Remember that time when you were a kid when there was always something fun and interesting lurking around? I remember those times when I was 4, I used to get up at 7:00~7:30 in the mornings without a problem. I'd bounce out of bed, get dressed and run downstairs to my latest discovery-- morning cartoons and watch. I used to be so fascinated by cartoons when I was younger and that was something I woke up enthusiastically for.
One day on TV I learned that people had trouble waking up early, they'd get groggy and get out of bed really slowly. I thought that was the strangest thing because it was so easy for me to get out of bed. I wondered what would it feel like to be groggy in the mornings (I was really curious when I was younger...I used to wonder why people mumbled to themselves or felt certain ways, I even tried to imitate it to learn more about it... though sometimes I'd forget to stop imitating :P). I tried that once when I was in grade 7 to sleep in when I wasn't tired... I got out of bed groggy and haven't really been able to pop out of bed like I used to since (unless of course, I get up in a panic). I then started reading a book a few days ago and been really enjoying it. I got up this morning; the first thing I decided to go was to read a chapter out of this book. After I finished reading, I just realized that I got out of bed because I found something interesting I wanted to do (I'll talk more about the book in a bit).
This reminds me of a quote by Einstein I read somewhere; I've been looking for it on and off but haven't been able to find it. Perhaps it might not even be Einstein that said but I can't find it. It goes something to the effect of:
"Enthusiasm is simply having something worth waking up for" -Me
Well, I guess it's my quote now since I've the net for it couldn’t find the person to accredit it to :P
It's something I haven't done in a long time and I had forgotten what it was like, but when I woke up today to read something that I thought was really interesting, I thought "wow this is great! I'm getting out of bed for other reasons instead of 'I'm hungry', or 'I can't sleep anymore' or 'I've got classes' or something or other like that." I got out of bed really excited to do something I wanted to... it's been a while.
Sometimes after a while of getting caught up in lots of classes, extra curricular activities... etc. life sort of turns into a schedule when that happens-- be here at 'x' time or complete things by 'y' date. Such is life of a student and I think the pattern continues when you get a job and start working. There was a reason why I thought waking up to do something that I wanted to do was so profound, because it made me realize that for a long time that I was working on other people's schedules for so long and not my own.
My natural inclination right now as someone that likes to talk (albeit too much sometimes) is to start giving examples to illustrate my point in more detail, dive into some implications and interpret the results (I'm a theoretical kind of guy that likes to build theory upon theory, sometimes I go a little to far and end up with a pretty huge picture that I don't know that'll work yet... so sometimes though, I don't think I'm always practical... but I'm going on tangent...anyways...). So today
Comment away if you like... or just keep the thought in the back of your head. I just really felt like posing the thought here (does that make me an intellectual exhibitionist??).
The book is called "Surely you're Joking Mr. Feynman," about a physicist named Richard Feynman that I really like. The book is a really easy read and it's a collcetion of all sorts of stories of Mr... or rather Dr. Feynman (the really interesting thing is that of all things I've read about him, hardly any sources called him Dr. Feynman... I thought that was neat... but anyways... :) .
Feynman was brilliant, but his thoughts were simple and he was observant. His stories of himself sound like something of a kid with a lot of creativity. When I came to read this book of a brilliant man, I have come to realize that this person was a very clever man in a really simple kind of way and the many things he did were rather cute.
He would do thing like play with ants and discover that they left some kind of scent trail that they follow to lead others to food (ants also did that in my room... but I've since sealed the hole they came from) by playing tricks on them, like making them walk on glass slides to some sugar and then switching slides them to see what would happen (they'd lose the trail when they start walking on the new slide). He drew many of his ideas from simple origins, the difference was that he was pretty observant and a bigger base of ideas to draw his ideas from (well and it could also be that he was really smart too :).
Personally, I think of intelligence in the similar way that Feynman thinks (only fitting that we have the same personality temperament as me... ENTP)-- building upon simple ideas and observations. Even I don't think that I'm that smart and I feel kind of weird when other people think I'm some sort of monster brain, but I see things from a different point of view; that being 'smart' is something simple-- a way of thinking that can be taught. After reading parts of that book, I think it is true even more so by reading into the mind of someone that's really smart (and that is probably one of the reasons why I really like teaching --> it's really fun to make smart people).
If you have the time, give the book a read. I am really enjoying it.
No comments:
Post a Comment