$20,000. That is what I paid to discover what my true passion in life is.
I paid an institution to monitor me while I read other people’s works. And I did that, of course, so that said institution can ensure I have the “correct” view and interpretation of those works – which of course means their authoritatively declared interpretations of said works. That was both a mistake and a stroke of luck.
Many bookworms and curious minds make the same mistake I made. They reach a certain age where they must begin to find sources of money and work. They have to provide value to others, so that income can be gained. And naturally, they see university as the best of both worlds; a place where books and ideas are placed in high-regard and where they can earn money for spreading books and ideas as well. What else could a bookworm want?
But human minds are quite forgetful. Eventually, we forget that university is distinct from reading, writing, and critical thinking; eventually, we forget that we were first and foremost passionate about ideas and books, not university; eventually, we forget that university was only pursued out of pragmatic motivations, not by motivations of passion. Our memory for the initial reason to pursue university is like grass that has been walked on too frequently: after enough time has elapsed, what was once tall and vibrant decays and becomes flat and lifeless. All attention goes to those surrounding patches of grass, not the trampled patches.
And after a while, once the excitement of novelty wears off and the stress of higher-education begins, a stone slowly begins to roll toward the steepest side of the hill. A slow and inevitable snowball effect shall land on the base of our awareness.
We come to realize our own unhappiness. One day we see ourselves grading student papers, which was nothing we ever wanted to do; another day, we find ourselves being forced to cram read books we know ought to be read slower; and worst of all, we come to declare “correct” those ideas which we think, in our private thoughts, to be entirely false. We slowly come to realize those truths, in academia.
That is why I, Ideasinhat, exist. I realized university was not the same as reading, writing, and thinking; university was not the aim of my passion. Ideasinhat exists so I can write, read, and think about philosophy and science in the same passionate way as my younger self. Ideasinhat is not for studying or getting better grades, Ideasinhat is for the pleasure to be derived from philosophy and science.
The pursuit of passion without complication.
