Comments on: Do Things to Do Them

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:19:02 +0000

This is similar to the theory of Flow. Check out the book “Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Great blog Scott!

By: Ash

Ash — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:02:55 +0000

Hi Scott,

I love this post. It reminds me of the book the way of the peaceful warrior. Its good to be reminded as these things fade in memory really fast.

Best,
Ash

By: Rev Bill » Blog Archive » A Simple Test To See If You’r Doing What God Is Calling You To Do

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:50:48 +0000

[...] Read Scott Young’s article here. « Presbyterians Play Hoops (And Bust Brackets) [...]

By: Diego

Diego — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:48:07 +0000

Thanks again Scott for the reminder.

I doubt if the quality of an experience can ever be measured in a kind of quid pro quo including helping others. I think perhaps arete loads experience up front so that when I have such an experience the reward is simultaneous with the task…sort of.

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:00:31 +0000

Basu,

Of course you want both. My point was shifting the focus when looking at tasks. Too little focus being given to enjoyment in the moment, too much focus on external benefits. But, if you have an abundance of joy, I suppose that wouldn’t be a problem.

-Scott

By: Basu

Basu — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:30:59 +0000

i’m afraid don’t completely agree with you on this one. I’m currently a CS / ECE major and I”m involved with a number of open source projects. I do this programming for free, partly because i enjoy doing it , but also because there are people out there who might find my work useful and improve upon it.part of my pleasure in my work is because I simply enjoy, but a major part is also because it helps others. In fact more than once have i rejected projects because though I might have enjoyed them, they really wouldn’t have helped anyone else, so I looked for things similar to what I had thought about,but helped others. I feel I might be a bit more of a materialist than you are, but I feel that you like your work the most both when you genuinely love it AND when it helps people around you.

By: John

John — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:11:59 +0000

Scott,

Great post.

It seems to me there’s probably some relationship between doing things you actually like DOING, enjoying the present moment regardless of what you’re doing, and living out your goals and aspirations instead of always striving for an end result.

Not that end results aren’t worthwhile, but you’re right. It’s in the doing.

This was a great reminder. Thanks