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

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

#131

Post by endswapper » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:30 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…

I think Andrew's post hijacked this thread - not his fault.

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.

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

#132

Post by alanwatts » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

Toidiu wrote: post #13

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

I don't think it's necessary bad to choose a life that's ordinary. In fact he says that if you do then simply convince yourself that you had to. It's your life and you can always readjust your goals to match your circumstances.

There's an old Zen saying that goes:

"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."

And another which reads:

"Miraculous power, marvelous activity. Drawing water, chopping wood."

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

#133

Post by ajuc » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:38 PM UTC

genegc2 wrote: post #111

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…

In my experience, there is no joy without faith.

In my experience there is.

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

#134

Post by base698 » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:40 PM UTC

cha-cho wrote: post #106

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I've had probably a dozen therapists over the years Writing this as someone who went through SCUBA training (but never took the open water dive) and also went through an intensive private pilot training course (but never went on the check ride), I feel a sort of kinship here. Have you tried CBT or REBT? (REBT has the word "rational" right in it). The premise is that our thoughts can sometimes put unreasonable deman…

I would refrain from using CBT as an acronym. Urban dictionary could explain why.

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

#135

Post by ajuc » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 1:42 PM UTC

gwilkes wrote: post #108

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would experiment with the hypothesis that perceiving value and experiencing it as such are skills you lack but others possess No experimentation necessary, it's blatantly clear that's the case. that may be improved through deliberate practice Perhaps. Or maybe it's just trying to distract yourself from reality through what are commonly accepted "values." Hard to know. I read all those studies about "happiness" comi…

Andrew, you're fine. I'm going to guess that you're American as America is the most happy-obsessed culture in the world in my experience. Happiness as virtue is not universal, maybe you need some more time abroad. I know you said you visited 100 countries but visiting 100 countries and living in another country for many years is quite a different thing. Or maybe you just need different friends or perhaps a meditation…

> as America is the most happy-obsessed culture in the world in my experience.

Yup. I blame their constitution.

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

#136

Post by swombat » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 2:07 PM UTC

fsiefken wrote: post #127

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…

> 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.

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.

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

#137

Post by cha-cho » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 2:09 PM UTC

base698 wrote: post #134

cha-cho wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've had probably a dozen therapists over the years Writing this as someone who went through SCUBA training (but never took the open water dive) and also went through an intensive private pilot training course (but never went on the check ride), I feel a sort of kinship here. Have you tried CBT or REBT? (REBT has the word "rational" right in it). The premise is that our thoughts can sometimes put unreasonable deman…

I would refrain from using CBT as an acronym. Urban dictionary could explain why.

CEBT from now on it is. Though DBT is worth a mention too and it's not all that different from what's described on Urban Dictionary.

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

#138

Post by xufi » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 2:09 PM UTC

njloof wrote: post #130

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.

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.

Agreed, I find myself the same way. I end up keep asking myself. Is this really what I want in life? or perhaps there's another avenue or path that I could take that would fare better for me in the long term

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

#139

Post by dionidium » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 2:12 PM UTC

toomim wrote: post #17

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #14

I remember reading this in college and coming away with the feeling that what he was proposing was impossible. 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 w…

Did you not desire to write this comment?

“Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling. And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.”

-- William Blake

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

#140

Post by genegc2 » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 2:20 PM UTC

ajuc wrote: post #133

genegc2 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, there is no joy without faith.

In my experience there is.

That's certainly equally valid. But my brief comment was meant to also be a humble suggestion of another place to look - another thing worth trying. It's a viewpoint that definitely seems to be in the minority in this forum, but it's an important one to consider. A couple more ideas worth considering: - Coming to a place of faith starts like everything; it begins with the desire to have faith. - Consider the possibility that reason and faith are not mutually exclusive, but actually complementary (just give that concept a chance before dismissing it - it has a very strong intellectual history)