Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958) • Hacker News Board

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#121

Post by marcosdumay » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:01 PM UTC

SanderMak wrote: post #57

> If you’re genuinely satisfied with what you are and what you’re doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) I 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.

> 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.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#122

Post by andrepd » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:02 PM UTC

mynameishere wrote: post #40

jrcii wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's not about the destination it's about the journey" is extremely cliche in my experience, though it may be good advice.

Yes, banality to an embarrassing extreme. That someone would comment "I find this is quite new & profound" gives me a philosopher's wince. Oh well, maybe said commentor is 10 years old.

Oh, someone came to a conclusion that you had come to before? How inferior must they be to you.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#123

Post by icebraining » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:02 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #48

noobermin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

terryf has a fantastic comment, but what end are you talking about, death? A good way of figuring out what you value is considering if you die tomorrow, why wouldn't you (assuming you aren't suicidal). If you really don't matter either way then why not just do the thing that feels good?

Well that's essentially what I do - with an over current of dread. I think if I could afford it I would probably be a habitual heroin user. From what I read, it seems to push all of the same biochemical "happiness" and "fulfillment" buttons as all of the other relationship/activity/experience things that people like to do, albeit with some side effects.

They do, for a few minutes; the rest of the time, everything becomes even worse. And the experience is never quite like the first times, even by pushing up the doses. At least, that's what the users and ex-users I've known describe. Personally, I wouldn't trade even a life of quiet desperation for that.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#124

Post by losteverything » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:08 PM UTC

Frost's The Road Not Taken, originally written as a joke, is an easy frame to view my life, imho

"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

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#125

Post by icebraining » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:10 PM UTC

jomamaxx wrote: post #16

unexistance wrote: post #5

"no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company." Conformity

You mean: 'Responsibility'. See those kids you have? No, don't have a choice but to raise them to the best of your ability.

The conformist part is believing that to raise kids to the best of one's ability requires one to do something one doesn’t want to do for the rest of one's life.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#126

Post by picents » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:11 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #63

firstworldman wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine what it's like to be on the other side of you? I don't know you, and I wouldn't presume to know anything about you other than what you've revealed in your comments, but what I can say is that you've been handed enough lego blocks to build anything you want to, and it seems like you've set them aside because they're not the specific blocks that you had in mind to build the thing that you envisioned at…

Oh, yea those close to me hate it. Everyone else seems fine cause they only see the professional side, so as far as they know, everything is just A OK Great! Not only family but I have a high stress business to run and people counting on me! Thanks for taking the time to write that out though. In reality, all you write is correct generally. This wasn't intended to be a mini-therapy session, but for what it's worth th…

Its hopeless dude just give up - on yourself. Live for others and see what happens.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#127

Post by fsiefken » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:16 PM UTC

Coincidentally, yesterday I attended a talk by Bernardo Kastrup on the topic of finding our purpose in life. Kastrup is a philosophical idealist, he explained an alternative to the existentialist view of creating your own story and meaning in a essentially meaningless universe outside of ourselves reasoning in part from recent insights in physics. For example:

* 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"

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#128

Post by njloof » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:20 PM UTC

mr_overalls wrote: post #109

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more of a neurotic addictive compulsion and ego seeking behavior than something that is desirable as a sense of fulfillment. These neurotic addictive behaviors (checking social sites, compulsively reading random things, chewing tobacco, drinking alcohol, sleeping) dominate most of my non-mandatory, un-allocated time. Everything else is just a yawning void of nothing, including my wife and 3 kids. Not for lack of…

The thrill-seeking and "yawning void of nothing" are a bit concerning. Have you ever looked at the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder? http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/antisocial-per...

Please don't try to diagnose people on the Internet.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#129

Post by njloof » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:25 PM UTC

losteverything wrote: post #124

Frost's The Road Not Taken, originally written as a joke, is an easy frame to view my life, imho "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…

And becoming a parent challenges me to figure out how to impart life lessons like these. I think it's best if I help her discover them and choose among them.

Re: Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

#130

Post by njloof » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:28 PM UTC

jrcii wrote: post #7

giis wrote: post #3

"In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important." I find this is quite new & profound.

"It's not about the destination it's about the journey" is extremely cliche in my experience, though it may be good advice.

It may be cliché, but it's still hard to comprehend until you reach a life goal and have to ask yourself, "Wait... Now what?"

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.