“Most world-dominating plans went sour, while a hefty proportion of modest plans to Make Something Cool actually worked out pretty well, paid the bills, and put food on the table.” (Doctorow 249)
Should we live with intention or just let things happen? How much say do we have in our path? If the ambitious plans to create something significant go “sour”, but tinkering around to just make something cool leads to success and food on the table, how can we trust our intentions will ever be met? According to the above quote, it seems like people have to avoid their goals in order to reach them which doesn’t make sense to me.
Avoiding our goals in order to reach them…perhaps we simply need to change the context in which we operate. We allow ourselves to get stuck in the economic cycle if we believe that is the way in which to live.
I like how you interpreted the quote as a paradox – to reach one’s goals, one has to avoid them. I admit that it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. I also enjoyed the philosophical question you pose about whether we should live with intention or just go with the flow.
Forbes, great selection this week from makers. I can really relate to this on a personal level in that I tend to mess up more when I have a “master plan” than when I do just messing with stuff. Good post c:
To me, that quote says “don’t dream big.” As kids we have dreams of stardom and riches, but most people don’t achieve that. I think its probably a better bet to go for something more reasonable, but what effects does it have to tell people not to shoot for the stars? This is really interesting Forbes. I will note that the coolest thing I have made in Tinkercad so far happened on accident.