Part of the animal nature, including humans, is to crave novelty and surprise and avoid boredom. This is pretty crucial to the learning process in a changing and complex environment. Humans have multi-level drives, and not all of them are well-targeted on specific goals or needs.
It is very visible in small children. Some people with ADHD, like me, have a harder time regulating themself well and this is also especially visible for us, even when being adult. I know exactly what I should be doing. This is one thing. I also may feel hungry. That’s another thing. But still, I may indulge in doing a third thing instead—something that satiates my need for stimulation and novelty (most often for me this means gaining some knowledge or understanding—I often fell into reading and thinking about rabbit holes of topics, that have hardly any real-life use, and that I can hardly do something about). Something not readily useful in terms of goal seeking, but generating some interesting possibilities long-term. In other words—exploration without targeted purpose.
Craving for novelty and surprise and avoidance of boredom is another element that in my opinion should be included.
Part of the animal nature, including humans, is to crave novelty and surprise and avoid boredom. This is pretty crucial to the learning process in a changing and complex environment. Humans have multi-level drives, and not all of them are well-targeted on specific goals or needs.
It is very visible in small children. Some people with ADHD, like me, have a harder time regulating themself well and this is also especially visible for us, even when being adult. I know exactly what I should be doing. This is one thing. I also may feel hungry. That’s another thing. But still, I may indulge in doing a third thing instead—something that satiates my need for stimulation and novelty (most often for me this means gaining some knowledge or understanding—I often fell into reading and thinking about rabbit holes of topics, that have hardly any real-life use, and that I can hardly do something about). Something not readily useful in terms of goal seeking, but generating some interesting possibilities long-term. In other words—exploration without targeted purpose.
Craving for novelty and surprise and avoidance of boredom is another element that in my opinion should be included.