Interesting thoughts, thanks for the reply! I am very much in agreement with you on some of these points. I think you're absolutely right that people can think

Interesting thoughts, thanks for the reply! I am very much in agreement with you on some of these points. I think you're absolutely right that people can think in a way that is too existentially broad and disconnected from concrete reality in a way that actually magnifies their suffering, rather than reducing it. That said, I think "value" can be just as broad/general and, in some uses, might actually be being used as synonymous with "purpose." I don't think people generally have in mind the Aristotelian "final cause" (the end, that for the sake of which a thing is done) when they use the word "purpose". OP may have been, I don't know. The way I think about it — and I think what most have in mind when they ask such questions, although, not necessarily OP, I acknowledge — is a feeling that you are using your time in a way that is worthwhile. Or, perhaps, in psycho-physiological terms, experiencing a signaling that says "there aren't more important things you I could be occupying myself with" (not at every moment, but generally). Jordan Peterson was once asked about meaning and the way he articulated it gave me a lot of food for thought. He said: "To me, meaning is implication for action for reorganization of the perceptual frames that frame action." I think this is very useful and sort of responds to some of your points/concerns in that it anchors the question of meaning in action.