Donald Knuth on work habits, problem solving, and happiness (2020)
&gt; ...it turns up in Philippians 3:16, where the writer says that:<p>&gt; &quot;You don&#x27;t race to get to the goal; the process of racing itself, of keeping the pace, is the real goal.
When I go on vacation, I like to enjoy the drive.&quot;<p>&gt; In Christian churches I am least impressed by a sermon that talks about how marvelous heaven is going to be at the end. To me that&#x27;s not the message of Christianity. The message is about how to live now, not that we should live in some particular way because there&#x27;s going to be pie in the sky some day. The end means almost nothing to me. I am glad it&#x27;s there, but I don&#x27;t see it as much of a motivating force, if any. I mean, it&#x27;s the journey that&#x27;s important.<p>---<p>This is Philippians 3:16: &quot;Only let us live up to what we have already attained.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s hard for me to connect that to the paraphrase given above. Furthermore, the previous few verses (12-14) of that same chapter seem to be more goal-oriented, than process-oriented:<p>&quot;Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.&quot;<p>Also see 1 Corinthians 15:19:<p>&quot;If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.&quot;