no reason teaches bravery. reason teaches care
I don’t think any person is a stranger to opening up to a new task. I, for one, have been trying to get into the habit of writing. Storytelling, to be exact. But I always come up with a few reasons as to why I should put it on hold: I don’t have a clear idea yet, I still need to do more worldbuilding, I haven’t developed the characters enough; those sorts of stuff.
Likewise, in a game of chess, you have to think about your next move all the time. What would the opponent do? What can I do to maximize my pieces? Would sacrificing this be beneficial to me? It is, rather, a game of reason with the mind. It teaches you to watch your step—to be careful. To care for every opportunity to win.
On the other hand, particularly in video games, I would often live by the practice of YOLO and just going headfirst towards a powerful dungeon or boss of the sorts. For instance, Doom Eternal teaches me that and benefits me the most when shoving myself right in the face of my enemies. And I’ll tell you, it gets the job done, and it’s damn fun.
The same thing also applies to coding, in my experience at least. When you go out from the shelter of tutorial hell to make your own projects, you would almost always be left to your own devices. And so, when encountering some problems of my own, I would often come up with the weirdest solutions and fixes to them and then just leave them be since it just works.
The point I’m trying to make is that reasoning helps you stay in control of yourself. It slows things down and allows you to sit through it first before coming up with some sort of resolve. But caring too much also comes at a cost: it paralyzes you, makes you vulnerable to the curse of Medusa herself.
Meanwhile, going through life without reason gives you, well, nothing to lose. You constantly move with no signs of stopping for others. That movement without fear gives you a strong willpower to sacrifice things for the sake of moving on. However, that on its own is destructive and could end up with you having nothing in the end, lacking a sense of sympathy for the things around you like a rampant fire in the woods. It usually only ends up with something okay at best.
Now, take for instance the practice of properly crossing a road with a fear of crossing the road. You stop first, waiting for the cars to pass. You look left and then right, waiting for the right time to cross. And then, you go, and you are on the other side. You cared for your safety to the point of making sure and double-checking your environment, but fed no reason for your fear because of the inevitable need to cross the road. You clenched your fist and ran for it after caring enough, and there you are.
Subscribe via RSS or just Leave a Message