Do for the doing
04/28 2023
A very simple piece of advice, do things for the doing, a piece of advice which I always feel is misunderstood every time I utter it in real life (even though it makes perfect sense in my head). Never do things for the goal itself if it is the case that you only do the things for that particular goal. Never write a novel because you want to have written a novel. Never add flames to a revolution because you ache for the result, but never what comes after. It is precisely that last fact that people misinterpret: most often people consider the goal, and only the goal (which sometimes can be achieved!), but almost never what comes after. You might become a stock broker and find yourself earning a lot of money, respect, power. But if you don't enjoy the work... Unless, of course, your situation is one rags-to-riches kinda situations --- but, then I'd say that it is simply a whole other situation all together. Then the current situation is most certainly preferable, especially if there are some family support... I'm getting sidetracked. That's not my point. My point is very simple: do for the doing, and never for the goal to be achieved.
It seems contradictory, seeing that having set goals can be useful in making yourself sit down and do the actual work. And hey, I'm not saying that you should only do the things which are always fun (I hate running every time, but I do it anyways, and I love it), but that you must like it to some degree. There is a reason for this beyond the fact that we intuitively like the things that we choose to do: there is never any guarantee of success, so there is little reason to measure ourselves that way. This point is beyond the usual "oh, it is hard to become an artist/musician/author/poet/chef/blacksmith" argument, it is from a post-AI perspective. Soon we'll find ourselves in a world in which many concepts suddenly changed meaning. Oh, you're an author who wrote his memoirs using AI? How fascinating (that's an author?). Oh, you're an artist who writes prompts to create art (is that an artist, I would reluctantly agree?).
When goals no longer mean what they used to, and perhaps on a permanent basis lose their previously held standard of meaning, what pillars are we choosing to stand on? I stand firmly on the side of actually doing, and not on the pillar of result. I care very little that the things that I write are utter meaningless drivel. I write because I feel like writing. Just like I prompt DALLE for the image for this blog, because I don't feel like drawing.