Links - #Goals
To reach them you must set them first.
This links post will be fairly lighthearted, which is a nice change of scenery.
Bryan Caplan recently posted that the average kid is better than the average adult. He gave 11 reasons which I quote below without the additional explanation behind all of them—I left in three of my favorites. Do read the full post to understand completely his points.
Kids are much less boring than adults. …
Kids are much more honest than adults. …
Kids are much less conformist than adults. …
Kids have better imaginations than adults. …
Kids have much better hobbies than adults. …
Kids hold far fewer grudges than adults. …
Kids express far more joy and love than adults. …
Kids have more time for you than adults. I’m amazed by the way that even retirees think of themselves as constantly “busy.” Unless their parents cruelly overschedule them, most kids are ready to start having fun as soon as you are.
Kids are more likely to teach you new things than adults. While kids rarely want to hear another educational lecture from adults, most are eager to give such lectures to adults. Want to learn what’s cool today in music, shows, games, and life? Ask a kid.
Kids are much less jaded than adults. Kids yawn at art museums, but that’s on you. Try taking them to Disneyland or a simple waterfall and witness their excitement. If and when you tire of your favorite activities and places, you can see the world anew again just by bringing some kids to experience them with you.
Finally, being there for kids makes you more popular with adults. …
So I’m setting a couple of goals: Be more like a kid and take more opportunities to share life with kids.
You could say that’s what I want, which happens to partially answer the question posed by Robin Hanson who asks himself: what do I want?
His answer to that question really resonated with me. He writes,
For a long time my main activity has been to try to gain and explain original insight into important neglected questions. Yes, I also like to eat, sleep, socialize, watch movies, etc. but I have to do at least some of that, and they seem at best minor contributions. So then the key question becomes: why do I want such insight?
I could try to claim that I had the most socially approved possible motive for this, namely to altruistically help folks today and their future descendants via my insights. But while altruistic help does add to my motives, it isn’t plausibly my main one. I’m nearly as motivated to gain insight on topics that promise far less altruistic help.
I feel I’d be substantially less motivated if I thought no one would ever remember or appreciate my insights. Those who applaud me don’t have to exist today, but I want them to eventually exist. But I also feel I wouldn’t be very motivated to be appreciated for insights that I myself didn’t much respect. So it seems I want the package of applause for insights that I think actually deserve applause.
I’ll thus summarize the main thing I want as glorious insight. I want to find and spread insights that I see as objectively worthy of admiration and praise, and I also want that admiration and praise to actually happen, at least someday. Insights are more glorious when they are elegant, deep, make a bigger difference to lives and other insights, and were hard to gain and explain.
I am chasing a similar dream. I want insight for the sake of insight, but I also admit that I want others to gain from that insight. I want it shared, debated, refined, and at some level accepted. Only then can it be a contribution that lasts beyond the neurons in my mind.