I don’t know. I love making modern visual novels. I love thinking about things, reading, going to nice cafés… Heck, I’ll go to a nice upscale breakfast buffet on a weekend when I can afford to.
However, outside of those such as these, I struggle to enjoy other experiences. I’m really designed as a shokunin, and I need to be OK with that.
Though at 28 and with so little success in my area of study, I am often criticized for my focus. But, truly, truly, nothing lives up to the excitement of working through a new project and such. I can’t believe how much I am designed for this.
When I become involved in the normal middle-class lives of middle-class people, trends become noticeable…
Namely, the inflow and outflow of solving and creating problems is not great.
Of course, I don’t believe this is the ratio that dictates a life as high quality or not… Though, the axiomatic should be stated: if you are creating more problems than you are solving, you are moving towards Hell on earth.
Now why do we create these problems?
Duh.
Our desires are not aligned with God’s.
And it is hard. Sometimes we have all these carnal wants that are not in themselves bad. In fact, they are part of design. And yet, context matters. And and yet, life is a lot more pleasant if we keep such matters in context.
Though, I’ve heard it stated that the pains of failed relationships are the joy of being human. I find this mindset sad.
First of all, I’m not such a big fan of the idea that the main interface by which we prove our humanity is in eros. This sounds obvious (maybe?), but so many unstatedly act as if this is so. Most pop songs are about heartbreak, lovesickness, and such.
As a romantic, I get it. I love eros, and I long for it in my own life. However, context seems so important.
I’ve been blessed with a God-given goal in my life. The tension of this goal has provided me with incentive to intentionally avoid unnecessary pain. I don’t have time to mess around with women who are not potentially my wife. This not only allows me to reach my shokunin goal, but also, theoretically, respects my future relationship and hopefully improves it.
The goal has also given me a different way to interface with humanity.
It used to be that you could judge the loyalty of those around you through the pressure of serious situations whether you wished to or not. Things were much more dire. Now, however, we have nets to catch us in so many areas, meaning that it is rare that we see our peers under real pressure.
Aside from in relationships.
We see real interactions in relationships in the modern day. Real, life-changing consequences come from how we interact in relationships. No wonder I’ve been told that this is where the joy of being human stems!
But it isn’t right to focus purely on this. We shouldn’t revel in the messiness and pains of relationships. This should not be our salve for needed consequence. We should try to keep relationships as clean as possible — handle them with the respect they deserve — so that we can conquer problems in other areas.
…And accept that “as clean as possible” will not always be all that clean…
Now. A problem I faced not so long ago was the recognition that things are, in many ways, too good. If you really want to check out of your community and simply dwell, you can. And many people are choosing to do so. So why would I spend my time improving systems, etc., if we’re already “overpowered” to the point where challenge is no longer real? “AI?! We’re now getting to a place where we’re optimizing for something other than humanity!”
…This may be true, but there are many systems we may optimize that are human-centrist, not to mention the creation of new systemic pathways that divert us from this unfortunate desire for numerical optimization.
You know? I’m not pleased with my community. I don’t love that, despite being connected globally through the internet, I am fairly unconnected with my city.
Now, part of this is my own fault. My city is not a city that aligns with my beliefs… If I had this, of course I’d want to inject myself more into the affairs of my community.
But the other side is that we are very self-oriented. What do I want? Who am I? Neglecting that we are social creatures.
So that’s just one area — namely, integrating local communities… Needs lots of optimization, lots of work… Is not focused on monetary income.
Another is literacy rates. My life is so much more fruitful because I’ve spent a good percentage of it reading. Literacy isn’t just for reading — it is important for interpersonal communication as well as the organization of thought.
Well, so that’s two… Obviously(?), if you’re religious, and you truly believe in what you claim to believe, you should be endlessly excited to share. So there’s another thing to optimize for…
And what about pleasant, soul-enriching environments? This could either be through protecting and maintaining God’s creation (much of environmentalism), or constructing beautiful buildings and structures in your environment.
The latter is something I don’t believe Americans put enough stake in. When I am in an environment filled with beautiful manmade structures, maintained with care, I truly believe myself to be in a more capable headspace. Certainly a more peaceful headspace.
We need this beauty in our environment.
…Ok, the point is that optimization and hard work are still necessary. It is simply important to orient oneself before blindly progressing.