When my brain expects thought to be rewarded by social status it’s happy to pour calories into thought. When I feel like I’m stupid, or that no one will listen, thinking becomes tremendously difficult.
I expect a lot of individual variation with regard to this. In particular, I don’t think I do thinking for social rewards—I chase thoughts and ideas because it’s interesting and “interesting” for me is an entirely terminal value tied to curiosity and exploration.
Partially it’s driven by my needs and partially it’s pretty random. I’m an infovore so there’s a stream of information that’s running though my head and some chunks of that look subjectively interesting enough to chase.
I don’t think I’m socially driven because a noticeable part of my ruminations never see the light of day—not even discussed with other people, never mind published/posted.
I expect a lot of individual variation with regard to this. In particular, I don’t think I do thinking for social rewards—I chase thoughts and ideas because it’s interesting and “interesting” for me is an entirely terminal value tied to curiosity and exploration.
I used to think that about myself, which is of course weak evidence about you. How do you choose what to think about, amongst all the possibilites?
Partially it’s driven by my needs and partially it’s pretty random. I’m an infovore so there’s a stream of information that’s running though my head and some chunks of that look subjectively interesting enough to chase.
I don’t think I’m socially driven because a noticeable part of my ruminations never see the light of day—not even discussed with other people, never mind published/posted.