Claus Metzner

I've consistently found that I enjoy the process of seeking for things I think I want, but actually getting there is a bummer. I've heard it said that "enlightenment is a journey, not a destination"; perhaps there's some truth in this. - Nathaniel Thurston

Nathaniel, I had the same experience repeatedly. For instance, each time when I think about a new physics model and start to implement it numerically, I am wonderfully excited during the development of the computer program. However, once it starts to yield results similar to what I hoped for, I get bored quickly. In the past, this has prevented me from bringing my research to a fruitful... more... - Claus Metzner

Nathaniel, it is illuminating that you say "I enjoy the process of seeking for things". You are right, seeking definitely IS enjoyable and we have to acknowledge this fact before moving on. Sometimes I wonder if not the idea of long-lasting satisfaction is the true problem. Actually, what is so bad with an endless cycle of seeking and disappointment if one remains aware of the mechanism ? - Claus Metzner

Claus, there's nothing wrong with the cycle, especially if one is aware of the mechanism. The trouble comes when people give up the search after achieving what they thought they wanted. - Nathaniel Thurston

Nathaniel: "when people give up the search after achieving what they thought they want" - How do you mean that? - Meryn Stol

Meryn, for example: when someone wants to be rich; gets rich; becomes disillusioned with being rich; but fails to ask the question, "what do I want now that I'm rich?" - Nathaniel Thurston

Hmm yes. Such people definitely should find a new project to work on. The chase is better than the catch. :) - Meryn Stol

Claus, I think it's a very good that you have learned how to simply share preliminary results. I think that's something very important for a "seeker" to do. Because I lack the expertise, I don't think I can really judge the quality of your findings, but I think they could be very useful to other seekers, or people who are more oriented towards producing well-rounded works. - Meryn Stol

Nathaniel & Meryn, thanks for your contributions. I learned a lot. - Claus Metzner

Meryn, sharing preliminary results is indeed a great thing. For that matter, I recommend to read Michael Nielsen's article on Micropublication http://michaelnielsen.org/blog... . - Claus Metzner

Cool. - Meryn Stol

One personal observation that might be useful to integrate: When available, I tend to default to "easily digestible" information; news, skipping the long articles. Nowadays, the only time I come to reading books (non-fiction, but not on an academic level!) is when I'm physically away from the computer. In the train or so. I have a hunch that my book reading hours are in the end more educative than my web-reading hours. I wouldn't know how to measure that formally though. - Meryn Stol

Meryn, I completely agree with your observation. For me, too, books became marginalized by the computer. To counterbalance that trend, I have developed the habit of spending at least a few minutes with book reading everyday while drinking my morning coffee. I also think that a book leaves in our mind a much deeper and longer lasting impression than the short articles of newspapers or... more... - Claus Metzner