Deconstructing awe

Our world is in information overdrive. Most of us do not remember the feeling of awe. Yet this fascination is the fundamental driving force of art, science and many other human activities. Please help me recover the lost awe.  You are also welcome to read here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Doing fascinating things

Everything I do is either extremely boring like brushing teeth or extremely fascinating. This is not because I am a cool guy, quite the opposite.  If I would not be fascinated with the activity, I would prefer watching TV or napping.

Everything we do is fighting for our attention. We could outline several lists of activities. There is a list of hygienic tasks, like taking a shower, cleaning dishes or driving to work.  Another list comprises of tasks that are good for us, like certain jobs or swimming. And then there are things that fascinate us. Everything else drowns in the noise of information we go through.

In fact, some advanced practitioners try to find fascination in hygienic activities and things that definitely pay off. We find this fascination not because we have unlimited curiosity.  We are simply afraid to skip even these  tasks,

Deconstructing awe

Awe is a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. I guess the feeling of awe is older than mankind. When we witness something truly awesome we have a strong emotional response. Our attention sharpens and perceived time slows to the point of flashbulb memory.  Everything in the awesome moment goes in slow motion and is remembered long after. We feel both the threat of something incredibly bigger than us and the opportunity of the new beginning. Our pulse goes faster and we get a huge portion of “feel good” hormones, maybe to fight some fear that would be appropriate in such a situation. Just check out the etymology. In Old English ege ‘terror, dread, awe’.

Awesome Science and Art

I confess to being fascinated by science.  Especially physics. When I think about the immense scale of galaxies and the miniature forces of quantum phenomena, the scale itself if fascinating. On the contrary to the pure simplicity of physics, biology or psychology fascinate me by infinite complexity in my own scale.

Art is equally awesome. The abilities of the great masters to capture the light, the emotions and moment are extraordinary. I can literally stand in front of a painting for hours watching every stroke of the brush with my eyes full of tears of joy and loss. Joy because I could see this painting, and loss because of no other painting will be equal in this particular way. Great music has a similar effect on me, but only in live performances.

Virtual fascination

While some things are awesome by their nature, other things are constructed to cause very specific fascination. For example, movies or video games. We are kept in tension with dramatic events and pyro techniques.  Each moment we fear for the heroes we are forced to emphasize with, and we are moved by the understanding of the strength and growth of the heroes.  There is very little natural in this fascination, and we understand that everything is engineered, yet we cannot stop watching or playing. Social networks, alcohol and other chemical substances, porn and industrial food are a virtual substitute for the natural awe. Unfortunately, these substitutes often happen to be more potent than the real thing.

Workaholics

At work, we can be equally fascinated by the things we do. There are several mechanisms:

• Superlatives. I happened to participate in several projects which were the greatest, most technologically advanced and widely spread market-wise. To be honest, the work on these projects has always been boring and I was overqualified. At the same time, I felt that I belong to something much greater than me, and was fascinated by being a part of it.
• Challenges. Some jobs, especially in small start-ups are extremely interesting because they offer a wide array of complex challenges that can be solved only creatively. We constantly fear great and highly likely fiasco, and at the same time imagine far less likely success both in each particular task and of the entire endeavor.
• People. Quite often we happen to work and communicate with great people. The people we meet as scientists have a very sharp intellect, the entrepreneurs have fascinating vision and audacity, the artists and salesmen have awesome intuition, managers and engineers may surprise with common sense and ability to simplify.  The list is long. We may be fascinated by working around some great people.
• Rewards. While this did not work for me, many people are fascinated by the financial rewards or the power mechanics of their jobs.
• Calling. Simply helping others is fascinating. Every time I feel tired from working overnight or yet another course or blog post I read a “thank you” letter from one of my students and readers and feel better. Of cause, there is also an element of fear regarding those individuals whom I could not help.

We are often fascinated by our work well beyond the level of a simple honest job well done.

The mundane

With so much fascination around, we often need to work hard to be fascinated by the small things.

• Our loved ones. When in love we are fascinated by the small things in our loved ones and we fear to lose them. The loss is inevitable as we change and grow, and the endearing features are lost to time. Therefore we are vigilantly trying to generate and catch the perfect moments and keep them protected in of our memory.
• The small miracles. Every simple object we touch is a result of incredible human effort and ingenuity. If we are curious enough to learn more about it, the histories we find are mind-boggling. This is everywhere. For example, now I work on a dental scanner, and something as simple as human teeth becomes fascinating. The food we eat or our sleep are great examples of something infinitely simple and infinitely complex at the same time.
• Human body. This is something which is always around and needs constant attention. At the same time, the human body is one of the most complex things we can find. It is a very complex mechanism on every scale. The computational device aka our brain is incredibly fascinating.  The things created by our body are unbelievable, be it dance or singing or another form of expression.
• Money. Enough said. If you are not fascinated by the money you are not a part of our society.

Balance

Our attention is bombarded by fascinating things. At the same time, we get used to everything and the awe disappears. It is unrealistic to expect feeling constant awe and fascination, yet it is important to preserve some awe to get motivated.  The balancing act is hard. I think we will discuss it more in the future.