Intellectual Challenges
I come to a point every year or so when I feel like I am simply not being challenged intellectually at all. I have also become complacent in this regard, choosing other forms of challenges to "ease my mind", mostly physical like working 14 hour days. What develops in me during these incidents is a sort of depression, my mind wanders aimlessly looking at the books I have collected/read, mostly science texts and a intro english novel or two, and i can't help but wonder why I am doing science. I came to the conclusion today that mostly I do it because people around me couldn't, and this has been a common theme in my intellectual development that really hasn't been put into words until today. I have patterned my life on doing things that other people couldn't do. And what I do is chemistry, biology, and physics with a significant and working knowledge in all three. For the longest time I had a fortune cookie fortune on my doorway at home that said "The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." It strikes me now because it struck me then because I knew. I guess I have known for a long time that I choose to pursue the sciences because those around me saw them as impossible to understand. I firmly believe that I can do anything I want, and yet I find myself in the sciences, bored out of my mind (currently, and perhaps longer than that), entertaining my self with complex Rube Goldberg like designed proteins that do something like spitting out hydrogen from water and light. At some point I will have to act on these dreams and prove myself right or wrong but the problem will remain -- failures have easy explanations; being right doesn't make an interesting story and a five second fantasy can take a lifetime to prove. The problem with any field is that you are confined to thinking about a single subject (or a series of subjects that are intimately related) for a long time until you move on. All the ideas that go into a scientific manuscript take less than a day, generally, to figure out and with a working vocabulary most anyone can understand them in less than five minutes.
I wish I had people to talk to about subjects other than science, but I have surrounded myself with boring people (scientists) who either talk about science or what there pet birds did the other day. God, I am in my own created hell...
So what do you do to keep yourself intellectually stimulated?
I wish I had people to talk to about subjects other than science, but I have surrounded myself with boring people (scientists) who either talk about science or what there pet birds did the other day. God, I am in my own created hell...
So what do you do to keep yourself intellectually stimulated?
Comments
The main problem with challenging yourself intellectually is finding someone with whom to share those challenges. Without that you can lose interest. The two areas that I get constantly challenged in outside of my profession are theology and mathematics. I have entered into numerous interesting theological discussions with people of other faiths than my own, not with the intent of converting or being converted, but mainly to understand what they believe and why and what kind of universal truth there is amongst the various religions. The other is mathematics. Although my degree is in math, my career is not, so math is a 'hobby' more or less. Because of my interest in math and because of software I have written for others to use, I am regularly challenged to improve the efficiency of my software and am directed in ways that I would not have imagined when I started this.
Just my two cents.
But also, anthropology and philosophy are regular topics of discussion around the apartment
I find that I intimidate people around me when I discuss... perhaps yet another reason why its hard for me to find things to discuss...
Originally posted by billybobsky
So what do you do to keep yourself intellectually stimulated?
This weekend I bought a copy of Swank magazine. Good stuff, good stuff.
Originally posted by bunge
This weekend I bought a copy of Swank magazine. Good stuff, good stuff.
Originally posted by bunge
This weekend I bought a copy of Swank magazine. Good stuff, good stuff.
At least its written erotica...
The two don't necessarily go hand in hand.
In my experience, being bored with what you do is a bigger problem than being bored with who you work with.
Once you've figured that out, try to develop a cure.
I realize this would likely be a life's work, but if you can come up with something in, like, oh... six months would be good... history will praise you and remember your name.
Originally posted by crazychester
Are you bored with the work you do or the people you work with?
The two don't necessarily go hand in hand.
In my experience, being bored with what you do is a bigger problem than being bored with who you work with.
Both... as I said... hell...
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.
Intellectual Challenges are overrated.
Barto
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Originally posted by billybobsky
Both... as I said... hell...
Seriously seriously tho', if you had your time over, is there any work that you think might have provided the necessary amount of intellectual challenge? Would doing any one thing for a lifetime's work ever have been satisfying? Personally, I think "specializing" is a problem for a lot of people nowadays.
Other times, however, my work is deadly dull. A solution is obvious, but takes a lot of tedious work to implement. Or I need to learn something new (a protocol, an API, etc.) to get a particular job done, but that something is really, really painfully boring.
Many of the "white papers" and other technical documents that I've had to read are so dry I literally have a hard time staying awake trying to get through them. It seems that a lot of people are convinced that "serious" work has to be as flat, colorless, and antiseptically detached as they can possibly make it. A lot of authors of such documents also seem to follow the rule "Why use a simple, concrete example that would have made this whole thing clear by the end of page one when I can stay aloof and abstract and impress you how smart I am for pages on end instead?"
For the most part, the good outweighs the bad, so I'm happy to stick with what I'm doing, at the same company where I'm doing it. There are many companies I wouldn't want to work for, however, and many jobs within my field I wouldn't want to take.
If some of the work style trends I've seen in software were to become universal, I'd probably just bail out of the field, as painful as that would probably be financially, rather than try to force myself to adapt to doing work that I would find crushingly dull all of the time.
Originally posted by Barto
CompSci sucks. I'd rather be a drug****ed highschool dropout singing in a band than completing a B.IT at Uni.
You used to be able to be both when I was at uni.
I've come to a state where i can't stop thinking about physics. Every time I am not doing something it comes to my mind and can't get help it.
It's pleasurable, yes, but it is also disturbing when it doesn't let you sleep.
Originally posted by crazychester
You used to be able to be both when I was at uni.
Nirvana played at the ANU bar once. Now you're lucky if Triple J is playing
Times change
Barto
oh and don't touch my cheese.
Go to your local library and join a book discussion group. They have non-fiction groups, mystery groups, maybe even a Great Books group (outstanding world literature). You will get to know some interesting people that way, and be exposed to stimulating literature.
Get involved in an activity like hiking, backpacking, climbing, scuba diving, photography, watercolor painting...something different from what you're used to.
Take a night class in a field outside of yours.
The Mensa thing - why are you "philosophically" opposed to it? The whole point of such a group is for incredibly bright people to have others with whom to communicate. The people there are in all kinds of occupations. What they share is lively intellects and the desire to associate and communicate with similar individuals.
It sounds like the very group that would be perfect for your needs is the very one you refuse to try. I think everything's worth a try. What do you have to lose? Nothing but an hour or two of your time. But you have much that could be gained...a whole new world of interesting people and fascinating friends.
the occasional crossword or word game works out some parts of the brain,
throw in some foreign language work or music to stretch further
tetris or 3d shape manipulation work other centers
Though I don't believe males have a brain center for understanding women,
it might make a stimulating research study if you could get a grant and good subjects.
Originally posted by Barto
Nirvana played at the ANU bar once. Now you're lucky if Triple J is playing
Times change
Barto
Ah the ANU uni bar......can I even begin to describe the influence THAT place had on my life (well I could but it'd bore everybody shitless). Of course, it used to be upstairs back in The Olden Days.
Got a few Old Dog ANU Student Tricks I might PM to you later if I don't doze off on the lounge after dinner (rather than derail bb's thread further). If you're up for either of them, I'd get a real kick out of knowing if they still work (one involves free money, the other involves free beer).
Chin up Barto. Just remember you're there to have a GOOD TIME first and get a degree second. Stick to that philosophy and you can't go far wrong. (Oh hell you can go far wrong but that doesn't change the fact these should be some of the best days of your life - curses to the modern world).