I basically agree. Motivation seems to be a moderately deep thing (deep as in Seligman’s personality depth scale). Depth means you can’t just hack your superficial interest. You have to use your unchangeable deep interests to cover other topics.
At least that is what worked for me. My interest for problem solving, esp. clear cut ones as in math led to computer science, physics and—after having built a suitably encompassing world model—social science. By using my fascination for solving problems analytically I could apply this to social situations. Sure, taking social situations analytically is bound to appear awkward. But it fits my personality and it allows to build experience fast. And after some time routine smoothes the edges.
I wonder whether this could work the other way around. Say you are a game geek. If you’d like to be interested in math or physics you could hunt down suitable games. First ideas might be Phun, Crazy Machines, Dragon Box 12+ but there are probably more out there. You could get into educational games. You could try to look deeper into games. Download games for Unity or Scratch and look how the really work. Yes it is not easy, but games like other goods are made for consumption. See behind the screen thrown by the game optimizers. Try to see the principles behind the superficial game objectives. The game played by the developers and marketeers. See life as game.
If your fascination is with reading and writing move (slowly, very gradually) to books and topics that have a focus on the topics you’d like to have. To go to history first go to stories in the past then historical novels, then good biographical stories, and so on. For math/phsics read stories with more math in it. Science fiction might be an avenue. Make a plan. Get into a suitable community.
Social motivations probably work best by getting into a suitable community—except that this might break with your existing one.
I think plausible paths can be constructed easily for many motivations. How and which might be open to discussion.
I basically agree. Motivation seems to be a moderately deep thing (deep as in Seligman’s personality depth scale). Depth means you can’t just hack your superficial interest. You have to use your unchangeable deep interests to cover other topics.
At least that is what worked for me. My interest for problem solving, esp. clear cut ones as in math led to computer science, physics and—after having built a suitably encompassing world model—social science. By using my fascination for solving problems analytically I could apply this to social situations. Sure, taking social situations analytically is bound to appear awkward. But it fits my personality and it allows to build experience fast. And after some time routine smoothes the edges.
I wonder whether this could work the other way around. Say you are a game geek. If you’d like to be interested in math or physics you could hunt down suitable games. First ideas might be Phun, Crazy Machines, Dragon Box 12+ but there are probably more out there. You could get into educational games. You could try to look deeper into games. Download games for Unity or Scratch and look how the really work. Yes it is not easy, but games like other goods are made for consumption. See behind the screen thrown by the game optimizers. Try to see the principles behind the superficial game objectives. The game played by the developers and marketeers. See life as game.
If your fascination is with reading and writing move (slowly, very gradually) to books and topics that have a focus on the topics you’d like to have. To go to history first go to stories in the past then historical novels, then good biographical stories, and so on. For math/phsics read stories with more math in it. Science fiction might be an avenue. Make a plan. Get into a suitable community.
Social motivations probably work best by getting into a suitable community—except that this might break with your existing one.
I think plausible paths can be constructed easily for many motivations. How and which might be open to discussion.