Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance towork hard at work worth doing.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Patrick Henry:
I find it's not actually hard to work hard at something worth doing.It's finding something worth doing that's hard.
Doctor Thomas:
As a recent convert the THEORY (that's irony for you) of action learning, I am pleased to advise you that in many cases, the best way to find out to what extent something is worth doing is to research/investigate it, and actualy DOING it is generally a good way of doingthat research - not necessarily all of it, not necessarily completely,not necessarily with absolute dedication.
After trying to do it a little bit, you generally start to get a bit of a better idea about in what particular sense it might be "worth" doing, what it might cost, etc. You often can't predict the best option by pontificating, but if you only try one option, you'll never find out about the others - this is a good argument for initial dillentantism, followed by increasing focus (but be careful on the time scales, I reckon that thinking to doing should be about 1:2).
Randy Bentwick:
Excellent reply Doctor Thomas. I also find that "knowing what you want" makes it much easier to evaluate the value of any activity. The activity either helps or hinders your goals. Unfortunately, this requires quite thoroughly defined goals. Simply"wanting to be rich" is too vague to be useful.
Patrick Henry:
The problem is: when are you doing something worthwhile and when are you just being self-indulgent? What about those rats pressing the pleasure button instead of the food button over and over until they starved to death?
Doctor Thomas:
I can't tell you that know, I'm too young. Ask someone who is old and has though about it and has a better idea.
Until then, don't worry - if you can't work it out by asking someone else, and we sure as hell can't work it out by thinking about it, the the only answer is to learn by experience. You can reflect on past experience - when were you doing something worthwhile and when were you just being self-indulgent? Now that you are older and wiser, what clues would you look for to tell you whether you are doing something worthwhile or being self-indulgent? If past experience is no guide, then you have to build up some experience in the future, and then reflect. We can't work this stuff out completely theoretically - it has to be based on some experience.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Patrick Henry:
I find it's not actually hard to work hard at something worth doing.It's finding something worth doing that's hard.
Doctor Thomas:
As a recent convert the THEORY (that's irony for you) of action learning, I am pleased to advise you that in many cases, the best way to find out to what extent something is worth doing is to research/investigate it, and actualy DOING it is generally a good way of doingthat research - not necessarily all of it, not necessarily completely,not necessarily with absolute dedication.
After trying to do it a little bit, you generally start to get a bit of a better idea about in what particular sense it might be "worth" doing, what it might cost, etc. You often can't predict the best option by pontificating, but if you only try one option, you'll never find out about the others - this is a good argument for initial dillentantism, followed by increasing focus (but be careful on the time scales, I reckon that thinking to doing should be about 1:2).
Randy Bentwick:
Excellent reply Doctor Thomas. I also find that "knowing what you want" makes it much easier to evaluate the value of any activity. The activity either helps or hinders your goals. Unfortunately, this requires quite thoroughly defined goals. Simply"wanting to be rich" is too vague to be useful.
Patrick Henry:
The problem is: when are you doing something worthwhile and when are you just being self-indulgent? What about those rats pressing the pleasure button instead of the food button over and over until they starved to death?
Doctor Thomas:
I can't tell you that know, I'm too young. Ask someone who is old and has though about it and has a better idea.
Until then, don't worry - if you can't work it out by asking someone else, and we sure as hell can't work it out by thinking about it, the the only answer is to learn by experience. You can reflect on past experience - when were you doing something worthwhile and when were you just being self-indulgent? Now that you are older and wiser, what clues would you look for to tell you whether you are doing something worthwhile or being self-indulgent? If past experience is no guide, then you have to build up some experience in the future, and then reflect. We can't work this stuff out completely theoretically - it has to be based on some experience.
posted by Patrick Henry at 9:23 AM
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