The Long And Winding Road

This came to me in a dream:

Once the shortest path is found it will be always be used.

But, no, that cannot be right.

How about:

Once the shortest path is found it will often be used.

Even that is wrong:

Once the shortest path is found it will not be used again, and soon will be forgotten.

Much better.

Life is not about finding the short paths. If that was the case, then people would commit suicide as soon as they figure out they can do it.

Life is about making the trip enjoyable and interesting and as long as possible. People go out of their way to take the long, winding road.

I was discussing this at the office, there was a concern that the geniuses of the past would remain in the past.

Specifically we were discussing the nowadays lack of outstanding and creative engineers. We will no longer have DaVincis or Michaelangelos. People do not seem to want to educate and prepare themselves and always seem to seek the easy answers.

The creative solutions seem fewer and fewer. They are dying out.

I did not and do not agree. I think people are exactly the opposite, though it is not immediately apparent. There will always be people who seek the difficult road, who seek a challenge: People who make it hard for themselves.

How do you otherwise explain people who take joy out of the most astoundingly difficult hobbies?

There will always be people who focus on the details and try to achieve the best results possible.

I don't think we can avoid it. I believe it's in our genes. It is what has help us survive all these millennia, it is what made the first men and women come up with language, with writing, with music, with technology.

All of the survival solutions did not come out of the need to survive; they came out of the need to do something, anything!

Many times we see people who do incredibly dangerous or even stupid stunts. These people are not stupid; they have an unchanneled drive to do these things from which they can achieve either Death or Immortality.

Many times these stunts will cause the death of those involved, but those other times... ...Oh, those other times. We will discover America, discover flight or even take that first step on the Moon.

So, no: I don't think Mankind is changing for the worse. We are and will be what we've always been.

We'll find those solutions, we will make it work.

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