" there is value in discovery"

"a lot of us get stuck in routines, whether it’s way we behave or what we think, and our world shrinks. How important do you think it is to project into new ways of thinking and being – how vital is it to inject change into our lives?.
That’s an interesting question. I do think it’s important to inject change into our lives. I think that a part of living sometimes involves what I think of as revelations – a discovery of new things about the world, new ways of being, new ways to interact both with the world, with others, and new ways to be. I think that’s quite valuable. It’s not true for everyone, I think it’s a dispositional characteristic, but to the extent that changing keeps you intellectually alive and vibrant and also living with a certain amount of uncertainty, even if it’s challenging and difficult, keeps you on the edge in a good way, then transformation, at least on some dimensions, is worthwhile.
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I wouldn’t say it’s always worthwhile, because sometimes a transformative experience is utterly negative and painful and horrible – and in some ways may make you into a better self, into a better person, but it’s hard to advise someone to go down that path.
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A terrible accident, for example, can be transformative, declining into Alzheimer’s can be transformative. These are often things that are incredibly painful and difficult, but I still think that they have value, in a way. Maybe what I’m saying is that you can even find value in some of the most negative experiences that we have, partly because they do teach us something: there is value in discovery....
Once we’ve made a decision that will lead to an irreversible change, should we try to make the most of the situation and, for want of a better term, embrace the change?.
Often with transformative experiences, it’s not that we have a choice. Part of the idea is that this experience comes upon us and we discover its character as it affects us. It’s not that you’re going to be able to step back and decide how you’re going to respond to it. You’re going to respond to it in a very raw and primal way, and that’s probably why it’s so life-changing. And sometimes we can be changed in ways that we don’t even notice – the long process of becoming a philosophy professor, for example. Day to day you don’t notice the change, it’s when you look back to years ago, when you embarked on the PhD, you realise that so much about you has changed and you’ve become a new self.
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That said, I do think there’s value in being open to change and trying to be comfortable with the uncertainty that transformation brings. I do think that’s the right way to approach things, but I don’t think we have a lot of control. A friend of mine said, “your ideas are kind of subversive in a certain way”, and that’s right, part of my point is that we have a lot less control than we think we do. We tell ourselves this story where we look forward, we make an assessment, we have control, we’re in charge, we know what we’re doing. And I’m saying that most of that’s just bullshit.
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Is change always positive?.
No. No, it certainly doesn’t always have to be positive. I think most of the time, even a change that’s largely negative has some positive elements to it, but I don’t see anything necessary about change being positive. It’s a gamble."

Trechos retirados de "Transformative experience" na revista New Philosopher