<story><title>10,000 Hours with Claude Shannon (2017)</title><url>https://medium.com/the-mission/10-000-hours-with-claude-shannon-12-lessons-on-life-and-learning-from-a-genius-e8b9297bee8f</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Bakary</author><text>&amp;gt;Reflecting on the arc of his career, Shannon confessed, “I don’t think I was ever motivated by the notion of winning prizes, although I have a couple of dozen of them in the other room. I was more motivated by curiosity. Never by the desire for financial gain. I just wondered how things were put together. Or what laws or rules govern a situation, or if there are theorems about what one can’t or can do. Mainly because I wanted to know myself.”&lt;p&gt;This is one insight about actual geniuses that shun the &amp;quot;classic&amp;quot; trappings of life that has always intrigued me. They are essentially coerced by their own neurology to aim for academic pursuits, because anything else cannot scratch that itch. Money and power are nice (and Johnny von Neumann loved his parties and loud music) but in the end it&amp;#x27;s just not that stimulating in comparison to hard abstract problems. Social relationships still have their draw as well, but you have to hit the knowledge-pipe regularly or face withdrawal.&lt;p&gt;For people of that caliber, living in pre-modern societies must have been equivalent to torture. For the rest of us, it would have been like watching paint dry for our entire lives. Sounds like sour grapes, but in a way I am grateful not to have to deal with all of this. Looking at von Neumann&amp;#x27;s example again, the fear of death still caused him to lash out irrationally and in the end even he could not escape the human condition.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JackMorgan</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not a genius by any stretch, but I felt that way until I was given access to the internet and enough job stability to have a few hours of free time every day. The internet became a way to easily just read about whatever interested me, which is usually a few hours a day on various subjects. Before that, life was miserable.&lt;p&gt;As an adult I&amp;#x27;ve realized that I need significant and varied diet of books, internet, social time, rigorous physical activity, problem solving, musical practice, and art making every day otherwise I quickly fall into a deep depression. I can see how in other times or other circumstances I&amp;#x27;d be turning to substance abuse just to make it through the day. It feels like my mind requires constant effort or I&amp;#x27;ll be unhealthy and unhappy.&lt;p&gt;Several family members of mine who are quite a bit more intelligent struggle with this even more. Some have even fallen into substance abuse as a shortcut, but one that never achieves stability, only ruin.</text></comment>
<story><title>10,000 Hours with Claude Shannon (2017)</title><url>https://medium.com/the-mission/10-000-hours-with-claude-shannon-12-lessons-on-life-and-learning-from-a-genius-e8b9297bee8f</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Bakary</author><text>&amp;gt;Reflecting on the arc of his career, Shannon confessed, “I don’t think I was ever motivated by the notion of winning prizes, although I have a couple of dozen of them in the other room. I was more motivated by curiosity. Never by the desire for financial gain. I just wondered how things were put together. Or what laws or rules govern a situation, or if there are theorems about what one can’t or can do. Mainly because I wanted to know myself.”&lt;p&gt;This is one insight about actual geniuses that shun the &amp;quot;classic&amp;quot; trappings of life that has always intrigued me. They are essentially coerced by their own neurology to aim for academic pursuits, because anything else cannot scratch that itch. Money and power are nice (and Johnny von Neumann loved his parties and loud music) but in the end it&amp;#x27;s just not that stimulating in comparison to hard abstract problems. Social relationships still have their draw as well, but you have to hit the knowledge-pipe regularly or face withdrawal.&lt;p&gt;For people of that caliber, living in pre-modern societies must have been equivalent to torture. For the rest of us, it would have been like watching paint dry for our entire lives. Sounds like sour grapes, but in a way I am grateful not to have to deal with all of this. Looking at von Neumann&amp;#x27;s example again, the fear of death still caused him to lash out irrationally and in the end even he could not escape the human condition.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yrimaxi</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;gt; I don’t think I was ever motivated by the notion of winning prizes, although I have a couple of dozen of them in the other room.&lt;p&gt;Being a genius is a good thing, and also not having “ego” motivations is looked upon favorably.  So this is like an egoless brag.&lt;p&gt;Also: look at what I managed to do indirectly&amp;#x2F;without even trying.</text></comment>