BESIEGING IGNORANCE

December 15th, 2018

Which direction is the force of motivation coming from?  And is it pushing or pulling us towards our goal?

If we think of the context of a bullshit job that is not enjoyable, we might place the motivation to do anything in this job as being behind, pushing us towards some set of actions.

On the other hand, if we think about a hobby we are passionate about, is the motivation in the same position?  No.  Our actions for such a hobby are striving towards some desired outcome that we genuinely wish to see.  [As an aside: many things people are asked to do in their jobs often do not have an outcome that seems all that important to the employee that is directed to make it happen.  This may be because the employee doesn’t see the bigger picture, a piece of logic lorded over subordinates by superiors.  More likely though, superiors have lost touch with the ground level-reality of what is actually effective. ]

The word obsession comes from the latin ‘besiege’ as in to besiege a city.  To surround it and over take it.

We might think of an intense curiosity about a subject bordering on obsession.  In this sense, we can think of obsession as besieging our own ignorance, as though a gap in our knowledge and understanding were an unconquered negative space that needs to be taken over and filled in.

Obsession, passion and curiosity are all descriptive facets of the same function which is an efficient question forming process.

When we plan on an answer, we are setting up imaginary rail road tracks.  This path lacks agility and flexibility.  It might work with a lot of brute force, but it’s certainly less likely to be enjoyable or efficient.

The curious mind on the other hand is less concerned about a path to a certain place as it is with exploring an area that may or may not have that certain place.  Such exploration not only raises the probability of finding such a place if it exists but can build a context on which to understand why such a place doesn’t exist if indeed some goal isn’t possible.  This context may further breed questions that start interpreting the goal from different perspectives-  none of which the curious mind is all too tied to- and give rise to a way of building a way…

Regardless of whether or not our aforementioned goal exists or not, all of this exploration represents previously unknown spaces, places that healthy curiosity besieges in order to understand.