an iota of the moon*
extract from an im conversation with a close friend. sorry the context cannot be revealed, still it's something to ponder about (much as i still ruminate on this beauty from km).
you get a little success and then think "why shd i throw it away"
makes sense when you think of it like that
being one of the very best in the world at what you do
how many ppl get the chance to say that?
yet to be at the top means to make sacrifices
and the question is -- when do you say enough
i've sacrificed enough, now it's my turn to cash in
--------
*title reference to a presidential campaign promise from my college days. the competition had roped in the star debator, and this was his line: "we do not promise you the moon, but we do promise you an iota of the moon." i'd played hitman on his eloquence by tramping our side's campaign trail saying, "we promise you no iota, just a toyota." memories.
you get a little success and then think "why shd i throw it away"
makes sense when you think of it like that
being one of the very best in the world at what you do
how many ppl get the chance to say that?
yet to be at the top means to make sacrifices
and the question is -- when do you say enough
i've sacrificed enough, now it's my turn to cash in
--------
*title reference to a presidential campaign promise from my college days. the competition had roped in the star debator, and this was his line: "we do not promise you the moon, but we do promise you an iota of the moon." i'd played hitman on his eloquence by tramping our side's campaign trail saying, "we promise you no iota, just a toyota." memories.
posted by Tabula Rasa | 10/25/2006 11:31:00 PM
11 Comments:
My opinion is that you should cash in early and often (like that awful game show - 'The Weakest Link').
All achievements are relatively insignificant in the long run (given the infinite nature of space and time), so you might as well try to build a relatively happy life for yourself out of a series of small everyday joys.
If being good at your craft gives you that daily pleasure then go for it, but if you consider it a sacrifice then you owe it to yourself to change direction.
Whaddya have to say about sunk costs baby, whaddya have to say about sunk costs.
Sacrifice... hmm.. I've heard that word somewhere in the last 3+ years.
- PM
Har har har...and I used to think Pols promising a sari/sack of rice/bottle of booze were being, you know, wildly impractical :D
Make hay while the sun shines isn't it?
Btw, i managed to upload songs on to Odeo but the html code I pasted on my site didnt work....Gah!!
mt:
is that really the best option on the weakest link? interesting.
pm:
sunk costs?! what i have to say is that accounting for them is irrational, you should not take them into consideration, judge the situation prospectively, and watch out for dissociations between evaluations and intentions. don't they learn you anything?
and have you been listening to elton john again?
km:
that's the supply-side model :-)
szerelem:
meet my friend MT.
(too bad about odeo. i hate it when things that are supposed to work don't. have you tried again?)
yep tried aagin and failed =(
But found a nice website where you can listen and download some of the tracks. Did you get a chance to see the videos?
Also, did you win the election?
"Please don't come back from the moon" - Mingus
I have several points of view, depending on the day of week:
1. You can ask for nothing more than being paid to do what you enjoy doing. (That's me, even if the money won't make most people drool.)
2. You can get paid for what you don't enjoy, and use the money for what you enjoy. (I know several people who quit their IT jobs -- having made a nice nest-egg -- for theatre, or activism, or writing, or whatever. And I met one person who uses her IT job to finance her documentary film-making hobby.)
3. If being at the top meant making sacrifices, maybe you climbed the wrong peak?
4. You may be "one of the very best in the world at what you do" but what good is that if what you do is flying kites or growing your ear-hair? (The Guinness Book of Records gets more entry requests from India than anywhere else, I believe.)
5. In the long run we're all dead.
If you've worked long and hard enough and wanted it that bad it shouldn't feel like a sacrifice should it?
szerelem:
i've been meaning to spend some time on that post of yours but sorry, it's just been a week from hell :-(
about the election, we lost. they played politics.
rahul:
funny - can't remember the last time i saw you not being singleminded :-)
m:
i agree, that's like rahul's points 1 and 3. it's a good point -- a sacrifice only seems that way in the presence of an alternate option. otherwise it may be tough to tell the line between singlemindedness and self-brainwashing.
As usual some irrelevant comments from me. I browsed through km's post and comments and some here; can sort of see what it is about and wonder why I did not have this kind of angst at any stage. When I found university boring I got out (kikcked out) and after a few years went to another university where they were not too serious about attendance and teachers did not take themselves too seriously. The very first job I had was probably the best I had. Could study and do research by myself without supervision. After a few years, I felt that I would vegetate if I stayed there and started moving around each time to a 'lesser' job since I did not have the patiencs to wait. Once left without a regular job next. Went a bit hungry off and on. But these days, one can always get some job and get by. Off and on when I was getting to the top of the heap locally (member of some UGC committee and such), I felt that it was time to get out. There always seemed to be some thing interesting to do or learn. Now I have a couple of papers to complete, one about hundred pages long and almost done and would probably justify what I have been doing for the last 12 years. But I find mathes less compelling and am reading other things now. May be it requires some stupidity to get by like this; there always seem to be interesting things to learn and do as long as one does not care too much about past achievements and status and have soe job to get by. Of course, it helps to have a 'reasonable' partner. But arthiritis, emphysema, diabetes etc are catching up and it helps to be in a country with some medicare.
swarup:
your comments are always very interesting. thanks a lot and i hope your health doesn't give you too much trouble.
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