do you even care if you aren’t obsessed.
the world was changed by people who had no reasonable balance and approached problems in proportionally non-symmetric ways.
obsession is the refusal to average yourself out.
it is choosing depth over hygiene.
it is letting one question eclipse everything else until the rest of life becomes background noise.
people like to pretend obsession is optional.
that you can want something badly, but not too badly.
that you can care deeply without letting it deform you.
that has never been true.
every meaningful advance comes from someone who crossed a line they were not supposed to cross.
worked longer than was healthy.
ignored advice that sounded reasonable.
persisted past the point where quitting would have been socially acceptable.
obsession looks unhealthy from the outside because it is.
it consumes relationships, sleep, money, dignity.
it replaces comfort with momentum.
it trades approval for truth.
obsession is not intensity.
it is not motivation.
it is not discipline.
it is when stopping feels more unnatural than continuing.
if you can put the problem down and feel fine, then it was never yours.
if you can substitute it with something else and feel fulfilled, then it was never fundamental.
if you can explain it away as “just a job” or “just a phase,” then it never mattered.
most people are not obsessed.
they are interested.
they are curious.
they are career-aligned.
interest evaporates under friction.
curiosity dissolves under boredom.
careers bend under incentives.
obsession does not.
the obsessed person keeps going when there is no signal.
when no one is impressed.
when progress is invisible and the feedback loop is broken.
they do not need momentum from the outside.
they generate it internally, often to their own detriment.
this is why obsession looks irrational.
it ignores optimization.
it ignores balance.
it ignores advice that begins with “be realistic.”
realistic people maintain the world.
unrealistic people replace it.
there is a cost to this.
obsession is not virtuous.
it is not noble.
it does not make you kind, healthy, or well-adjusted.
it makes you effective.
and effectiveness is uncomfortable to watch.
that is why people pathologize obsession after the fact, but celebrate its outcomes.
they want the results without tolerating the process.
they want the artifact without the obsession that made it inevitable.
you cannot have both.
if you are not obsessed, that is fine.
most people shouldn’t be.
a stable society depends on people who can disengage.
but if you are going to work on hard problems, foundational problems, problems that matter, then obsession is the admission price.
anything less is tourism.
and tourists do not change the landscape.