I’m not a psychology buff, but I do understand that the begining of psychology (like mostly everything else), is observation. Concerning matters of the mind, I find it intriguing to observe at what length; or rather, to what circumstances the mind chooses to make a genuine effort towards achieving a goal in mind.
Are the considerations for the concept of reward applicable in the system of goal-setting?
For one to make a genuine effort, one must feel that the effort is not in vain; yes?
Can we then dream of a future when man has evolved his mindset to the point where each act is a reward within itself? Would that perhaps lead to each act, in the fulfillment of itself, wager a genuine effort on the part of the person?
I would like to think that I make a genuine effort to place that dating system at the start of each of my posts as a personal fulfillment of referencing where I was and where I’m going. It’s a habit that I find only useful to myself for my own personal satisfaction. However, such a habit as frequently visiting this site brings a question of value on my part. I could ask myself: “Does what I write have any value to others as well as myself, or just myself?”, and “How much genuine effort is required to write something of value to those other than myself?”
Experience and ear t’wards fame.
Trust in the value of the goal.
Trust in the power and person who’s going there.
Days spend under the stars dreaming.
Passed troubles: thy wrongs whome thy wished to right.
These be the things, amoung others – that make one genuinely seek forwards and onwards, even whilst blind-folded by incompleteness.
Great post Dan… I really appreciate your input. I think… no, I’m willing to bet that it took a genuine effort on your part to put this down. Hell, I’ll be it takes a genuine effort to write most of the stuff you lay down on ILP… it’s all good. I just wish more ILPers made a genuine effort to get their point across with at the very least, some finesse. It’s unfortunate that we occasionally get whackos like PoR who have finesse, but use it with a closed mind.
Of course there are losers like Rewucki who come to the forum with the intent to spam intellectual garbage. Could those people have more sense? Indeed, it is a sick sad world… but not today!
The act as reward witin itself is a concept I know in Zen buddhism, there are poems of the joy of washing the dishes, for example. Every act is a representation of being, which in itself is pure bliss when fuly aware of it.
But then, these rustic kinds of requirements are different from what, for example, the average western man has to do in order to survive. I cannot imagine that filling out tax forms will ever be rewarding to me - but then again, it might.
One occult philosopher once wrote that the difference between western and eastern spirituality is that the eastern kind seeks bliss in being itself - letting go of worldy atachments, whereas the western kind is driven by ambition, or aspiration, the drive to accomplish something.
Not I’ve looked a bit into Japanese spirituality and that is certainly entangled with the drive to power, so that doesn’t really fly. I think in all places there is the spirituality of the recluse and the spirituality of the wordly.
As for acts in themselves as rewarding, the east, particularily ancient Japan and China, has great traditions, whether or not the acts are intened to fulfill a purpose. I was very moved by the example of the tea ritual in a novel I just finished, where a normally crude and harsh man prepares the teahouse with such meticulous and loving care, making sure every flower is aranged to perfectly catch the light, the cups are cleaned again and again, the pieces of coal in the hearth are stacked on top of each other to form a perfect pyramid, every act is eprformed with a religiosity that not only enhances, ultimately, the explerience of perfection in the ceremony, but also brings the performer in a state of bliss during the preparations. I think this is a state not commonly experienced by westerners - if by anyone. Although there are numerous occasions where people are lost in the moment, acting for actings sake is rare. People with that kind of attitude have, I think, turned out well. Either that or they are artists. (pun intended)
This brings me to your last point - how much effort is required to write something which is interesting to others? My answer to this is; a lot, but not so much in the effort of writing as effort in studying and thinking. Of course writing a well omposed work requires effort, but this is no guarantee that it will be interesting. Beauitifully composed writing about philosophy is very often a mask for having nothing to say. And in philosophy it is very difficult to say something which hasn’t been said before.
In any case, your question is very interesting. A founding father of Japanese Zen said that all being is exertion. If that is so, effort is of the essence to the quality of being itself. I think the Greeks and Romans would have agreed.
To exert oneself to their fullest potential is by definition achieving what it truly means to be human. Afterall, a flower is not truly a flower until it is in full bloom, is it not?
I enjoyed your comments regardless… I am sure it took some amount of… ‘effort,’ yes?
Not ‘genuine’ effort - I was merely telling you some stuff that came to mind. Evidently, this is not the sort of thing that really means something. Now that novel I read, Shogun - writing it must have taken a momentous amount of genuine effort. It’s the most powerful representation of the clash between east and west as I’ve ever read.
I’m not an avid novel-reader, the last thing I read before Shogun was An Equal Music by Vikram Seth -it’s interesting to compare the two in terms of interestingness for outsiders.
Shogun deals with Japanese culture, An Equal Music with classical music. Where I could very well sympathise with the main character of AEM and was drawn into the story and the atmosphere of the music, Shogun drew me into a great many characters - much of whom were enemies - and it taught me a great deal about the subjects; Subjectivity of Morality, Japan, the European conquests and disputes, sailing and more.
The plot of An Equal Music is a straight line, subjective, the storytelling impressionistic. The plot of Shogun is an intricate web of persepctives and stories, revealing history both backwars and forwards and shifting constantly from subjective to objective and back.
I wonder if the effort put in Shogun is more genuine than in An Equal Music.
I’d hope not. That would leave everyone eternally smug, and killing one another for that smugness. You’ve probably met at least one person, completely content with their lot in life and unbarably happy in each and every moment…you know the one…the school suck up, the guy at work who whistles on his way in, making you just want to punch them in the face…Elias, from Clerks 2.
These are the people that you’re describing, happy with each and every decision, because the decision’s its own reward. I dunno about you, but I’d go nuts in a world that happy. We need the darkness, and the lazy depression, as it gives us a chance to be something other than simple cogs, working continuously without fail, without thought—and, on the flip side, restrains us from being thought hogs, pleasuring ourselves with nothing more than self-rewarding nothings.
What I’m saying, more or less, is that an over-abundance of rewards spoils people. By suggesting that decisions and task completion be their own reward indescriminantly, you ensure that the species will get stuck on self-rewarding themselves to death.
So, for the hope of humanity, I hope that such a time is not visible.
