Ask Lemmy

I'm not religious or spiritual so I'm a pure hedonist. I work so that I can maintain a comfortable life for my wife and I with vacations and other treats. In my 30s but not very interested in having children; might be tempted to adopt in my 40s but will need to see where I am at that point in my life.

Essentially the goal is to be happy as a clam (that is a strange phrase now I consider it). It would be nice to author something to leave my name for future generations but I kind of get that from contributing to open source projects when I get the chance.

I'm going to throw a trigger warning on this next part just in case:

There is none. You get used to it.

I'm religious so that's pretty much figured out for me lol

I have so many goals man. I wanna travel the world, meat new people, stay in one of those hostels or that website where you can work to stay. I wanna scuba dive, rock climb, surf, run marathons, hikes and all sorts of stuff before I get too old to do anything fun.

Two phrases I like for this:

There isn’t the meaning of life, there is your meaning of life. This realistic approach recognizes our constantly shifting values and how radically different it can be per person.

And of course Herbert’s

The mystery of life isn't a problem to be solved, but a reality to experience

There are three ways to look at the meaning of life.

The realistic: the is no meaning of life, no grand idea behind it.

The biological: the meaning of life is to procreate.

The philosophical: The meaning of life is to make the world better than when you arrived.

Since the first two are boring to talk about, I'll skip right to the third, making the world better than it was when you arrived.

In my case, I am an IT guy, I solve other people's problems and enable them to do their job, making their day slightly better.

I am also a hobby photographer, who share photos for free on the internet, people seem to like them so I have made their day slightly better as well.

Perhaps I can make your day slightly better by linking my Pixelfed: https://metapixl.com/Stoy

Isn't the idea of a meaning of life irrelevant if you believe that the universe is deterministic?

By multiplying 21 by 2

You climb the tallest mountain you can find, and you ask the old man sitting there.

i only do what i want to do, no more or less

I did this kind of self-exploration at one point. I used to find all my meaning through work, which I later realized was leaving me feeling unfulfilled. So I lowered my professional ambitions in favor of focusing on the relationships I had with close friends and family.

Then I changed genders. And then those relationships got completely fucked up. And now I feel like I have nothing left to live for.

So I guess if you're looking for meaning, my advice would be to pick something that doesn't depend on other people.

What do you keep living for?

I want to see what happens in the future.

Is there a specific person, goal, or idea that you work for?

My primary goal is to retire and not have to work anymore.

Is there no meaning to life in your opinion?

There is no external meaning. People can provide their own meaning.

Zoom in. I don't care much for the troubles in the world. I vote, but that's that. I care for my family and friends and for my personal development. In that order. Lately it's been mostly the latter. That is all right for a while, but eventually I'll have to put things back in the right order.

Meaning is something imposed on reality by consciousness, not something necessarily inherent to existence itself. I am here because here is where I am. What that means to me is that I should have a good time while the opportunity persists because all evidence seems to insist that the chance will not last forever.

So, eat. Be merry. Protect that which moves me and those who can not protect themselves. Help others to do the same. That's the meaning of life to me.

Life is for two things. 1. Experience 2. Love.

I think I won at life.

Have experiences and respect other life. That's really it.

The Earth created lifeforms that can understand the universe. Even if there are other conditions out there that can create life like that, it's not common. There is unfathomable empty space between planets and their moons. To say nothing of between planets or stars or galaxies.

Good news! You're one of these rare combinations of matter that can understand the universe. In a real way, we are the universe trying to understand itself. Scientists explore it in a deep way, and should be respected for that, but you don't need a PhD to participate. A single celled organism who figured out better ways to swim in its little pool helped the universe understand itself. The first human to taste a strawberry helped the universe understand itself. Have experiences.

There's a lot of other life also participating in this, and they should be respected, too.