Part C: “How to move”

Chapter 6: Potential Energy

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide

Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride

Helter Skelter

The Beatles

 

In conceptualising our lives as travelling through an obstacle course of problems and opportunities towards some distant goal, movement and action is a fundamental requirement.

In physics we learn that the kinetic energy released in movement requires the conversion of some form of potential energy.  To use the helpful example that The Beatles gave us, when we climb up the top of the slide we gain potential energy (E^P) which then gets turned into kinetic energy (E^K) as we stop and turn and go for a ride.

E^P can exist in many different forms.  In the slide example we move upwards through a gravity field, and this gives us potential energy.  Any form of movement which relies on fuel draws on the potential contained in the chemical energy of the fuel source.  Battery powered electrical devices draw on potential energy stored in the configuration of electrons held in the batteries.  In each case gaining the potential energy requires the consumption of energy – to climb the slide we need to consume food, to charge batteries we need to burn fuel in a power station – and ultimately if we track the energy source back to its origin, we end up in the nuclear furnace of the sun just about every time.

This probably butchers the science to some extent, but the details in this case don’t affect the principle, which is simply that for there to be any movement, we need some source of potential energy.

In our path through life’s obstacle course, the same principle applies.  For us to move, to have E^K, we need to extract it from some source of E^P.  I’m not talking here about the potential energy of food to enable physical movement, though that is also critical.  What I’m talking about is the potential energy of what I will simplistically call “motivation”.  When we are motivated we hold a lot of E^P, and so we can do a lot of movement.  When we are unmotivated and low in E^P, so there is also very little E^K in our lives.

Motivation comes from many sources, both short and long term.  Short term motivation gives us the E^P which gets us through our day-to-day activities.  Long term motivation is what helps set our direction, but also what provides the underlying power source for how far we are going to travel along our life path.

Just like the sun’s nuclear core is the origin of pretty much all E^P on Earth, I think that ‘dissatisfaction’ is the origin of pretty much all E^P in life.  ‘Dissatisfaction’ in this sense is not limited to negative emotions of unhappiness and frustration, though it includes them.  My intended definition is just simply a feeling of unwillingness to accept that the current status quo is good enough and couldn’t somehow be improved.  That could be to desire to reduce the amount of something bad in our lives, or to increase the amount of something good.  Fighting against perceived injustice is an expression of dissatisfaction that is easy to see.  I would also say that curiosity (for example) is equally an expression of dissatisfaction – in this case of not being content to accept that we know enough to stop wanting to learn new things.

So long as we remain dissatisfied with our world as it is, we will be motivated to change it – and that motivation will express itself in some form of action, choice, movement.  Our movement is the kinetic energy of our lives.  The power source for that is the E^P in our lives: dissatisfaction.  The dissatisfaction fundamentally powers our movement.

My theory is that, if we could measure it somehow, we would see that people who achieve more in their lives would have a higher lifetime total amount of kinetic energy.  To have generated so much kinetic energy, they need a stronger or larger source of E^P – and that comes from a greater sense of ‘dissatisfaction’ that the status quo is good enough for them.  Someone who is never fully satisfied that everything has reached a state of perfection will maintain a strong supply of E^P throughout their lives.  They might also be more frustrated and distracted, but they will also be potentially more motivated to work harder and achieve more if they can channel that energy constructively.

The implication of this is that dissatisfaction is not a bad thing – in fact, chronic dissatisfaction it is probably an essential characteristic of high achievers.  That is not to say that all dissatisfaction will lead to good outcomes – it takes a bunch of other things to turn E^P into a positive outcome (things like creativity, ethics, knowledge, and opportunity).  However, few good things (new technology, medicines, art etc) will come about unless somewhere, someone is dissatisfied and then does something positive about it.

One final thing.  It’s also critical to understand that dissatisfaction is NOT related to mood or demeanor.  We don’t have to be grumpy or angry or in any other negative mood state to be harnessing dissatisfaction (though there will probably be plenty of times when this is the case).  We can also be curious and creative and energetically happy while we seek to make improvements to the world.  It is these latter people that history will most positively tell the story of, as they will be the high achievers who are also respected and liked.

So to the key points here.  Don’t mind any dissatisfaction you feel when you look around your life, think of it as a ready-made source of E^P and bonus energy that not everyone else has.  In the game of life, your dissatisfaction is a competitive advantage.  Actively looking for dissatisfaction might even sometimes be a good idea, especially if we feel that we are languishing or floundering a little.  Importantly though, dissatisfaction in any form is only E^P, and the skills to recognise and convert dissatisfaction into E^K and positive movement also need to be learned, nurtured and mastered.  Letting the energy of dissatisfaction in any form build up too much is bound to end dramatically (and not always positively), whereas a steady consumption might be far more productive.

(Also, try not to let dissatisfaction put you in a bad mood.  That won’t be fun for you or for anyone else, and if you are going to be remembered by historians, you don’t want to make them annoyed with you first.)

Chapter 5: Probablistic determinism

Chapter 7: Selfishness is not a dirty word

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