Motivation has always intrigued me, ever since I was I kid, I wondered why I had none. I would read my textbooks until I got bored. I'd ace all my tests and do no homework. Every night I went to sleep swearing to myself that tomorrow would be different, tomorrow I would tell my parents the truth when they asked if I had homework and actually do it. I'd feel so guilty for lying, but I never actually did anything.
I joined the military because I knew I couldn't survive in college the way I'd got through high-school. 10 years later I'm smarter, but still technically uneducated and no more motivated.
I've started to think to myself lately... That the sum of human knowledge. From the very discovery of our fundamentals to the pinnacles of theory and achievement adds up to contributions from what couldn't possibly be more than 10% of the people who have ever lived. What stops people not from just achieving their goals, but even wanting goals in the first place?
I've started to wonder if I do have the capability to become someone who could legitimately contribute something to the sum of human knowledge (rationally speaking I have to admit that I probably don't). But if I do is it an obligation? Should I push myself against my own will to achieve things I don't even really care about?
Should I push myself against my own will to achieve things I don't even really care about?
No. Unless, of course your 'caring' is ambivalent and you wish to overwrite your will in favour of one kind of 'caring'.
Bear in mind, of course, that many things you may push yourself to against your natural inclinations are actually goals that benefit you directly (or via the status granted for dominant 'altruistic' acts). Sometimes the reasoning 'I will be penalised by society or the universe in general if I do not do it' is itself a good reason to care. Like you get to continue to eat if you do it.
Sometime ago Jonii wrote:
When I'm hungry I eat, but then I don't go on eating some more just to maximize a function. Eating isn't something I want a lot of. Likewise I don't want a ton of survival, just a bounded amount every day. Let's define a goal as big if you don't get full: every increment of effort/achievement is valuable, like paperclips to Clippy. Now do we have any big goals? Which ones?
Save the world. A great goal if you see a possible angle of attack, which I don't. The SIAI folks are more optimistic, but if they see a chink in the wall, they're yet to reveal it.
Help those who suffer. Morally upright but tricky to execute: James Shikwati, Dambisa Moyo and Kevin Myers show that even something as clear-cut as aid to Africa can be viewed as immoral. Still a good goal for anyone, though.
Procreate. This sounds fun! Fortunately, the same source that gave us this goal also gave us the means to achieve it, and intelligence is not among them. :-) And honestly, what sense in making 20 kids just to play the good-soldier routine for your genes? There's no unique "you gene" anyway, in several generations your descendants will be like everyone else's. Yeah, kids are fun, I'd like two or three.
Follow your muse. Music, comedy, videogame design, whatever. No limit to achievement! A lot of this is about signaling: would you still bother if all your successes were attributed to someone else's genetic talent? But even apart from the signaling angle, there's still the worrying feeling that entertainment is ultimately useless, like humanity-scale wireheading, not an actual goal for us to reach.
Accumulate power, money or experiences. What for? I never understood that.
Advance science. As Erik Naggum put it:
Don't know, but I'm pretty content with my life lately. Should I have a big goal at all? How about you?