, it's hard to make decisions about your life like that. I suppose that's why I changed my major midway through my degree and now I'm getting my masters in something almost completely unrelated. Every time I decide what I want to do with my life, I come to a different decision 5 minutes later.

Maybe it would be easier without all of these distractions around. On the other hand, then I'd have a lot more time to think about things and second-guess myself!

josshouse February 10 2010, 21:44:20 UTC

Haha yeah, I'm lucky I finally landed on a career I don't hate, but as for what I really want to do? That changes every five minutes.

That's probably okay, I just assume it means I'll have a lot of awesome skills eventually as I slowly, slowly drill away at twenty things at a time over the years instead of just focusing on one!

btw my current aspiration is graduate asap, move to wales, be a singer, draw more. YEAH

kihanna February 10 2010, 14:00:21 UTC

TV is probably the biggest waste of time to me. There was only a few years in my life where I actually had full blown cable and actually watched it. It was... annoying. I would watch a show and then the next show would draw me in. I know not everyone is not like this, but no matter how stupid the show is, if there's some type of resolution solved at the end of it? I will and have to watch it all. And I hate that. I remember once more recently that dragged me into watching some sort of "Super Nanny" reality show and it was stupid, but I still had to watch it anyway ( ... )

pandaxdoll February 10 2010, 15:04:23 UTC

^ THIS! I can completely agree with everything you just said. Dude, I can pretty much watch anything and get sucked into it too! It's so weird.. I remember some random forensic science show randomly coming on one night and I ended up watching like 4 episodes of it.

kchark February 10 2010, 15:22:35 UTC

See, but with TV if there's something that you actually need to do, you can easily stop watching it and do in. In fact, since it's non-interactive, you could potentially do what you need to do *while* you watch that show that has drawn you in so well. With the computer, your input is required constantly, and your friends are always there waiting to distract you ( ... )

kihanna February 10 2010, 15:27:23 UTC

but at the same time it's easier to tell your friends brb than pull yourself away from a television show that will not stop and you need to see the whole thing.

90% of the stuff I'm looking at has to do with art so it's helping me in one way or another. Even if it's very minor, it does. Such as mindlessly chatting with Neil over the years. We were into Viewtiful Joe together => We both enjoyed the Spider-man Movies => We both got back into comics books => The two of us changed our direction in life, art style, and way of thinking to comics. If it doesn't help my actual skills, it'll help/change my way of thinking about things.

It's obvious that TV is intentionally done that way, and it works.

pandaxdoll February 10 2010, 15:18:28 UTC

It's kind of weird to think what the world would be like without all this stuff. I guess I'd actually do homework and maybe paint or sew more often..? It's hard to draw much more than I do now. But I get so much inspiration from media, so I dunno. This is something I've thought about before, it's just hard to imagine.

kchark February 10 2010, 15:31:56 UTC

It would be a very boring world. But on the other hand it would be a boring world where we spent more time with our friends and family and had less excuses for not doing what we needed to do.

kihanna February 10 2010, 15:39:19 UTC

Man, can you imagine being an artist in a time/world like that?

Sounds kinda boring.

pandaxdoll February 10 2010, 23:09:57 UTC

We would be bored because we'd know what we were missing out on. They probobly wouldn't think of it quite that way though, or maybe they would.. I don't know =/

threepapercups February 10 2010, 16:55:40 UTC

I don't think people are unmotivated simply because of the distractions of media, although that is partially to blame, but more because they're just lazy and they expect someone else to do things for them, and hand them what they need. Instead of looking for work, people stand on street corners and ask for handouts. People fall back on welfare, and expect the government to fix all their problems, and get angry when that doesn't work out for them.

People aren't lazy just because things around them are more entertaining than working, it also has to do a lot with no one showing them the value and importance of hard work and how to earn their own places.

Most people who are constantly 'productive' are that way because they know they have to be if they want to get by.
Or they're old & bored & creepy.

kchark February 10 2010, 20:18:04 UTC

Oh sure, there's always been lazy people, and there always will be. I'm just saying that the current environment where we actually have such a thing as "leisure time" makes there be more lazy people than there would be otherwise. Some of them don't even think that they're being lazy, when they are.