SochVichaar turns 10
This blog became 10 years old last month. During these 10 years, I have written my views on a wide range of topics. Some of the views have evolved over these years, may be quite a bit in a few cases, even after I wrote on the topic. Perhaps if I end up becoming a great man, and then die, this blog will serve as a good tool for analyzing my views and how some of them evolved from 2006. To give a sense of the evolution, I must keep revisiting many of the topics I write about. And since I often don't remember what I wrote last time, and get too lazy to go back and check, I guess the views in an article I write can be good representation of my thought process at that time, without my mind holding itself back to maintain consistency with its past. But if my blog has to really show a true evolutionary picture of my thinking, I should blog more often and on all kinds of topics. So, like before, I'd resolve to write more and write more often. I've often thought about doing a-post-a-day, but then it never worked out, coz I could neither work with such discipline nor get the required support from my mind with a consistent flow of thoughts to create content from... laziness and lack of interest, in other words. Which brings this post to the thought that my mind is already struggling with:
When so much more can be done, why am I doing so little?
The growth mindset
Most, if not all, organizational models are based on a premise that every person wants to grow. And growth has more-or-less the same definition everywhere - growing up the organizational hierarchy: more accountability + more money + more authority. And it is probably assumed that every person wants this kind of growth, would get motivated by it and would see it as an incentive to do his/her job better. As I was writing the last line, another possibility struck me. Perhaps the very model of the current work-world is to pull up people who get motivated by growth as offered by the model. For people who define or understand growth differently, the model only offers them resources to survive, but no opportunities to grow. And it has a way of ruthlessly purging people who don't successfully strive or pretend to strive to grow within its framework. And if growth is really a basic need for even those people, they will be left frustrated and aimless... unless they are creative and fortunate enough to find the path that will lead them towards growth - the way they want it.
In both professional and personal endeavors, I am struggling to find my definition of growth - something that would motivate me to try harder, do more, aim for more, and achieve more... more of what? - that's part of the definition I am seeking, I guess.
May be most of the people are also just seeking, while still playing the game, pretending to be aiming for the victory as per the game's rule-book. Among the rest, a few who are the real players of the game have fun playing. And a few die of inaction. And as in everything, there are shades of gray.
The pleasure mindset
Are we just seeking pleasure in whatever we do? Life doesn't carry a fundamental meaning at an individual level, except for whatever we assign to it to make sense of our lives - just coz our minds are capable of questioning our very existence. And at a very basic level, we have things that make us feel good in various ways and degrees, and things that make us feel bad in various ways and degrees. And it seems we constantly seek what makes us feel good. Some of us are wired to feel good in ways different from others'. And with strength of numbers for all kinds of people in the highly populated world of today, we even have strong movements to establish rights of all kinds of individuals to seek pleasure in their way - as long as nobody else's pleasure is harmed to any significant degree.
One can argue that not all forms of pleasure lead to earning a livelihood. But it can be argued in return that in seeking to maximize pleasure, one actually goes for options that give highest pleasure, and those that can earn for a person would give him/her more pleasure than those that don't. Scientists, for example, do science for the pleasure it brings to them. Sportspersons derive pleasure from the sport. People stuck in boring frustrating jobs, yet not moving out, are only maximizing pleasure as they fear they'd be in a risky and less pleasurable situation if they go for the alternatives they can see. Sometimes there is temporary sacrifice of pleasure in trying to reach a state of higher pleasure later on. So, one is always seeking a local maxima of pleasure and has a global maxima also in mind.
Is growth just another mode of achieving pleasure? It seems so to me to some extent. And the difference in what various people consider as growth may actually be the difference in which act gives maximum pleasure to them, and in how would the degree of pleasure change with variations in the act; and transition to higher pleasure state would be considered growth. Of course growth can be fast or slow here. But having said that, I feel growth has other dimensions to it which are not ultimately pleasure-seeking. Growth is ingrained in us in that we all start small - physically - and grow big, and mature, and ultimately die. It's a way of nature. And to grow is perhaps a natural urge which one can't get rid of, even if it is frustrating or painful. But as thinking individuals, we still differ in what we consider as growth.
The laziness mindset
This applies when one is reasonably well off, such that the next few meals are not at risk. And with that context, a lot of humans carry out an input-output optimization - such that they get maximum returns from minimum investment. Although popular quotes say that something earned by working hard for it gives maximum happiness, in my experience, at an ongoing basis, one is happier when things come easily rather than when they come with a lot of labor - i.e., one always looks for maximum returns from minimum investment - if it can apply and make sense for money, it can very well apply to all forms of investments including time and effort. It is this guiding force that explains large numbers of free-riding lazy employees all over all organizations in this world, drawing salaries - ever demanding more - and doing as least as they can, playing politics, delegating or escaping work, and everything else that you and I very well know. If there are carrots, there are sticks as well, and to ensure the ass also carries you while it walks ahead, you have sit on top and keep showing the carrot, offering occasional bites, while the stick has to sometimes hit where it hurts, so that the ass keeps moving at an acceptable pace.
I think our actions and choices, including how much I blog, are driven by the above 3 mindsets - not all in the same degree of course, and there could be one/two dominant mindset(s) at times. Realizing this is important to make better choices in life and also to feel better about those choices. If nothing, we'd learn not to blame the situations and the world. It's us.
This blog became 10 years old last month. During these 10 years, I have written my views on a wide range of topics. Some of the views have evolved over these years, may be quite a bit in a few cases, even after I wrote on the topic. Perhaps if I end up becoming a great man, and then die, this blog will serve as a good tool for analyzing my views and how some of them evolved from 2006. To give a sense of the evolution, I must keep revisiting many of the topics I write about. And since I often don't remember what I wrote last time, and get too lazy to go back and check, I guess the views in an article I write can be good representation of my thought process at that time, without my mind holding itself back to maintain consistency with its past. But if my blog has to really show a true evolutionary picture of my thinking, I should blog more often and on all kinds of topics. So, like before, I'd resolve to write more and write more often. I've often thought about doing a-post-a-day, but then it never worked out, coz I could neither work with such discipline nor get the required support from my mind with a consistent flow of thoughts to create content from... laziness and lack of interest, in other words. Which brings this post to the thought that my mind is already struggling with:
When so much more can be done, why am I doing so little?
The growth mindset
Most, if not all, organizational models are based on a premise that every person wants to grow. And growth has more-or-less the same definition everywhere - growing up the organizational hierarchy: more accountability + more money + more authority. And it is probably assumed that every person wants this kind of growth, would get motivated by it and would see it as an incentive to do his/her job better. As I was writing the last line, another possibility struck me. Perhaps the very model of the current work-world is to pull up people who get motivated by growth as offered by the model. For people who define or understand growth differently, the model only offers them resources to survive, but no opportunities to grow. And it has a way of ruthlessly purging people who don't successfully strive or pretend to strive to grow within its framework. And if growth is really a basic need for even those people, they will be left frustrated and aimless... unless they are creative and fortunate enough to find the path that will lead them towards growth - the way they want it.
In both professional and personal endeavors, I am struggling to find my definition of growth - something that would motivate me to try harder, do more, aim for more, and achieve more... more of what? - that's part of the definition I am seeking, I guess.
May be most of the people are also just seeking, while still playing the game, pretending to be aiming for the victory as per the game's rule-book. Among the rest, a few who are the real players of the game have fun playing. And a few die of inaction. And as in everything, there are shades of gray.
The pleasure mindset
Are we just seeking pleasure in whatever we do? Life doesn't carry a fundamental meaning at an individual level, except for whatever we assign to it to make sense of our lives - just coz our minds are capable of questioning our very existence. And at a very basic level, we have things that make us feel good in various ways and degrees, and things that make us feel bad in various ways and degrees. And it seems we constantly seek what makes us feel good. Some of us are wired to feel good in ways different from others'. And with strength of numbers for all kinds of people in the highly populated world of today, we even have strong movements to establish rights of all kinds of individuals to seek pleasure in their way - as long as nobody else's pleasure is harmed to any significant degree.
One can argue that not all forms of pleasure lead to earning a livelihood. But it can be argued in return that in seeking to maximize pleasure, one actually goes for options that give highest pleasure, and those that can earn for a person would give him/her more pleasure than those that don't. Scientists, for example, do science for the pleasure it brings to them. Sportspersons derive pleasure from the sport. People stuck in boring frustrating jobs, yet not moving out, are only maximizing pleasure as they fear they'd be in a risky and less pleasurable situation if they go for the alternatives they can see. Sometimes there is temporary sacrifice of pleasure in trying to reach a state of higher pleasure later on. So, one is always seeking a local maxima of pleasure and has a global maxima also in mind.
Is growth just another mode of achieving pleasure? It seems so to me to some extent. And the difference in what various people consider as growth may actually be the difference in which act gives maximum pleasure to them, and in how would the degree of pleasure change with variations in the act; and transition to higher pleasure state would be considered growth. Of course growth can be fast or slow here. But having said that, I feel growth has other dimensions to it which are not ultimately pleasure-seeking. Growth is ingrained in us in that we all start small - physically - and grow big, and mature, and ultimately die. It's a way of nature. And to grow is perhaps a natural urge which one can't get rid of, even if it is frustrating or painful. But as thinking individuals, we still differ in what we consider as growth.
The laziness mindset
This applies when one is reasonably well off, such that the next few meals are not at risk. And with that context, a lot of humans carry out an input-output optimization - such that they get maximum returns from minimum investment. Although popular quotes say that something earned by working hard for it gives maximum happiness, in my experience, at an ongoing basis, one is happier when things come easily rather than when they come with a lot of labor - i.e., one always looks for maximum returns from minimum investment - if it can apply and make sense for money, it can very well apply to all forms of investments including time and effort. It is this guiding force that explains large numbers of free-riding lazy employees all over all organizations in this world, drawing salaries - ever demanding more - and doing as least as they can, playing politics, delegating or escaping work, and everything else that you and I very well know. If there are carrots, there are sticks as well, and to ensure the ass also carries you while it walks ahead, you have sit on top and keep showing the carrot, offering occasional bites, while the stick has to sometimes hit where it hurts, so that the ass keeps moving at an acceptable pace.
I think our actions and choices, including how much I blog, are driven by the above 3 mindsets - not all in the same degree of course, and there could be one/two dominant mindset(s) at times. Realizing this is important to make better choices in life and also to feel better about those choices. If nothing, we'd learn not to blame the situations and the world. It's us.
