1. Questioning Objectives
Now, in his heart, Ahab had some glimpse of this, namely: all my means are sane, my motive and my object mad. Herman Melville , Moby Dick
Imagine waking up without thinking about what you need to do today. Have you ever done that? Suppose then you go to work, but instead of holding the usual meetings and poring over benchmarks and milestones, your boss instead tells you to do whatever you feel is most interesting . What would you do? When you later check the news online, there is no talk of national testing standards or missed objectives for the economy. Strangely enough, teachers somehow still teach and money somehow still changes hands anyway. Maybe you post a profile on a dating website, but you leave blank all the answers on what you look for in a partner. Today you arent looking for anything in particular, but that still doesnt stop you from looking. While you probably wont experience a day like this one anytime soona day without objectiveswhat would life be like if you could? Would it be confusing, difficult to navigate, too open-endedor, quite the opposite, a lot better ?
Its interesting that we rarely talk about the dominance of objectives in our culture even though they impact us from the very beginning of life. It starts when were barely more than a toddler. That momentous first day that we enter kindergarten is the gateway to an endless cycle of assessment that will track us deep into adulthood. And all that assessment has a purposeto measure our progress towards specific objectives set for us by society or by ourselves, such as mastering a subject and obtaining a job. The reality is that objectives lurk in the background from the earliest moments. But they only start there. Over the years they keep gathering steam, eventually enveloping practically everything we do.
If you want evidence for that, all you need to do is stop in at your local bookstore and take a look at the magazine rack. There you will be reminded that you might want to change jobs , lose 15 pounds , start a company , find a date , get promoted , change your look , make a million dollars , buy a house , sell a house , or even complete a video game . In fact, almost anything worth doing is expressed as an objective. Now, were not suggesting by any means that all of these objectives are a waste of time. Of course, many are admirable. Others may be more frivolous, but whatever you may think of one objective or another, we rarely question the value of framing all our pursuits with objectives. Can you imagine life with fewer objectives, or with no objectives at all? Would it lead to any good? Regardless of how youd answer these questions, at the least they highlight how deeply our culture has come to revere objectives.
And its not only about individual pursuits. While its true that children are graded for their progress towards mastering a subject, the schools themselves are also graded. But in the case of the schools, their objective is to produce high student test scores. Even nations set objectives, like low crime, low unemployment, and low carbon emissions. A lot of effort and resources are spent measuring progress towards these objectives and others like them. Theres an assumption behind these pursuits that isnt often stated but that few would think to question: We assume that any worthy social accomplishment is best achieved by first setting it as an objective and then pursuing it together with conviction. It makes you wonder, is there such a thing as accomplishment without objectives?
If you take a look at most professions, the answer would appear to be no. Take engineers for example. They typically set objectives through rigorous specifications. Then they continually measure how their prototypes compare to these specifications. Inventors are similar, conceiving an invention and then pursuing it as an objective. In the same spirit, scientists must come up with clear objectives to secure funding for their projects, which are then judged by how likely they are to achieve their objective. The list goes on. Investors set earnings objectives and corporations set profit objectives. Even artists and designers often mentally conceive a design and set its realization as their objective.
The weight of objectives on our thinking even impacts the way we talk about topics like animals in nature. After all, whenever evolution is discussed, we view animals through the lens of survival and reproduction , evolutions assumed objective. Even many algorithms , or programs that run inside computers, are designed to work towards some specific objective, such as finding the best search result or playing a better game of chess. In fact, these kinds of algorithms are quite common in artificial intelligence and machine learning. So it may come as no surprise that the term objective function is now practically a household name in such fields.
Maybe all this objective mania makes sense. At some level, we must believe it does to have allowed it to dominate our lives so completely. Or maybe its something elsemaybe weve become so used to objectives defining everything we do that weve forgotten that their value can even be questioned. Either way, theres a certain appeal to this kind of routine. The idea that all our pursuits can be distilled into neatly-defined objectives and then almost mechanically pursued offers a kind of comfort against the harsh unpredictability of life. Theres something reassuring about the clockwork dependability of a world driven by tidy milestones laid out reliably from the starting line.
Though often unspoken, a common assumption is that the very act of setting an objective creates possibility. The very fact that you put your mind to it is what makes it possible. And once you create the possibility, its only a matter of dedication and perseverance before you succeed. This can-do philosophy reflects how deeply optimistic we are about objectives in our culture. All of us are taught that hard work and dedication pay offif you have a clear objective.
Even so, perhaps youve felt qualms about this kind of thinking from time to time. It might sound good on the face of it, but what it leads to isnt always so comfortinglegions of measurements, assessments, metricswoven into every aspect of our lives. Its like weve become slaves to our objectives, toiling away towards impossible perfection. Objectives might sometimes provide meaning or direction, but they also limit our freedom and become straitjackets around our desire to explore . After all, when everything we do is measured against its contribution to achieving one objective or another, it robs us of the chance for playful discovery. So objectives do come with a cost. Considering that this cost is rarely discussed in any detail, maybe its a good idea to look a little harder at what were really giving up in exchange for such objective optimism.
But before we do, its important that you know that we arent pessimists. It may sound like this book is going in a cynical direction, but that isnt really true. In fact, we believe that human achievement has no limits. Its just that were going to highlight a different path to achievement, without the need for objectives. Theres a lot our culture has sacrificed in the name of objectives, and were going to take it back. Theyve stolen our freedom to explore creatively and blocked us from serendipitous discovery. They ignore the value of following a path for its own uniqueness, rather than for where it may lead. The chapters ahead will show that great discoveries are lurking just beyond our fingertips, if only we can let go of the security blanket of the objective. Sometimes, the best way to change the world is to stop trying to change itperhaps youve noticed that your best ideas are often those you were not seeking. Well come back to this paradox later, but first lets think a little more about the way most people approach achievement today.
