What is your true potential?
February 19th, 2008 by mmcdermo
Could you be more than you are right now? If you approached mastering paper airplane design with complete, genuine sincerity and dedication, could you? Consider mastering something that doesn’t really turn you on – perhaps it’s paper airplane design, bricklaying, or, say, washing dishes. Yes, you potentially could but if it doesn’t drive you, if you don’t get lost in thoughts about it or find yourself in bliss while doing it, then considering it doesn’t help you. When you ask, “What’s my potential?” you aren’t talking about your potential in all areas, but rather those that fill your life with a sense of accomplishment, purpose, and joy. Read the rest of this entry »
Humans are adaptive creatures. When faced with an obstacle, we change ourselves to overcome it. This is growth. When faced with the same obstacle repeatedly, we generally choose one solution and make it subconcious… And, what could be better? On our drive to work we can think about the woman with the stunning eyes, or work ourselves into a ridiculous frenzy over the new trash company our county has contracted with, and how the new garbagemen all seem so… seedy. These solutions, or habits, allow us to be completely unaware of what we’re doing and focus elsewhere. As a fantastic bonus, our highly evolved brain doesn’t even require us to utter the words Autopilot: Engage; it actually reads our mind! Wait, err..
I used to stare out into the vast expanse of dull colors and lifeless sounds that stretched before me each day with every ounce of hope drained from my being. I sat in the middle of a desert - an evil being that took sadistic pleasure in hiding the truth and teasing me with false hope. A desert is much like a labyrinth, I suppose, except that there is even less reason to try and escape.
For those of you who don’t know, Dwarf Fortress is easily one of the best civilization simulations to date. Your citizens are drunken dwarves… And, luckily, you don’t often need to evict them. The game pushes you to efficiently manage stocks and citizens, though thankfully you don’t have to do all the math, as you have your book keeper do it for you. Dwarf Fortress develops creativity, too, forcing you to create your own play style to conquer its numerous challenges. 
