The way I heard it that makes sense is that to be optimally productive you need to be "hungry" in the sense of wanting more and not being complacent. But you don't want to be starving, generally.
For the same reason, some say the worst addiction is a steady paycheck precisely because it makes you complacent.
These sayings are probably half-motivational with only a kernel of truth. If you are an heir or heiress you will have a big advantage, even if your motivation is less. But there are other metrics than just money, of course. If your point is to achieve excellence or greatness, or operate at the peak of your abilities, then possibly there is such a thing as being too comfortable.
The person who invented automatic valves on steam engines was the lad hired to run up a ladder, turn a valve, run down the ladder, turn a value, run up the ladder, etc., all day.
He rigged up a system of rods and levers to do the work for him, so he could sleep.
> The way I heard it that makes sense is that to be optimally productive you need to be "hungry" in the sense of wanting more and not being complacent. But you don't want to be starving, generally.
Being hungry or starving. OK. But I think a more important point is: do you know if it is a temporary thing (2h, half a day) before you get back to the certainty of not being hungry or worse starving ? I think this uncertainty is killing any mindframe you need to innovate when pushed to the edge like that. It will eat at our brain instead and not trigger macgyveresque magical JIT innovation (also: learned helplessness). Also, not everyone can innovate (wrong place, wrong time, wrong social circle or whatever the circumstances: that's not their thing).
> For the same reason, some say the worst addiction is a steady paycheck precisely because it makes you complacent.
This is the front, I think `some` here are some of those psycho freaks who rises to the top by violence (symbolic) and want to fit everyone and the whole world into a survival of the fittest vision to justify their behaviour when rising. Most people don't want to fight like that, type A personalities are imposing these values to their benefits because it makes it easier for them to justify their fighting/cheating/being-violent in rising up by imposing it on the rest. There's also the just world hypothesis playing a huge trick on them by justifying their behaviour after the fact. `I did it like this so it is the way to do it. Now fight for your bread, peasants.`
I wonder if this actually why we consider kids more creative than adults. Maybe it is really that they have just less to care for and more self-motivation than adults.
In junior high, my best friend and I spent weeks doing exactly this, and spending hours in our math teacher’s classroom, excitedly showing him our work. Thanks for reminding me of this. I can still remember some of our approaches.
For the same reason, some say the worst addiction is a steady paycheck precisely because it makes you complacent.
These sayings are probably half-motivational with only a kernel of truth. If you are an heir or heiress you will have a big advantage, even if your motivation is less. But there are other metrics than just money, of course. If your point is to achieve excellence or greatness, or operate at the peak of your abilities, then possibly there is such a thing as being too comfortable.