Unremarkable, Comforted and Melancholy

[hutta]

The people around me at work are to a large degree the embodiment of what I've always assumed I wanted to be. They're mostly hard-working, self-improving, intelligent, achievers. In this group, I have absolutely no skills or characteristics that distinguish me in any way. The disturbing part is that I find myself increasingly comfortable with my

Comments

[donsez]

People do change the world. Odds are your contribution won't be so great that you'll be remembered widely or long. I've come to accept this, while realizing I have fallen far short of my potential. Still, if its something you want, there are ways of getting in the public record. Improving the odds that your contribution may be remembered/acknowledged.

Become an expert at something and get interviewed/written about.
Write books, preferably best sellers or authoritative texts.
Get elected to public office and exceeed expectations.
Be despicable/become notorious.

[hutta]

The post isn't about longing to make a difference, so much as it's about the realization that knowledge for the sake of knowledge isn't as noble or important as I had once thought. Knowledge dies with you.

It's like making an ice sculpture. Sure, it was fun, and it looked nice, but real soon now it's going to be a puddle and nobody will have any idea that you figured out how to make a swan with a chainsaw.

knowledge for the sake of knowledge

[ethernight]

"The post isn't about longing to make a difference, so much as it's about the realization that knowledge for the sake of knowledge isn't as noble or important as I had once thought."

For me, the point isn't nobility or importance, but the experience of it. It's satisfying, fun - makes you feel alive. But then, in my worldview What Life Is All About is the experience.

If you don't find it satisfying anymore, then I would agree there's very little point.

Re: knowledge for the sake of knowledge

[hutta]

I find it endlessly satisfying.

[popjunky]

I know exactly what you mean.

I Know Stuff!!

[dbananza]

nah, this is part one of a process
when you're TRULY disgusted with it, the ___ (Multiverse? Creator?) will send you the very thing to sink your teeth into and you'll appreciate the PROCESS of self-efficacy (as my teacher calls it)
the true disgust is a cry to Heaven to send the very thing to excite or infuriate, to learn and to FEEL into deeply

i hadda go a long time before i really enjoyed the process of working on myself (because the motivations have changed and become more natural) and going back to school as part of that. the school ain't all that, but it's a good feeling to learn and stretch.

anyway good luck w/ your spiritual crises, i believe they do nothing but help us (too bad they're so aggravating!)

[stantron]

You are probably right. Chances are you will never be another Descartes, Voltaire, Plato, or anyone else that is remembered for making amazing contributions to our civilization, and I won't be one either. The reason that I have started to try and learn more is not to be any of those thing but to make myself a better person. Some people can go through their lives without much knowledge and be perfectly happy, and if you are one of those people then more power to you, but the problem comes when you stop doing something that you want to do because it isn't pragmatic. I will never be a great philosopher or historian but I want to read the great authors of the past because I, for whatever reason, feel the need to be educated and informed about how our civilization came into the ideas that we have. I think that you are similar to me in wanting to know why things are the way that they are as opposed to going with the flow and simply making a paycheck until you die. Maybe that's a poor analogy when you consider the talk about welding but I

[pacificbeachboy]

:) as long as you're happy