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This is such a great autobiographical account that manages to do two incredible things at once. It chronicles the discovery of a very interesting historical pos
by shas3 11y ago
This is such a great autobiographical account that manages to do two incredible things at once. It chronicles the discovery of a very interesting historical possibility. While doing so, it also explores the interplay between the personal and professional lives of a very accomplished researcher.
I love the theme of how discovery and research are the source of both melancholy and ecstasy. Gopnik herself seems to have found fulfillment and an escape from other troubles in the exciting new questions she encountered about Hume's influences. The other side of the same coin is Hume's depression during the period when he found himself incapable of making significant progress on his thesis.
> "When you’re young, you want things: work, love, children. When you reach middle age, you want to want things. When you’re depressed, you no longer want anything. Desire, hope, the future itself—all seem to vanish, as they had for me. But now I at least wanted to know whether Hume could have heard about Desideri. It was a sign that my future might return."
The other theme of interest to the tech community is the interplay of personal and professional lives. If you consider the two aspects of one's life, personal relationships and professional fulfillment, each provides a hedge against possible problems with the other. Interesting explorations in one's work can help pull one from other problems in life.
There is a significant time-varying component of probabilistic luck in whether one's life and work will be fulfilling, but I think it makes sense to constantly strive to bias these probabilities towards outcomes that involve working on exciting projects and building meaningful personal relationships.
I think this article is a strong descriptive companion to Zach Weinersmith's popular comic about 'eleven lifetimes' http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2722 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2722
- pogimabus 11y ago> "When you’re young, you want things: work, love, children. When you reach middle age, you want to want things. When you’re depressed, you no longer want anything. It's funny that you quoted this line because I think it reveals a particular ignorance that the author has, namely a misunderstanding of depression due to her particular experience with it. A more truthful version, in my view, would be the following: When you’re not depressed, you want things: work, love, children. When you have mild depression, you want to want things. When you’re deeply depressed, you no longer want anything. Age really doesn't have anything to do with it.
- angrycoder 11y agoSo you are only 'normal' when you want things? That is a really strange world view.
- gegtik 11y agoseems like you've confused yourself with a literal interpretation
- kelvin0 11y agoI think this is meant in the context of having goals for oneself, some drive about something(s) to make you want to get out of bed ... not simply consuming products you don't need
- chucksmash 11y agoI didn't interpret that in the sense of material items. If work and love are things then experiences in general are things. In that abstract sense wanting things isn't materialistic. Even if you want to live in a cabin on Walden Pond, you still want a "thing".
- Jtsummers 11y agoThings here are broader than the physical. Not for all people who are depressed, but a general absence of desire is common. It includes desire for physical things that you may have once liked or collected. Lack of desire for social things like friends or lovers or perhaps any contact with other people. Even the desire to be alive, which for most people is just a given, can be absent. I, for example, was not actually suicidal, I just had no desire to exist, but also no desire to put forth the effort to end my existence.
- mentat 11y agoDesire is the root of human suffering. This is a widely held belief to put it mildly.
- eli_gottlieb 11y ago