Applied Physics

Applying Isaac´s magic 1st law of motion to my life

Today, while pretending to work, but really reading other peoples blogs, I was quite inspired by somebody´s blog entry applying Newton´s law of inertia to humans in order to get procrastinators off their ass. This law states, that "an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."
I think you already get the gist, but I´ll elaborate: If a potato just rests on a couch watching TV, then by nature it will stay there forever, and if the potato is actually a whiz kid constantly coming up with new stuff it will keep on doing that forver as well, unless somebody hits the potato or the kid with a hammer, in which case something in their behaviour will change. Apply this to procrastinators, with the hammer being that brilliant blog entry mentioned above (it actually gave some naive tips on how to get yourself to do something like "write everything down that you have been putting off") and the result should be, that you get off your ass, follow the instructions, and become a better person.

Being a curious mind willing to do anything but my day´s work I followed the instructions: "Take 5 minutes and write down all the stuff you have been putting off." After about ... 20, nah, more like 14 seconds I realized that I am not the potato. I am more like the whiz kid: I had nothing to write down that I have been putting off except a few things I haven´t had the time for since I was busy doing other stuff(e.g. do my daily work).
I was disappointed, and went on to observe: On the surface the whiz kid does not benefit from being hit with the hammer. The only thing that will happen to him is a change in speed and/or direction, but in general he will still be doing something.
"Well fucking great, what a waste of time", I thought to myself, and went to the Sportsbar at my work. I got a few drinks and forgot all about Newton. Tonight though, after a nice talk with a friend and downing quite a number of inspiring Vodka-Lemon drinks I feel like I got somewhere with this law: I don´t have to get off my couch, since I don´t have one in Den Haag, but I can use this hammer called chance, change direction and find new horizons.

I realized although the European Patent Office is a real nice place to work at, with nice people, great sports facilities, and cheap beer, it is time to search for new waters to sail upon. I need waters that suit my appetite for a changing, creative, funny, philosophical and well-paying environment. Thinking about that now I´ll be darned if this already exists and I don´t just have to dream it up and create it myself. No problem, though, that´s certainly an interesting new direction to move in.
Nuff said. Sleep well, my fellow sailors, get off that goddam couch and go dream!

Captian Future