Motivation / Motivation:

Da findet sich nun öfters Zeit, um an ein paar langen Abenden in Bücher einzutauchen.

Eines dieser Bücher, das ich hierbei nun zur Hand genommen habe war "God's Debris" von Scott Adams. (Ich habe von ihm "How to Fail at almost Anything and ..." vor ein paar Jahren gelesen und damals als recht gut befunden. Beeindruckt hat mich hierbei vor allem, wie viel dieser Scott Adams in all den Jahren so gemacht hat. Ein bisschen hat's mit "Kreativen" (ein etwas abgenutztes Wort) schon so auf sich, dass sie einfach viel unternehmen und unternommen haben, dass sie Abenteurer, im echten Sinn des Wortes, sind, während andere zu Hause sitzen bleiben, über viele Jahre hinweg, und nichts erleben. Neben interessanten Inhalten hat mir das Buch damals diesen Eindruck recht deutlich hinterlassen.)

Eine Stelle, die ich hier kurz anführen will ist über "God's Motivitation" (ja, "Gott" kommt in dem Buch vor, aber keine Angst, es wird nicht gefrömmelt oder dergleichen, ist bei Scott Adams ja auch nicht zu erwarten).

"If you were God" ... "what would you want?"

und weiters:

"Imagine you are omnipotent. You can do anything, create anything, be anything. As soon as you decide you want something, it becomes reality."

"Does it make sense to think of God as wanting anything? A God would have no emotions, no fears, no desires, no curiosity, no hunger. Those are human shortcomings, not something that would be found in an omnipotent God. What then would motivate God?"

"Omnipotence means that nothing is a challenge. And what could stimulate the mind of someone who knows everything?"

"Hunger motivates animals. Lust motivates animals. Fear and pain motivate animals. A God would have none of these impulses. Humans are driven by all of these passions plus loftier-sounding things like self-actualization and creativity and freedom and love. But God would care nothing for those things, or if he cared he would already have them in unlimited quantities. None of them would be motivating."

Und in der Tat, wenn man sich diese Überlegungen so anhört, von einem "Leben", das zwar irgendwie vollkommen wäre, aber ohne Leidenschaften, ohne starke Motivation, ohne bewussten Willen ... bekommt man doch recht Lust darauf, die eigene Haut nicht zu verlassen, trotz all der vielen Dinge, die mit dem Vorhandensein von Bedürfnissen, Wünschen und Sehnsüchten einhergehen. Ein gesättigtes Sein, das wäre schon nichts. 

Viel Freude am Lesen besteht doch darin, ein paar Denkanstöße einzusammeln. Dieses Buch, wie auch andere Bücher von Scott Adams, sind gespickt voll damit.

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There is now often time to dive into books on a few long evenings.

One of the books I picked up in this context was God’s Debris by Scott Adams. (I had read his How to Fail at Almost Everything and… a few years ago and found it quite good at the time. What impressed me most was how much Scott Adams had done over the years. There’s something about “creative types” (a somewhat overused word): they simply do a lot, they have undertaken much, they are adventurers in the true sense of the word—while others sit at home for many years and experience nothing. Alongside its interesting content, that book left me with this impression quite vividly.)

One passage I want to briefly mention here is about “God’s Motivation” (yes, “God” does appear in the book, but don’t worry—there’s no pious moralizing, which one wouldn’t expect from Scott Adams anyway).

“If you were God … what would you want?”

And further:

“Imagine you are omnipotent. You can do anything, create anything, be anything. As soon as you decide you want something, it becomes reality.”

“Does it make sense to think of God as wanting anything? A God would have no emotions, no fears, no desires, no curiosity, no hunger. Those are human shortcomings, not something that would be found in an omnipotent God. What then would motivate God?”

“Omnipotence means that nothing is a challenge. And what could stimulate the mind of someone who knows everything?”

“Hunger motivates animals. Lust motivates animals. Fear and pain motivate animals. A God would have none of these impulses. Humans are driven by all of these passions plus loftier-sounding things like self-actualization and creativity and freedom and love. But God would care nothing for those things, or if he cared he would already have them in unlimited quantities. None of them would be motivating.”

And indeed, when one listens to such reflections on a “life” that might be perfect in some sense but without passions, without strong motivation, without conscious will … one can feel quite inclined not to abandon one’s own skin, despite all the things that come along with the existence of needs, wishes, and desires. A saturated existence—that would be nothing worth having.

Much of the joy of reading lies in collecting a few sparks of thought. This book, like Scott Adams’s other books, is full of them.