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"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
- Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption
Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote about hope (1).
At the time, I was undertaking my first year of work as a neurologist, in Cairns, Australia. I vividly recall one particular evening, whereupon I had been pacing in my apartment for hours, trying to figure out if being a standard neurologist was the "right way" in life, or if there was some other path that needed to be taken. I had decided that the answer lay in the latter, but to my eternal frustration, couldn't see what that was. Staring out the window, all I could come up with was to travel for another year, write about it, and that perhaps, through that endeavour, I'd figure something out.
Hope had dominated my life to that point, yet many hopes had not materialized, so I decided to begin this search by writing about this particularly elusive topic. As I settled down to do so, it dawned on me that hope in of itself was, in fact, a negative thing. Simply waiting upon a hope, and doing nothing to coax it into reality, was a nice way of guaranteeing that nothing would ever happen. Hope needed a workable plan, something that could outline the path to the hopeful objective. And beyond the plan, there lay action, a vital last ingredient that might enable the hope to materialize into reality. |
Andy in the prison yard...hope and a plan. |
After writing that initial article, I went overseas again, and never returned to live in Australia. During the ensuing years, I started out with no specific objectives other than to wander, and to write about those wanderings. It started out with external wandering, but upon moving to New Zealand, I emphasized the internal too...perhaps even more so. The more I did this, the more it seemed that I came to a worthy conclusion, something solid to stand upon, and yet that very same conclusion would also open up new roads that would, in turn, lead to yet more uncertainty. It seemed I would never find the right road.
Nonetheless, I was certainly learning things, so I developed a cycle of hope, plan, action, and repeated, it over and over. It led me in an unpredictable direction. I certainly did not foresee, 10 years ago, what I am doing today.
Prioritizing the Plan
In their new book, Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, artificial intelligence scientists Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman present an intriguing argument, which posits that the greatest successes are most likely to occur when there is no specific destination, goal, or objective in mind - that is, if the objective is to achieve a truly great thing, it cannot have been foreseen (2).
Stanley and Lehman set up their arguments by describing how our lives are fettered by objectives. These objectives are useful for planning and working towards ordinary things, like building a house, driving to the next city, or treating a minor injury. However, as an objective gets more lofty, and dares to step beyond the familiar, the objective itself becomes the impediment to its own fulfillment. This creates a problem for the greater goals, such as building a beautiful, unique structure, travelling beyond the stars, or curing an incurable disease. Paradoxically, the higher the objective, the more ethereal it becomes, and if it is high enough, the objective itself becomes a deception that prevents its own fulfillment.
Essentially, the authors argue that truly great objectives, or even greatness itself, cannot be foreseen or planned, and that great things are achieved not for the reason that they were planned, but for the reason that they were not. To support this assertion, they provide many interesting example throughout the book. Vacuum tubes, for example, were invented to control current flow, but then became crucial to the computer industry, although they were not designed as a foundation for modern computers. In another example, Elvis Presley started playing music so as to "act the fool," but ended up contributing to the creation of rock n roll, although he was not attempting to create a new music genre. Beyond these examples, there are even cases where moving away from the objective led to its eventual fulfillment. |
Does greatness result from having no objective at all? |
Rather than setting and working towards an exclusive goal, Stanly and Lehman contend that it is better to collect "stepping stones," which are interesting, exploratory objectives that are achievable in the present. Each stepping stone provides new information, which broadens the horizon and helps to achieve the next stepping stone. Rather than a goal-seeker, one should be more like a treasure hunter, aiming to collect as many stepping stones as possible, and in the long run, those who collect the most stepping stones are the ones who achieve the greatest success.
Essentially, one discovers the great things not by looking for them, but by following one's instinct towards something interesting. By following this instinct towards "interestingness," a network of stepping stones is formed, and it is this network that may, eventually, lead to fulfillment of a worthy goal. Importantly, this does not mean that a person should be aimless in life. It simply means that it is better to concede control of the destination, to abandon the highest objectives, for they are mirages that prevent their own fulfillment.
Prioritizing Action
I have long subscribed to the idea of having goals in life, which may be classified as A, B, and C goals (3). The A goals are those you know you can achieve, the B goals are those you think you can achieve, and the C goals are those that are super-exciting, yet seem impossible to achieve. Stanley and Lehman would have no problem with one making a plan on how to achieve A and B goals. However, based on their argument, the ultimate C goal would be to have no goal at all. Can these two concepts be melded together?
I think the answer is yes, and it lies in the key ingredient that helps one to collect the best stepping stones. In other words, the best C goal is not just to have a hope, plan, or instinctual interest, but to summon the courage to act upon all these things - on other words, the courageous acts in of themselves. By definition, this right road, the path of courageous action, is not a comfortable path, and it will necessarily lead to frustration at times. Nor is it not possible to know where it will lead or take you. Yet it is still the right road, even when it makes no logical or emotional sense, and even when it leads to risk and confrontation...especially when it makes no logical or emotional sense, and leads to risk and confrontation.
Instinctual interests, vague as they are, exist for a reason, and they are desperate for a release. It is only that last, most necessary step of courageous action that can grant them a tangible shape and form, an existence in reality, a vital life of their own.
Collectively, your most courageous actions are the chisel that shapes and forms who you are, and who you are becoming.
And that, in turn, is how you will be remembered.
Solace.
References:
(1) https://www.wanderingsolace.com/hope-january-2015.html.
(2) Stanley and Lehman, 2024. Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective. Springer.
(3) https://www.wanderingsolace.com/goals-january-2023.html.
