Careful Effortlessness

[DISCLAIMER: The following ramblings are from the distorted point of view of a recent PhD victim and should not be taken seriously!]

There are two kinds of scientific research (says I) - 1. boring and often useless research and 2. interesting but (mostly) useless research. I am a careful seeker of the second kind. Individuals of the first kind can be seen sitting stooped down, working continuously on their laptops in their dark, little, damp offices. As opposed to that, individuals of my kind can be found sitting in their chairs with their feet resting on the desk while they are "thinking", in their well... dark, little, damp offices. Both the species believe in hard work - the first kind works hard to reach an actual physical state of being successful while the other works hard to reach a certain mental/metaphysical state of effortlessness. It consumes so much energy to reach this state that sometimes it feels imbecilic to miss on the success part. Nevertheless, once we strike that sweet saddle point of not working while working, we tend to stay in the suspended state indefinitely, unless kicked by an external source. Often, there is a constant or at least a sporadic source of noise that keeps disrupting that balance. But sometimes we find a crack, almost like a split through the space-time continuum where we can at least simulate and practice and taste the sweet blandness of "know-all" state. In some way it is like a stage of introversive depression, so mild that it actually keeps you high - a morphed reality that is always unchanging yet pretty. I think that is the reason we resist sudden changes, hate surprises, despise most pop-music, don't mind waiting or failing, like unfinished pieces of art, travel light through life - without mindless weights but with weightless minds.