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I'm surprised existential crisis is not a common phenomena. Life has no meaning, no purpose. "I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is v

I'm surprised existential crisis is not a common phenomena. Life has no meaning, no purpose. "I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind." (Qohelet, in the Bible, about 2300 years ago). So why live? In my case, I examined my options. Purposely dying (including taking extreme risk while mountain climbing, etc) is not an option for now, because it would cause intense suffering for a few people I love. So I have to live on. I don't want to fake exaltation and fill my life with extraordinary activities. It's now hard to find pleasure in novelty: after reading thousands of novels, surprising books are seldom, and the same law applies to music, and most activities, including human interactions. Sometimes I'm just waiting for time to pass. But there's still a bit of feelings and pleasure to be found in the daily blunt life.

betimsl 7y ago
You have people who you love and (probably) love you back and yet you want to go? You're a narcissistic ignorant. Lift your head up a little and see the world you dumb idiot. Look at the people dying of hunger all over the world and you're sitting here telling us that you have read thousands of books and now everything is saturated for you instead of celebrating the privileges you have. I hope you live up to 100 and your time passes as slowly as possible because looks like that is the worst possible TORTURE somebody can wish for you.
- postsantum 7y ago
  This comment looks like a mashed up heap made of typical facebook replies under a public thread about depression. No arguments, just the good old starving african children and "why don't you just cheer up"
- me_me_me 7y ago
  Yeah exactly. Stop being depressed and just be happy! Easy fix. /s
- dang 7y ago
  Personal attacks will get you banned here. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules from now on. I realize you were probably trying to help someone by giving them a good kick, but that doesn't work on internet forums and breaks the guidelines even if your intent was good. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20tough%20love https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
robbiep 7y ago
It has meaning if you think it has meaning, it doesn't if you don't think it does. You say it has no meaning but then you say you won't end your life because it will cause suffering for people you love. So immediately it has at least one purpose - not to un-necessarily cause suffering to those you love; and meaning through that as well
vfinn 7y ago
To me when people say they don't want anything, they mean they don't want anything the way most people want it, or that they don't want it in a way that is expected of them. So the solution then is to go beyond what is normally done, which can be done with courage. Most people that have issues, have issues in the context of the society they live in. "I don't want to do extraordinary things (that is expected of me in this competitive world)", they say. "I don't want to live this or that kind of family life (that is expected of me)". To me, there always seems to be this "that is expected of me", or "in the way things are done" present. "Human interactions are not interesting, because the way I perceive how it is normally done, or how it is expected of me to be done, is not satisfying), and I can't seem to be able to do it any other way." Don't get me wrong, but people have generally astonishingly absurd problems, that are in a way self-created (or rather created in collaboration with the society they live in), and that is very much related to how satisfied they are with their lives, even they might not admit it. They claim the problem is with the stars, oh stars. And also, don't get me wrong. The problems are real. But they have nothing to do with the meaningfulness of life, they have only to do with the difficulty of having a meaningful life. "I want to do ph.d (because I think it's the thing expected of me), but in myself, I don't really want it. I want to garden. But I can't do gardening, because I have this potential I have to fulfill (that is expected of me), etc.". It seems to be hard to live simple life, or have simple life around, at least. People have created a problem out of their lives. People think, think, and think, as if there's nothing else. But to me, even though the status quo in this world is pretty crazy in general, there are ways to live a meaningful life, but not the way it's expected of you, but the way that you are able to create the interesting things yourself, not by expecting them from others.
gcheong 7y ago
A good analogy to the whole "so then why live?" question would be that of going to see a movie and realizing that you don't care all that much for it. It's not quite bad enough to make you get up and leave so you do stay to the end, maybe you even enjoy bits and pieces of it, but if you had known how bad it was overall before going you wouldn't have gone in the first place.

betimsl 7y ago

You have people who you love and (probably) love you back and yet you want to go? You're a narcissistic ignorant. Lift your head up a little and see the world you dumb idiot. Look at the people dying of hunger all over the world and you're sitting here telling us that you have read thousands of books and now everything is saturated for you instead of celebrating the privileges you have. I hope you live up to 100 and your time passes as slowly as possible because looks like that is the worst possible TORTURE somebody can wish for you.

postsantum 7y ago
This comment looks like a mashed up heap made of typical facebook replies under a public thread about depression. No arguments, just the good old starving african children and "why don't you just cheer up"
me_me_me 7y ago
Yeah exactly. Stop being depressed and just be happy! Easy fix. /s
dang 7y ago
Personal attacks will get you banned here. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules from now on. I realize you were probably trying to help someone by giving them a good kick, but that doesn't work on internet forums and breaks the guidelines even if your intent was good. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20tough%20love https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

robbiep 7y ago

It has meaning if you think it has meaning, it doesn't if you don't think it does. You say it has no meaning but then you say you won't end your life because it will cause suffering for people you love. So immediately it has at least one purpose - not to un-necessarily cause suffering to those you love; and meaning through that as well

vfinn 7y ago

To me when people say they don't want anything, they mean they don't want anything the way most people want it, or that they don't want it in a way that is expected of them. So the solution then is to go beyond what is normally done, which can be done with courage. Most people that have issues, have issues in the context of the society they live in. "I don't want to do extraordinary things (that is expected of me in this competitive world)", they say. "I don't want to live this or that kind of family life (that is expected of me)". To me, there always seems to be this "that is expected of me", or "in the way things are done" present. "Human interactions are not interesting, because the way I perceive how it is normally done, or how it is expected of me to be done, is not satisfying), and I can't seem to be able to do it any other way." Don't get me wrong, but people have generally astonishingly absurd problems, that are in a way self-created (or rather created in collaboration with the society they live in), and that is very much related to how satisfied they are with their lives, even they might not admit it. They claim the problem is with the stars, oh stars. And also, don't get me wrong. The problems are real. But they have nothing to do with the meaningfulness of life, they have only to do with the difficulty of having a meaningful life. "I want to do ph.d (because I think it's the thing expected of me), but in myself, I don't really want it. I want to garden. But I can't do gardening, because I have this potential I have to fulfill (that is expected of me), etc.". It seems to be hard to live simple life, or have simple life around, at least. People have created a problem out of their lives. People think, think, and think, as if there's nothing else. But to me, even though the status quo in this world is pretty crazy in general, there are ways to live a meaningful life, but not the way it's expected of you, but the way that you are able to create the interesting things yourself, not by expecting them from others.

gcheong 7y ago

A good analogy to the whole "so then why live?" question would be that of going to see a movie and realizing that you don't care all that much for it. It's not quite bad enough to make you get up and leave so you do stay to the end, maybe you even enjoy bits and pieces of it, but if you had known how bad it was overall before going you wouldn't have gone in the first place.