Why is there always a self-imposed need to extract something from ourselves instead of just being? I really hate this in the modern world. Maybe one of the worst defining traits of industrial times.

Because people generally will not pay for others to "be". And they will not give you food or shelter if you don't pay. And the money has never been more concentrated away from the people who would prefer to just be.

If you don't self-impose, society will structurally impose it on you.

The article is about aligning yourself to a higher goal of creation, not extraction. Several of the examples given show ideas as something that is received, not created. That's why simply hard work and focus don't result in them.

Not at all a modern idea. Pico della Mirandola would rank mere being the lowest form of existence, the same sort of existence a plant has.

Mirandola's is the oldest source for the ranking of being that I can recall off the top of my head, but the idea is almost certainly even older.

> On man when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life. Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will be like a plant. If sensitive, he will become brutish. If rational, he will grow into a heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God.

- Oration on the Dignity of Man