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alexandraerinWhen I was quite a bit younger, I thought that satellites and space craft all had to use thrust to stay in orbit... that they had to constantly fight against the pull of gravity in order to remain aloft.
Of course, this isn't true. It's perfectly possible to maintain altitude by generating lift that cancels out the downward acceleration of gravity, but it would be expensive and difficult compared to how a stable orbit is actually achieved, which relies upon gravity's constant action to maintain the correct course rather than operating in spite of it.
This all comes to bear on a conversation I had last night which touched on, among other things, distractions in my life. I've tried eliminating distractions before, but ultimately the problem is not so much that external things have the property of being distracting as it is that I have the property of being distractible. Trying to fight tooth and nail against the forces of distraction is like trying to keep a space station aloft by directly countering gravity. I can do it, but it's ultimately not a very efficient way of addressing the problem.
Sometimes the struggle is necessary. You have to kick your legs to get your head above water sometimes, you have to beat your wings against the air to get some altitude. But a lot of swimming is floating, and a lot of flying is gliding.
And a lot of maintaining orbit is constantly falling in an optimal direction.
Of course, this isn't true. It's perfectly possible to maintain altitude by generating lift that cancels out the downward acceleration of gravity, but it would be expensive and difficult compared to how a stable orbit is actually achieved, which relies upon gravity's constant action to maintain the correct course rather than operating in spite of it.
This all comes to bear on a conversation I had last night which touched on, among other things, distractions in my life. I've tried eliminating distractions before, but ultimately the problem is not so much that external things have the property of being distracting as it is that I have the property of being distractible. Trying to fight tooth and nail against the forces of distraction is like trying to keep a space station aloft by directly countering gravity. I can do it, but it's ultimately not a very efficient way of addressing the problem.
Sometimes the struggle is necessary. You have to kick your legs to get your head above water sometimes, you have to beat your wings against the air to get some altitude. But a lot of swimming is floating, and a lot of flying is gliding.
And a lot of maintaining orbit is constantly falling in an optimal direction.