The Act of Reading Creates Tangents
Best case scenario is when people have time to take tangents.. exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m taking a quick dive into what free time really is & how valuable. Because the greatest achievements usually happen on accident. Very intelligent folks think they know where a discovery will be found.. So proposals are made from the scientific community to the investors & the government looking for funding & grants. The problem is that the scientists know that once their 6 months of funding to research within these very restrictive & specific guidelines then they’ll be out of money. So all the while they’re conducting their quick dive into shallow water they are already looking up towards to the surface of the water to get another breathe.
In contrast, a deep dive is a state where substantial funding allows you to explore with the wanderlust working FOR YOU instead of against the clock. Historically it has been within these looked over pockets of mysterious void where lay dormant paradigm shifting realizations.
Einstein worked as a patent clerk where he was paid & had time. He could explore as many tangents as he wanted in that spot.
Scientists a Xerox Palo Alto Research Center were told, imagine a paperless world & they basically invented the modern computer.. This is a case of a research & development department that were set up to be non-specific in their goals.. Buku amounts of discoveries were made on accident.
Albert Hoffman worked at Sandoz laboratory in Switzerland during the darkest days of World War II synthesizing ergot fungus. He accidentally found himself having a psychedelic experience on a bicycle ride after work one day. This was the discovery of LSD.
Sure, these are all extremely intelligent people who followed their hunches & happened to be correct. But as far as an investment strategy, maybe think about allowing people to have space. The most valuable research is gonna happen when there is enough time on the clock for folks to not have to focus on rigid trivialities. Their focus can be where it needs to be.. On their hunches, tangents, & random live enjoyment which can spark a momentous break through.
We are complicated creatures in a lot of ways, but there is a simple balance between pushing people with a little bit of stress caused by money & a place where stress can overwhelm the fragile state of work where many of us naturally reside.
I know when I set up a job to complete on my endless list of things to do for the day that maybe none of those things I wrote down will happen. But, I might discover & knock out a mini project that changes my life. Change cascades through all the people around me. Builds momentum & avalanches through all the people around them. Then all the people around THEM. And so on. This can save somebody’s life or motivate them to see things weird that day. Perspective is innovation. We’re all in this together in the sense that when one person succeeds we all benefit. That’s almost the tribe hive mind instinct of being human.
Many times it seems as if we aren’t accomplishing our lists & we feel as if we are failing. But then we don’t always know why we’re here or what we actually SHOULD be doing. Nobody knows what they are doing.
Sometimes I cross things off my list on a bad day. On a good day, we help fix a broken world.
If you’re wondering, this essay was actually ON my list. It’s hilarious to me & I usually only enjoy things if they are paradoxical in some way. It’s strange how we are wired to have more fun or enthusiasm when we go against the grain.
This type of reverse psychology is exactly the way institutions have set themselves up for power for millennia. Prescribing what’s taboo & who has to follow the rules, laws. Who finds the loopholes within the fabric of the society. It’s been unfair since the beginning. Being a hunter gather people just died all the time. Then when agriculture started we always farmed as much as possible until there was surplus because you never knew what the weather or the gods would do in the future. Surplus gave SOME people free time to think. Free time to think leads to happy accidents. Some folks are bored & some are always creating & thriving. It just depends on how you see your check list… as completed… or merely a construct of momentum.
