Playing computer RPG games is nice because you have the experience points and you level up, so you are rewarded for whatever you do. Perhaps you were fighting monsters on the wrong part of the map, but still the experience made you a little stronger, which will be useful when you come to the right part of the map.
Learning sometimes feels that way, too. Maybe the thing I’ve just learned is not useful immediately, but it is going to be useful in some way one day.
But sometimes learning feels bad, for example learning yet another programming framework that you suspect will be thrown away a few years later. That way, you kinda don’t learn to become better, only to remain as good as you were. (Depends on the perspective: yes, now you know N+1 frameworks which is more than N; but only the latest framework matters on the job market.)
It seems to me that people in relationships sometimes do the thing that when one partner starts doing more X, the other partner instinctively compensates by doing less X. Which is demoralizing for the former, because doing more X does not lead to actually having more X. (The former wants more X, for the latter the current X is enough.)
In traditional cultures, greater age = higher status. Your status increases automatically, which probably makes you happy with the way the society is organized. (Being young sucks, but even then you have the vision of continuous improvement.)
Playing computer RPG games is nice because you have the experience points and you level up, so you are rewarded for whatever you do. Perhaps you were fighting monsters on the wrong part of the map, but still the experience made you a little stronger, which will be useful when you come to the right part of the map.
Learning sometimes feels that way, too. Maybe the thing I’ve just learned is not useful immediately, but it is going to be useful in some way one day.
But sometimes learning feels bad, for example learning yet another programming framework that you suspect will be thrown away a few years later. That way, you kinda don’t learn to become better, only to remain as good as you were. (Depends on the perspective: yes, now you know N+1 frameworks which is more than N; but only the latest framework matters on the job market.)
It seems to me that people in relationships sometimes do the thing that when one partner starts doing more X, the other partner instinctively compensates by doing less X. Which is demoralizing for the former, because doing more X does not lead to actually having more X. (The former wants more X, for the latter the current X is enough.)
In traditional cultures, greater age = higher status. Your status increases automatically, which probably makes you happy with the way the society is organized. (Being young sucks, but even then you have the vision of continuous improvement.)