The Missing element

In science, philosophy, and logic we can often intuit things that are beyond our senses by observation and deduction. Things like gravity and dark matter can’t be perceived by our five senses be we know that they exist through logic.

 

I was lying down in a room full of screaming people playing with cameras and lights as part of our course work. This was meant to be a group effort. But not being ennfusistic about either the task or working with others I decided I would sit down and wait until someone told me to do something. But  even though I waited for an hour no-one did.

The project was going fine without any supervision. I had to wonder why. No-one was forcing the other students to do anything. I suppose they were enjoying it?

 

This got me thinking. They were all engaged in this group effort. But I was waiting for someone to make me engage. So I asked myself. What would make me engage given there was no set amount of work or failure state?

Well. A sense of vision for one thing. A sense that I am making something I care about and share in making with others. I love coming up with ideas for stories with other people. Adding, fine-tuning, and creating something great with a person I care about. But this exercise had no room for creativity. It was just mechanically playing with lights and cameras. And as for the people there? They’re fine. But I wouldn’t call them friends. And I don’t think most of them would give that moniker to each-other.

Money would be the second option. I’ll happily do a mindless task if there is some-sort of tangible reward for it. But here there is nothing to be gained by doing it.

 

So there’s no structure or failure-state. No reward. And no vision to be expressed. What am I missing? Was it fun for the others? That wouldn’t explain why they would start it though. They wouldn’t know it was fun to start with. Do they just like each-other that much? But then why didn’t the exercise just breakdown into something else? Why did they keep working long after having each had a turn?

I think I am missing something. Some vital element that would keep a group of people working on a pointless task that I can’t discern and probably just don’t have.