In the book, she distinguishes between 'creators' and 'second-handers' in the world. Creators are people who create works in the world, while second-handers are those who recycle other people's creations for their own purposes and contribute nothing to the world. Creators are the protagonists in the book, while second handers are the antagonists. And it's not hard to see why - she portrays the second-handers as being the leeches of the world.
I'm feeling quite lost by why I chose to do engineering, especially electrical engineering. I have not yet discovered my passion for EE yet, nor have I ever really created anything of value as an EE. When I look around me, I see so many of my fellows EE's who may not have the best grades, but who are definitely creators, and I just know that they'll do well as engineers in the future. Whereas when I look at myself....sure, my grades aren't bad, but I feel like I'll really never contribute anything meaningful by being an engineer. The worst part of it is, I'm lacking the passion to be a creator. It's not simply about not having the tools at my disposal, but it's about the fact that I just...don't really want to create anything. I'm fine being a second-hander.
This fact scares me the most, more than anything else in electrical engineering or in university. I used to make fun of people who go to college just to get a degree...but am I really any better than that? I'm glad that I'm at least getting good grades, and that's always been what my parents have taught me to do, but somehow I feel like there should be more to life, or a college education, than good grades. I've never created anything in my life, and I want to start, but I just don't know how to start it. People always tell me to just go online and look at guides or manuals, but without the mindset of a creator I just can't go through with it.
It's a similar situation, when I tell people who want to learn piano to just "pick up a learner's book and start playing". When you don't have the mindset, you won't be able to learn it. I cannot figure out if my mindset is something that I can change, or if I'll be stuck forever as a second-hander. I've been conditioned to be a second-hander my entire life, and after reading Ayn Rand's book, I feel like I could be doing more. But....how do I start?
-FCDH
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you said it yourself, find your passion, find your reason to become a creator. how to do this, I'm not sure, different methods work better for different people, meditation, daydreaming, or pretty much any kind of self questioning, letting the answer come to you naturally. but also, just because ayn rand put creators as the protagonists and second-handers as the antagonists doesn't mean that either one is 'better' than the other and in fact, everyone is a bit of both, albeit the relative scaling (if that's the correct terminology) is perhaps skewed in some rather than balanced. best wishes. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think being a 2nd-hander is all that bad. Most innovation today is simply finding new ways to combine existing technology. I know exactly what you mean about some people having a drive to produce, I don't have it either :P. I'll be happy working on other people's projects for my career. Someone has to.
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