Fantasy, real life, problem solving

[erratio]

I have recently realised that i I ever want to be a Serious Intellectual (or even just do things that are cool but challenging, like programming pet projects), I'll need to cut back on my fantasy/sci fi reading  and game-playing hobbies. The reason? My 'thing', that dictates what I find the most interesting, is basically problem-solving. Present me with a complicated system or problem and I will bend over backwards trying to understand it (and then get bored as soon as I sufficiently understand it. This is definitely a weakness of mine, since "I understand what I need to do to get the answer but I can't motivate myself to go through the boring mechanical part" doesn't fly as an excuse at uni). But any competent fiction author is also a decent worldbuilder. And those fictional worlds hold just as much attraction for me as real life science, since a well-built fictional world is a shiny new complex system that I start out knowing nothing about and need to unravel through the hints that the author drops in passing. As for computer games, they thrive on being able to use systems too complicated for a human to calculate by hand, and usually also have giant worlds to explore.
So in short, my brain doesn't distinguish well enough between reality and fiction. And what's more, fictional worlds are almost always easier to understand than real world problems. This makes it more pleasant to read books and play games than to work on real world stuff, since I get a faster payoff. The trick will be to train myself to be able to ignore those short-term gains and go for the longer-term ones that are ultimately more satisfying.

Comments

[focality.livejournal.com]

The only computer game I'm working through (very, very slowly) is Machinarium (http://www.machinarium.net/). It's very much like the PC puzzle-solving games like Myst or Riven. Gorgeous artwork and fun characters. I used to love getting immersed in PC or console games, but now I have little patience for them.

My "serious" reading includes The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale, an actual murder mystery that required the services of what was the nascent form of the "detective" or "inspector." This is a real "whodunit" and inspired detective fiction as well as the science/profession of crime-solving, and the inclusion of detectives/inspectors in police departments. While it's certainly an interesting subject, I feel Summerscale has a tendency to go off way too far on digressions, although not on the scale as Homer or Beowulf or Tolkien. I'm half way through it but haven't picked it back up since summer of last year.

Currently, it's the book Bird Flu (http://birdflubook.com/) by Greger. Much easier going, and there's a family connection since my sister-in-law is part of a research team working with bird flu, so I can ask her stuff.

My gaming time is very limited nowadays. Comes with marriage and home ownership, I guess. That, or I've come to realize many games have you doing the same little things over and over and over for 2-3 hours. Probably why I like Scrabble, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.