4 ms·

Brutal and depressing. Might as well just end it all at 50. None of the spiritual mumbo jumbo resonated with me at all. What's the point of going on if you can'

by biohax2015 7y ago

Brutal and depressing. Might as well just end it all at 50. None of the spiritual mumbo jumbo resonated with me at all. What's the point of going on if you can't contribute?

cujic9 7y ago
We're on a rock flying through space. In that context, what does contributing even mean?
- biohax2015 7y ago
  In that context, it means nothing. However, I do not live in that context, I live in a society and inside my own head, and this is what generates an idea of contribution and happiness. > We're on a rock flying through space. I have never understood this phrase as anything more than a platitude to make people feel better. Anyway, don't mind me. It has been raining all week and I think it's affecting my mood.
  - 13415 7y ago
    >> We're on a rock flying through space. > I have never understood this phrase as anything more than a platitude to make people feel better. It's more than a platitude. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA Still, nothing better than a rainy day on earth.
  - cujic9 7y ago
    > However, I do not live in that context, I live in a society and inside my own head, and this is what generates an idea of contribution and happiness. Right. This just happens to coincide with a shift in my life, where all the old contexts from my youth are meaningless, and I need to find new contexts. So if there is no such thing as contributing, then the contributing you used to do only mattered because of a context you (or I) constructed to find important. I don't think the right answer is to say, "Nothing is important." I think the right answer is to relentlessly seek for a new context to find important, to give meaning to our own life.
- eloff 7y ago
  If you zoom out to the time and space scales of the universe there is no meaning to be found. Humanity is merely a short lived aberration. None of that is relevant to our human lives on a daily basis. And this nihilistic appeal otherwise is just missing the point. It's an easy way out for people who'd rather not investigate the meaning of life more deeply.
  - iteriteratedone 7y ago
    We are infinity in the making. You are living at the peek of this entity. This has always been true but take some account for it and where it might go. Fist it wa the mountain peaks, then it was the continents next stop the ends of the galaxy. You are either an engineer tryig to make money or one trying to advance mankind. Weather it be a js lib, curing cancer or building a rocket. We all have our part. Maybe relatively speaking we are meaningless now but in time we will define our place in the universe together. Just like the molecules in your body work together to make meaning from a blank file.
bzbarsky 7y ago
The key insight is that "contribute" can mean different things, and it's worth broadening one's definition of "contribute". The J.S. Bach example really struck me in this regard.
- biohax2015 7y ago
  Yeah, I guess. It just makes me upset that we have to change what we do and how we live in response to our physical and intellectual decline. What if I don't want to teach? What if what I do now is what makes me truly happy? I guess I am still young enough to be in denial that age will kick my ass.
  - chr1 7y ago
    Make donation to SENS foundation! But even if rejuvenation drugs are not ready in time for you it is not a reason to want to die sooner. The things you want to do now are mostly determined by your intellectual abilities, and if there was a way to enhance them you may find the things that interest you now boring, and yet that is not a reason for you to die now. Also a great way to want to teach, is having grandchildren. There is a theory that evolutionary reason for humans and some other animals to stay alive after reaching the end of reproductive age is to take care of grandchildren.
  - bzbarsky 7y ago
    Yeah, I can totally understand struggling with this. I do too...
bsder 7y ago
> What's the point of going on if you can't contribute? Because "peak" isn't required to contribute. I strongly suspect I can't program like I can when I was 25 when I could hold a gazillion details in my head simultaneously--now I simply find a task that requires that to be distasteful. I am, however, MUCH better at architecture and organization so that I don't have to hold a zillion details in my head. That also means that my programs are far easier for others to understand than the ones I wrote when I was 25. Which one is the better "contribution"?
- mistrial9 7y ago
  a point here is, can you eat dinner each night and keep a place to live, while contributing...
  - flukus 7y ago
    I'm sure we've all worked with plenty of mediocre people in our careers, you don't have to outrun the bear, you have to outrun them.
    - cujic9 7y ago
      Except for when you're on the same project. Then it's like canoeing with mediocre people. When the alligator comes, instead of paddling for one, you are paddling for two.
etse 7y ago
I am attached to the idea of contribution too, but I honestly think that desire is very much spiritual. We're getting at life's purpose at this point.
firecall 7y ago
Thats for each of us to work out. If you don't work it out, then you will find yourself sitting on a plane wishing you could just die with your wife asking you to stop saying that. I'm in a similar position - bounced around careers, approaching 50, and currently lost in the woods and pissing my wife off.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

Brutal and depressing. Might as well just end it all at 50. None of the spiritual mumbo jumbo resonated with me at all. What's the point of going on if you can't contribute?

cujic9 7y ago

We're on a rock flying through space. In that context, what does contributing even mean?

biohax2015 7y ago
In that context, it means nothing. However, I do not live in that context, I live in a society and inside my own head, and this is what generates an idea of contribution and happiness. > We're on a rock flying through space. I have never understood this phrase as anything more than a platitude to make people feel better. Anyway, don't mind me. It has been raining all week and I think it's affecting my mood.
- 13415 7y ago
  >> We're on a rock flying through space. > I have never understood this phrase as anything more than a platitude to make people feel better. It's more than a platitude. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA Still, nothing better than a rainy day on earth.
- cujic9 7y ago
  > However, I do not live in that context, I live in a society and inside my own head, and this is what generates an idea of contribution and happiness. Right. This just happens to coincide with a shift in my life, where all the old contexts from my youth are meaningless, and I need to find new contexts. So if there is no such thing as contributing, then the contributing you used to do only mattered because of a context you (or I) constructed to find important. I don't think the right answer is to say, "Nothing is important." I think the right answer is to relentlessly seek for a new context to find important, to give meaning to our own life.
eloff 7y ago
If you zoom out to the time and space scales of the universe there is no meaning to be found. Humanity is merely a short lived aberration. None of that is relevant to our human lives on a daily basis. And this nihilistic appeal otherwise is just missing the point. It's an easy way out for people who'd rather not investigate the meaning of life more deeply.
- iteriteratedone 7y ago
  We are infinity in the making. You are living at the peek of this entity. This has always been true but take some account for it and where it might go. Fist it wa the mountain peaks, then it was the continents next stop the ends of the galaxy. You are either an engineer tryig to make money or one trying to advance mankind. Weather it be a js lib, curing cancer or building a rocket. We all have our part. Maybe relatively speaking we are meaningless now but in time we will define our place in the universe together. Just like the molecules in your body work together to make meaning from a blank file.

bzbarsky 7y ago

The key insight is that "contribute" can mean different things, and it's worth broadening one's definition of "contribute". The J.S. Bach example really struck me in this regard.

biohax2015 7y ago
Yeah, I guess. It just makes me upset that we have to change what we do and how we live in response to our physical and intellectual decline. What if I don't want to teach? What if what I do now is what makes me truly happy? I guess I am still young enough to be in denial that age will kick my ass.
- chr1 7y ago
  Make donation to SENS foundation! But even if rejuvenation drugs are not ready in time for you it is not a reason to want to die sooner. The things you want to do now are mostly determined by your intellectual abilities, and if there was a way to enhance them you may find the things that interest you now boring, and yet that is not a reason for you to die now. Also a great way to want to teach, is having grandchildren. There is a theory that evolutionary reason for humans and some other animals to stay alive after reaching the end of reproductive age is to take care of grandchildren.
- bzbarsky 7y ago
  Yeah, I can totally understand struggling with this. I do too...

bsder 7y ago

> What's the point of going on if you can't contribute? Because "peak" isn't required to contribute. I strongly suspect I can't program like I can when I was 25 when I could hold a gazillion details in my head simultaneously--now I simply find a task that requires that to be distasteful. I am, however, MUCH better at architecture and organization so that I don't have to hold a zillion details in my head. That also means that my programs are far easier for others to understand than the ones I wrote when I was 25. Which one is the better "contribution"?

mistrial9 7y ago
a point here is, can you eat dinner each night and keep a place to live, while contributing...
- flukus 7y ago
  I'm sure we've all worked with plenty of mediocre people in our careers, you don't have to outrun the bear, you have to outrun them.
  - cujic9 7y ago
    Except for when you're on the same project. Then it's like canoeing with mediocre people. When the alligator comes, instead of paddling for one, you are paddling for two.

etse 7y ago

I am attached to the idea of contribution too, but I honestly think that desire is very much spiritual. We're getting at life's purpose at this point.

firecall 7y ago

Thats for each of us to work out. If you don't work it out, then you will find yourself sitting on a plane wishing you could just die with your wife asking you to stop saying that. I'm in a similar position - bounced around careers, approaching 50, and currently lost in the woods and pissing my wife off.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]