I didn't know what my Abilities were and how they relate to the others around me such that I can use them effectively.
Not only that I didn't even know what I desire aside from food and sex.
Luckily I was on a career trajectory and had quite a bit of experience ahead of me so I took solace in the idea that world travel, responsibilities etc... would flesh a lot of those abilities and desires things out for me.
It's been 13 years since, and I still have no idea where my Abilities lie or what I Desire aside from food and sex.
I like his suggestion to read Sartre, though I suggest Camus instead.
Why not be happy right now? The right way to go about it is that you tell yourself "I am pursuing my goal and I am happy, right now, to do so." It is incredible how this changes the quality of life, plus you can detect problems with yourself and the environment early because if you can't be happy with your present situation at all, it's time to change something.
Precisely. To the best of our knowledge, we're just robots. There is no meaning behind the universe, it just kinda, is.
The realization that the only sense you can find in life is the one you create yourself, makes a lot of things clearer. This is also why it should be irrelevant that life is meaningless, since what do you care about the true meaning of life (which probably doesn't even exist) once you found something better, more satisfying, that you can cope with and develop in?
Kids get raised being told they can buy stuff that'll make them happy, and it's only when you become an adult and get a bunch of real world thrown your way that you get the chance to realize how much crap that is actually worth. And yet the majority of the western population doesn't seem to understand that you can't buy happiness. Sure, it's nice to have central heating and a full fridge, but these would make less fortunate people extremely happy! For a while, until the pipes bust and you need to make the guy come 'round to fix them.
Still, heating and fridging have at least some intrinsic value. They keep you from freezing over during sleep and keep your food from rotting. But everything else, after the initial surge of serotonin or whatever other hormone, just becomes part of the annoyances that keep you going throughout the day. At best, it blends into the furniture, so that you forget you have it and buy it again.
There is something seriously wrong with our lifestyle, but it's not clear to me how it can be fixed peacefully. Or violently. Or at all. Because human nature led to this, and how are we supposed to overcome that?
Winning at life is a process, not an event or a one-off result. It can be anything from really enjoying a hot chocolate while watching a sunrise, to nailing a product demo, to that first (or third) date with your crush.
Winning at life is not something you can be 'done with', except maybe by dwelling on and reliving past wins. But then isn't that a kind of winning, too?
-- William Blake
The second kind of desire is that which you do not attach to. The outcome of these desires, whether accomplishing what you want or not, does not affect your mind. You don't crave these outcomes, or thirst for them.
In my opinion the distinction between "good" and "bad" desire isn't nearly as important as the distinction between what causes suffering and what alleviates suffering. Sense pleasures cause suffering when we attach to them.
AndrewKemendo's problem lies in the lack of contentedness, not lack of happiness. No matter how many sense pleasures we choose to indulge in, they are all impermanent and unstable, all ending, all unsafe.
The entirety
of a mountain of gold,
of solid bullion:
even twice that
wouldn't suffice
for one person.
Knowing this,
live evenly,
in tune with the contemplative life.
When you see stress,
and from where it comes,
how can you incline to sensual pleasures?
Knowing acquisition
to be a bond in the world,
train for
its subduing.
- The Buddha (SN 4.20)
Conformity
"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
And another which reads:
"Miraculous power, marvelous activity. Drawing water, chopping wood."
Verify any approach to life by generalisation: what would happen if everyone followed it?
The Buddhist approach leads to stagnation.
You can choose a ready guide,
in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide,
you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears,
and kindness that can kill.
I will choose a path that's clear.
I will choose Free Will.It's definitely fair to remind people that they have options, but most people want stability, family, to watch the game, enjoy the sunset, and derive little joy from shaking things up and wagging it in other people's faces.
Moreover - most people recognize that life is just as much a responsibility as it is an opportunity.
The 'Rock N Roll' movement was about self actualization, but when everyone fully self-actualizes, there is nobody left to pay the bill for the hotel room that was just trashed.
Life is fairly mundane, it's mostly just work, dealing with people, common things. Even for 'famous and exciting people'.
See those kids you have? No, don't have a choice but to raise them to the best of your ability.
most of the time it's how to behave / conduct oneself in the presence of other humans, AND instill / 'indoctrinate' life-long love for knowledge
p/s: yeah, it's a LOT trickier that it sounds
I find this is quite new & profound.
The goal we may have had when we started, doesn't change, but we do, and so it's unlikely that we desire it as much as we did or thought we did.
We can't "make it" because there is indeed no destination. The meaning of life is to grow.
That's exactly the message on "the journey is more important than the destination".
It's much easier when there's a milestone -- just pick another one. (Graduated? Graduate again!) Then you run out of milestones and have to ask more difficult questions.
Oh well, maybe said commentor is 10 years old.
* Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/
* The Rum Diary (2011) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376136/
If you are not already a fan of Johnny Depp, these movies should do it.
* Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_on_the_Campa...
* Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1967) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels:_The_Strange_a...
His ability to just push himself into the situations and into what he was writing was outstanding. He saw and he wrote, one of the best writers from U.S.
Both the letters and articles were released in 3 book series each. These are my favourite books from each series:
(letters) The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 (The Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1
https://www.amazon.com/Proud-Highway-Desperate-Gentleman-195...
(articles) The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Shark-Hunt-Strange-Tales/dp/074...
I tried reading it after seeing a lot of recommendations, but gave it up quickly; my sentiments are echoed by this[1] Goodreads reviewer (2nd most 'like'd review there, 1st most liked gives the book 5-stars though):
> I honestly don’t remember the last time I was so bored and annoyed by a book. Barring a massive conspiracy, maybe I just didn’t get this book? This is what I got from the book. Please help me if missed something. We drove more than 100 miles an hour while drunk and high. WAHAHAHA! We ran up a huge bill and fled the hotel without paying it. WAHAHAHA! We picked up a teenage girl and gave her drugs and then left her alone, all scared and paranoid. WAHAHAHA! We nearly strangled the poor cleaning lady. WAHAHAHA!
> [...] This book must have been really cool and hip when it was published in 1971. If anyone writes a book like this these days, the only thing that I have to say is: grow the fuck up.
[1] http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/102994163?book_show_act...
Visual representation is breathtaking, in many ways thanx to Terry Gilliam - for me this is the pinnacle of his career. He managed to get so much spirit of the book and atmosphere of those times into it... Countless little details lying here and there.
"And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. " is just the choice Thompson postulates.
To me, I now believe the overarching purpose of life is to have children. Two distinct groups: those with children and those to help those with children.
Parenting (becoming a parent) puts a humans heartbeat into perspective like nothing else can
I reached the same conclusion myself very early on when it became very obvious that it's the most logical conclusion to reach based on the evidence we currently have about the "meaning of life". From a biological perspective, the meaning of life is to stay alive procreate. It sounds empty and ironically, a bit meaningless, but most of what we do in our lives that we find great joy in are rooted in these two very fundamental goals.
Every time we eat a delicious meal we're keeping ourselves alive. When we have great sex we're fulfilling our procreation desires. Even travel can be traced back to those two base desires because we've evolved to take great pleasure in exploring new worlds and relying on our wits to survive.
Now that I have two children of my own I'm more certain than ever that ultimately, it's what I am here to do. My life only has meaning insofar as my children's lives have meaning, and in that way I am fulfilling a centuries old promise to my ancestors who ultimately gave me life by living meaningful, fulfilled lives themselves.
You make a good point, but I would like to make it more broad. The purpose, the secret to life, and to fulfillment, is being of value to others. Children are just the most immediate, appropriate people to be of value to, and it's often in a service capacity.
I think becoming a parent is the most effective way to reset our own egos. I think being self-serving is built-in and there are all sorts of wonderful benefits to that evolutionary mechanism.
To Thompson's point, we are all just floating until we find a purpose. Floating has little value. So, it is worthwhile to adopt a purpose for the value that it provides. When that purpose ceases to provide value it should be abandoned in the most severe way possible. Through this process we have the potential to identify our character and our abilities.
And for those in and around Andrew's comments: ful·fill·ment fo͝olˈfilmənt noun 1. satisfaction or happiness as a result of fully developing one's abilities or character.
* S. Gröblacher, T. Paterek, R. Kaltenbaek, Č. Brukner, M. Żukowski, M. Aspelmeyer, and A. Zeilinger. An experimental test of non-local realism. Nature 446, 871–875 (2007) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7138/abs/nature05...
In minute 38 I ask the question if he can describe an example of finding meaning in life. https://youtu.be/D-EeF1quouY?t=2305
In one of his books he says the meaning of life is "about experiencing existence, in all its angles and glory, for the sheer and pure sake of experience itself! We don’t eat a nice meal, make love or travel to beautiful locations just to understand or make sense of something. We do these things because the experiences themselves imbue our lives with a kind of timeless meaning, independent of comprehension." -- Kastrup, Bernardo. More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth And Belief (p 203). John Hunt Publishing.
Ask yourself the right question in the moment itself, fully aware of your emotions and the things around you, and the answers could rise up automatically - 'the meaning of life' cannot be an armchair intellectual exercise he says. This has been my experience in life as well, it takes practise to get back to the Nexus. As Dr. Soran tells Picard: "They say time is the fire in which we burn. Right now, Captain, my time is running out. We leave so many things unfinished in our lives... I know you understand"
That's an interesting perspective, but, let me poke at it bit.
If you were to be able to experience all those things you describe but had no one to share them with, would they have meaning? What if you were in a simulation so that it seemed like you were doing all these things with other people, but you knew that you are in a simulation all alone? Would these things still have meaning? Would the experience be worthwhile?
I would suggest that whilst they may still be somewhat worthwhile, without other people to share those experiences with, without a public sphere within which to express your unique and distinct story to the rest of humanity, life becomes significantly less meaningful.
To build meaning, we need both the private experiences you describe and the existence of others who can bear witness to our lives and give it an existence outside of our own minds. Yes, the experiences are valuable but they become exponentially more so when they are part of the story of our lives, communicated to our equals.
A great source for this discussion is Hannah Arendt's book "The Human Condition". I find it really heavy and difficult to read but full of incredible insights and powerful ideas about certain features/definitions/perspectives of human life. Highly recommended.
If it is in fact a perfect simulation, and you as the actor in said simulation cannot detect a tear in the fabric of the simulated reality, you will, in due time, repress any prior knowledge of said previous "reality" by integrating it with your reality i.e. rationalizing it as a dream. As there would not be any discernible difference between being real and feeling real, any worthwhile experience would, by definition, be worthwhile.
https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-t...
Like this one, http://tranquilmonkey.com/19-super-foods-naturally-cleanse-l...
They actually do write in the article that there is no research done to back up the "superfood detox" and actually seem to provide some good tips instead. But I still cant understand why they go for that style of article headlines.
I agree to always check who the source is. Be aware of its baises and so on.
Still, in 1945 Raymond L. Libby invented an oral delivery method for penicillin. Had Hitler done this, would that discovery not still have been important or valid?
Another quote, from the same, which I remember as vividly as (and juxtaposed with) this letter:
"Everybody is looking for someone who can stand up in the wind. It is lonely standing up and crowded lying down. I refuse to be an anchor for other people’s dreams—but then I refuse to anchor mine to anyone else."
* I wish my younger self knew the risk of loaning such a loved and personal book
1. Hated working for others. One day manager refused to grant hike (in salary). Googled for a resignation letter, and mailed him the first one found.
2. Didn't know what to do. Decided to do freelancing. Took up a project that was too big for my mouth (read, implementing an ERP for a small retail chain) . Took away some good 2.5 years of my life, for peanuts. But learned a ton. The project was a failure from client's perspective, but I had my contractual obligations met.
learning - Freelancing is not my cup of tea
3. Started an e commerce company. Was one of the first companies in hyper local space. But had a similar feeling that this is not my cup tea, since it required raising large amount of capital for a poor margin business. Shut it down after 2 years.
Learning- I want to build something organically
4. Finally I stumbled upon a business which I truly love. It is yet to make any money. Have been toiling for the last 2 years. But I enjoyed the journey hell lot. And most importantly I feel I can make this work
5. So I took some 5 years to find that one thing that I really love doing, and that I am reasonably good at. Still the unproven part is whether there is a 'need' for that in the market, to make it economically viable.
6. Was it worth it? It was hell lot of pain. Getting depressed at times. But to me there was no choice. So no regrets. I would have done the same , if I were to go back and do. And hopefully we (me and my co founder) will make it.
Overall learning- You cannot discover yourself without getting lost. And getting lost is painful, at times, very very painful. But some pain are worth it (for some).
Whether to float or to swim is a hard choice. But if you decide to swim, make sure that 'to swim' is the only choice you have. Else you are more likely to 'get' back to 'float'.
Understanding how best to live your life is a gradual learning process and is not really so complicated.
The school of life video on it is 60 seconds and covers the basics:
A lifestyle merely describes and/or quantifies the way one lives.
I'm not sure how you get to this conclusion based on the post or the comments, and I am not sure what value it provides. I think this is the precise mode of conformity Thompson is railing against.
Currently, conformity is the common path, "the floating," Thompson describes. It seems to me the outliers with a purpose and the will to swim to their goals find fulfillment along the way.
This is correct.
I don't draw the conclusion from the post, I make this statement to directly contradict the post, which I believe is unwise.
A further video that underlines my point:
> "I joined the opera to get my union card and meet girls. I was a saloon singer, so I went down to the Baltimore Opera and learned an aria and auditioned. I figured I'd do one show and quit. But the girls were everywhere and the truth is, the music was really decent."
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson
I recommend everyone do some research on his suicide, it's very interesting. Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson#Death
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone
else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living
with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let
the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner
voice. And most important, have the courage to follow
your heart and intuition.
-- Steve JobsI find myself doing this. Avoiding books that I think might upset my current reality for no apparent gain. It does make me feel intellectually dishonest, though. As in, I should be able to read anything and handle it rationally.
You are not a robot. That belief is intellectually dishonest, and is only there because of ego.
Sex?
"a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance."
So very true.
Following your passion[s] may or may not be bad advice but predicting the consequences of doing should be measured. Life has a way of making that self evident.
So says every philosopher that ever lived.
For example, the article on the sidebar about the 'dying man' was copied from Reddit and elsewhere
https://www.google.fr/#q=Powerful+Advice+From+a+Dying+Man
We should try to link to original sources, not aggregation sites.
That's on a par with, "Buy the ticket, take the ride." I think.