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Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
71–80 of 167 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#72Read Marx (for real, not just skimming) then the Bible (for real, not just skimming). Worked for me.
I think that if God is really there (not just as a word, not just as an idea, but as Someone who really exists), and if He can be known, then that's worth chasing. A shiny new car? Not so much. As Dion said, "Cadillacs end up in the junkyard." Money? As Tim O'Reilly said, "Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don't want to run out of gas on your trip, but you're not doing a tour of gas stations. We need to…
Yes, just a Jesus-following (not in a church other than for volunteer work) commie at this point. Figure the point of all this is to have kids and help build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the goal eventually being a society that doesn't require anyone to work. Heaven is free time.
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#73We are trying to create value for key stakeholders. When does it end? It's always ending. And yet it is also always beginning anew each fortnight.
Anyone not experiencing the sublime joy of unification and oneness with the market is really missing out. The process of transcending material constraint by commodifying their labor so that it can rise to the platonic ideal of profit hasn't truly lived. Nothing else comes close.
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#74Purification — Deification — Theosis. 6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!” ... 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclu…
Better to have your own internal framework of morality than one which is externally imposed. Otherwise, when your god tells you to sacrifice your son, you might actually do it.
Good words! I usually cut it down to "I don't need a religion to be a good person". )
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#75We're yak shaving.
There's a simple algorithm, similar to the "Five Why's" technique[0] that uses a particular question[1] to elucidate the chain of intentions between a given behavior and it's deepest motivation.
Using this algorithm, it turns out that all behavior is directed toward achieving certain "core states". There are five of them and I forget exactly what they are, but um, Bliss, Oneness, Okayness, Being, and something else...
Anyway, as you might imagine, these "core states" are incredibly nice, and they are also not dependent on anything, so once you experience them through the process the original behavior is typically transformed in a deep and profound way.
So that's what we're chasing: these profound states of being.
The problem is that we are chasing them using very complicated and counter-productive and indirect methods. We are yak shaving.
Fortunately, these folks in Colorado came up with the aforementioned algorithm[2] and it's slowly spreading. I figure it's a pretty major advance in the history of psychology, eh? A short easy path to healing and happiness and growth...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys
[1] Not to be mysterious, it's "What do you want, through having that, that's even more important?" but there's more to the process than just that question, please don't experiment without learning the whole thing first, okay?
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#76Simple to answer, hard to accept: we don't know what, but we chase because we are built to. The hopes and dreams for the achievement and the normalization after it are working as intended. It's the mechanism that keeps us from stopping. We rationalize the direction, but the truth is we have little freedom in choosing it. As an individual all this makes little sense, but as a species it has gotten us pretty far. And it has done so by making as many people chase in as many directions as possible.
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#77If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. There are plenty of opportunities in life you can find you at if that's something you are after.
But, desires must meet possibilities...? (
I don't enjoy living under constant threat to my life and imposed choice of either being recruited (war) or jailed, even regardless of poor health condition. I'd really love to change this and do what I love (like art and programming). But it's a bit laughable )
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#78Some say "x" is always "less pain". Less pain for you or your loved ones.
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#79You're supposed to enjoy the journey, not hyper focus on the destination. If the journey is not fun, the destination is not worth it, especially since you may never even get there in the first place.
The journey is always hard and unpleasant because it's full of risks and uncertainties. If it's not then you are not really journeying but staying at home.
Re: Ask HN: What are we even chasing?
#80My answer was found by having kids. For me, one of the absolute best things about having kids was that it eliminated all doubt: I now had a 100% crystal clear main quest that trivially answers, "what should I be doing right now?" if I'm ever not sure. Everything else in life, especially my career, is just a side quest now. Why am I working? Before kids I foolishly thought it had something to do with being part of a t…
I also didn’t know what the answer was for a long time. I count myself lucky that I lucked into the path that led to the best outcome for me once I did figure it out. Relentlessly pursued money for the first decade and a half of my career. Worked at boring FAANGs and job hopped the moment my compensation flat-lined. Then started a family, realized the answer for me was “family time” and am pivoting to optimizing for predictable work hours and free time. Now I’m running out the clock at my current employer. My next one, if I choose to have one, will be one that can guarantee copious free time.
If I had been more idealistic in my young adult years, I would have most likely grinded hard at some “change the world” startup that fizzled out and now I’d be frantically scrambling to afford a house.