I wonder what your corners of human mindspace were. Just to make sure that you didn’t fall into some typical mind/egocentric bias trap.
As you are young and at the peak of your physcial ability (not your intellectual or emotional) I wonder whether your experiences all involved competition at the edge.
Did you do any of the things in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competent_man?
For example did you experience loesickness? The death of a dear one? Raise your own children? Rescue someone from a car accident? Experience major injury?
I love that list, Thanks for sharing it. Here is the list Gunnar shared:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
So let’s make a check list out of your questions plus this list. Lovesickness yes, death of dear yes, raise children no and won’t, rescue someone from accident (drowning) yes. Major injury, no. As for the list. Diaper no, plan an invasion yes, assassinate a pig no, ship no, design a building (cool, goes to my to do list), sonnet yes, accounts yes, a wall no, re-allocate a shoulder yes, comfort dying yes, cooperate, give and take orders, yes, solve equations alone yes, analyse yes, pitch manure no, program no :o( , not really, cook a tasty Funghi risotto yes, fight no, die I’m keeping a safe distance from this particular corner of mindspace.
That was a healthy and exciting exercise, yet I still think it is not my point. My point is that I’m well designed for school. Like someone is well designed for hunting, or fighting, or being a salesperson. I’m well designed for social interaction, the kinds of interests, and life that people experience in high school, middle school, and university. I am not suited for the other stuff, I wouldn’t make a good baby, a good elder, or a good self-made man. I make a good student, I have student conversations, I like student topics, I am sexually attracted by student mottos and ways of being, I prefer being judged by my cognition and learning abilities than by my, say, autonomy, speed or reputation. I prefer depth than speed. I prefer curiosity than competition. So when you ask if I competed at the edge, I’d say that the edge of competition is outside the scope of visible light to me. I could have competed on many things I was professional level good: 1080snowboard, table tennis, Magic The Gathering, SNES Mario Kart, UN simulations, debate competitions and vestibular (something like the SAT, kind of) but I never bothered to even think about it. I feel exactly as happy playing Magic with my friends who only played for a couple years every now and then, and with the World champion.
I do intend to explore the corners of mindspace, and that is fundamental to who I am. But of course there is enough mind space within “awesome” and “happy” mindspace so that I don’t have to knock at “despicable” and “woeful”. The point is to explore positive mindspace, I stand corrected.
I wonder what your corners of human mindspace were. Just to make sure that you didn’t fall into some typical mind/egocentric bias trap. As you are young and at the peak of your physcial ability (not your intellectual or emotional) I wonder whether your experiences all involved competition at the edge. Did you do any of the things in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competent_man? For example did you experience loesickness? The death of a dear one? Raise your own children? Rescue someone from a car accident? Experience major injury?
I love that list, Thanks for sharing it. Here is the list Gunnar shared: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love So let’s make a check list out of your questions plus this list. Lovesickness yes, death of dear yes, raise children no and won’t, rescue someone from accident (drowning) yes. Major injury, no. As for the list. Diaper no, plan an invasion yes, assassinate a pig no, ship no, design a building (cool, goes to my to do list), sonnet yes, accounts yes, a wall no, re-allocate a shoulder yes, comfort dying yes, cooperate, give and take orders, yes, solve equations alone yes, analyse yes, pitch manure no, program no :o( , not really, cook a tasty Funghi risotto yes, fight no, die I’m keeping a safe distance from this particular corner of mindspace.
That was a healthy and exciting exercise, yet I still think it is not my point. My point is that I’m well designed for school. Like someone is well designed for hunting, or fighting, or being a salesperson. I’m well designed for social interaction, the kinds of interests, and life that people experience in high school, middle school, and university. I am not suited for the other stuff, I wouldn’t make a good baby, a good elder, or a good self-made man. I make a good student, I have student conversations, I like student topics, I am sexually attracted by student mottos and ways of being, I prefer being judged by my cognition and learning abilities than by my, say, autonomy, speed or reputation. I prefer depth than speed. I prefer curiosity than competition.
So when you ask if I competed at the edge, I’d say that the edge of competition is outside the scope of visible light to me. I could have competed on many things I was professional level good: 1080snowboard, table tennis, Magic The Gathering, SNES Mario Kart, UN simulations, debate competitions and vestibular (something like the SAT, kind of) but I never bothered to even think about it. I feel exactly as happy playing Magic with my friends who only played for a couple years every now and then, and with the World champion. I do intend to explore the corners of mindspace, and that is fundamental to who I am. But of course there is enough mind space within “awesome” and “happy” mindspace so that I don’t have to knock at “despicable” and “woeful”. The point is to explore positive mindspace, I stand corrected.