From: natashavita@earthlink.net
Date: Thu Jul 18 2002 - 10:28:23 MDT
Anders:
>But is it worthwhile to be obsessed? I think one can measure human
>growth and happiness in how much flow experiences a person experiences.
>Obsessed people often have much flow, but eventually you tend to reach a
>point of dimnishing returns when you are very good at something. Hence I
>think well rounded renaissance people are more likely to experience much
>flow. Being well rounded doesn't preclude having a few great
>specialities.<
Not, it's really not worthwhile to be obsessed. It's worthwhile to be
focused, energized, directed, capable, intelligent and talented. The flow
experience, or art of zen-in-the-moment is better than being obsessed.
>J.S. Bach was definitely a creative genius, but also very fond of both
>sex and love, as his even for his time large family demonstrates. OK,
>one data point does not evidence make, but I think the evidence suggests
>that most of the really successful geniuses - Picasso, Freud, Newton,
>Gauss and Linneaus - did more than just one thing (and with the
>possible exception of Newton, did have lovelives).
I'm not sure what the heck enjoying sexual activity has to do with having a
sexual compulsion. Having periods of sexual flow allows the "thinking"
mind to take a coffee break.
A well-balanced genuis enjoys all positive and productive aspects of life,
contemplates the worrisome and dreaded aspects of live, and spends more
time producing concepts than sexual looping. But what about Freud's
marvelous understanding of totem and taboo? He was a wee bit compulsive
about sex, so much so that he wrapped a pscyhology around it.
"What is Genius? Genius is the sublimation of sexual libido onto cultural
and political goals. Libidinal sublimation enables the genius to work
toward cultural or political goals with exceptional passion and energy.
Genius usually has an innate predisposition toward one of four fields:
philosophy, art, science or politics." L. James Hammond
Suggested book: _Strange Brains and Genius: The Secret Lives of Eccentric
Scientists and Madmen_ By Clifford A. Pickover
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More
Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture
Executive Art Director, Digital Design metaculture
http://www.natasha.cc http://www.extropic-art.com http://www.transhuman.org
"I'd rather be inebriated on a classic life than a 1996 classic Merlot."
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