Comment:

One of the wildest parts of growing up is discovering just how many things in your life are about the journey, not the destination. It's why skipping to the end - transcribing the answer key onto the test so you get an A+, inputting a code to give the final boss 1 HP, taking a helicopter to the top of Mt. Everest, attaching your FitBit to a paint shaker - is cheating, even when no one else is competing with you. You're not just being unfair, you're circumventing the point of the exercise.

Indeed, your life is about the journey, is it not? You certainly wouldn't want to skip to the end of that, even if your deathbed is surrounded by loved ones and material wealth.

The opposite side of the coin, however, is that we can get so focused on doing things the "right" way that we forget that sometimes it actually is about the destination. This is particularly the case with regards to "work", and sometimes, certain would-be headmasters forget that while cheating to get an A is very naughty, using a labour-saving device to lay bricks or stitch garments is not.

What parts of your life would you skip the journey to get to the destination? If you could load information into your head like Neo learning kung fu, would you do it? If you could get a paycheck without going in to work, would you do it? If you could skip ahead to intimacy in a new relationship, would you do it? If I could just push a button and generate comics without having to draw them, should I? What if the generated comics are slightly worse? What if the generated comics are slightly better?

Before undertaking anything, it's worth asking - what's the point? Is this going to be about the journey, or the destination? Will I enjoy the movie, or would I get as much out of it by reading the synopsis? Will shoveling the driveway be good exercise, or just wear me out and risk injury - and is a clear driveway worth it? If I submit to some authority figure who tells me that I must perform a task in an arduous way, do I trust that they know some benefit to the journey that will, ultimately, help me, or are they just bound to tradition or "work ethic"? If I skip to the end, is that really cheating, and who does that cheating hurt?

Transcript:

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0258 - 2167/07/06/19:00 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
Doc: Lee, the point is not that I am or am not choosing to record any particular piece of information. Ultimately, everything I record about you or the things you do or the things you say will all be deleted, one way or another, anyway.
Doc: The point is that the plot developments in any particular episode are not relevant to your fucking mental health, except insofar as you react to them. It's the reaction that I care about.
Zoa: Well, yeah, but it's a journey-not-the-destination thing, right?
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CP: H-how do you mean?
Zoa: Even if you know that the journey is what's important, you have to actually care about the destination or the journey doesn't work. S'like how the point of a blowjob is to give a customer some pleasant memories of cumming down my throat, but if I could offer you the memories without the events leading up to them, you wouldn't want that, right?
LC: ...I... I might want that, actually. Seems safer, if nothing else.
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Zoa: Okay, bad metaphor. But I can't actually offer false memories anyway, so pretend that I said something useful there.
CP: The p-point of s-school is learning and c-connections, not g-grades, b-but you're not going to learn or relate to the other students as much if you aren't at least pretending that g-g-good grades are important.
Zoa: Perfect, yeah.
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LC: Wait, the point of school is social connections? Since when?
Doc: Oh, since always, Lee. Education - especially early education - is often more focused on training students into proper workflows and on peer relationships than on the material ostensibly being studied. Johnni helps to prevent Jaxxon and Sorcelance.
Zoa: Mmm, I guess I should reset those name reassignments...
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