In his TED talk on Procrastination Tim Urban mentioned how he got excited when TED invited him to do a talk. He said he had always wanted to talk on TED. But he realized that he wanted to "have done" a TED talk rather than actually do all the work for a TED talk.
After a few days I came across the same idea in Nassim Taleb's [Antifragile] (https://www.amazon.ca/Antifragile-Things-That-Gain-Disorder/dp/0812979680). Here's a footnote from his book.
A friend who writes books remarked that painters like painting, but authors like "having written". I suggested he stop writing, for his sake and the sake of his readers.
I've started introspecting my hobbies and work from this point of view. Do I actually like reading books or do I like having read the books? Do I actually like playing Portal or do I like having finished it? Do I actually like climbing difficult routes or do I just want to have done a 5.10d on lead? Do I actually like coding my software or is my goal only to have finished building the product? Do I want to build a meaningful business or do I want to have had a successful acquisition?
From whatever finishes I've had in the past, any feeling of achievement or sense of completion I've received has felt much hollower than the joy of doing the activity.
I think it's a necessary question to ask when pursuing one's hobbies or passions in life. What's the real underlying motivation? Is it enjoying the experience of having done the activity or is it having finished the activity?
Posted on April 23, 2016