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Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

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

#141

Post by Fraterkes »

digi_owl wrote: post #93
Fraterkes wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a large part of the problem is that when people talk about finding "happiness" they are actually talking about "winning at life". Which is impossible of course. Every time that you do something that you think will make you happy, and you ask yourself 'is this it?' you allready know the answer, because someone who's satisfied wouldn't ask 'is this it?'. And if you spend years thinking about "finding happiness"…

Wonder how much of that can be blamed on consumerist marketing, and its drive to amp our desires.

I think that is a part of it, but also a lot the films we see and books we read have convinced us that we'll recognize happiness when we'll find it.

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

#142

Post by AndrewKemendo »

Fraterkes wrote: post #74
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…

Could you please expand on the last paragraph? I think about happiness a lot lately, and it seems like you have some intetesting thoughts.

There is an unending amount that has been written about measuring happens and finding happiness etc... All of it seems to boil down to what I would consider "hedonism with a mortgage." The focus is on "lasting happiness" with relationships and experiences being there paramount, and de-emphasizes material accumulation and intoxication.

Nothing ever asks the question "why be happy anyway?"

Seems like it's as bad of a goal as any, but it's how our biological systems create action.

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

#143

Post by oldmanjay »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #142
Fraterkes wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please expand on the last paragraph? I think about happiness a lot lately, and it seems like you have some intetesting thoughts.

There is an unending amount that has been written about measuring happens and finding happiness etc... All of it seems to boil down to what I would consider "hedonism with a mortgage." The focus is on "lasting happiness" with relationships and experiences being there paramount, and de-emphasizes material accumulation and intoxication. Nothing ever asks the question "why be happy anyway?" Seems like it's as bad of a g…

Teenagers ask banal but seemingly profound questions like this all the time. The answer is "because it feels better than not being happy."

You can really overthink this stuff pretty easily

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

#144

Post by devuo »

swombat wrote: post #136
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." -- Kast…

> 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?

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.

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

#145

Post by AndrewKemendo »

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…

Actually my last therapist starting working through some CBT exercises with me before suggesting we go to a neurofeedback approach. Unfortunately I moved and that provider was unavailable after that so I haven't had time to get back into it. I found CBT to bee mostly the same stuff as everything else in the "self actualization" category.

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

#146

Post by AndrewKemendo »

firstworldman wrote: post #79
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…

When things are hard, it's often because either a) it's new, or b) because we're trying the 'wrong' way. When something is hard and you can't manage to get the desired result no matter how hard you try, consider that rather than to keep working 'hard', you just try something different. I know you haven't (and couldn't, on this forum) encapsulated the breadth of all of the things you've tried to overcome this lack of…

I genuinely believe that people find meaning and contentment in themselves.

That helps me as much as asking me to breathe water, or see infrared though.

Those deep relationships you speak of; when trying to have these kinds of conversations the response is mostly "I don't know what that's like so I really can't help, sorry." Or you say, ok I need your help by being patient, but that only goes so far for so long, and then for their sake you just start faking it or maybe not just faking it but at least not dwelling on it, ask again everything looks just fine.

To extend the comedy analogy, very introspective comedians discuss this frequently. Marc maron, garry Shandling, Bill Murray etc... have all discussed (all with Charlie rose Incidentally) their impossible yearning for self actualized contentment only to not find it. I appreciate you taking the time to write that out.

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

#147

Post by marknutter »

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…

> 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.

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.

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

#148

Post by CuriouslyC »

scalio wrote: post #102
Fraterkes wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a large part of the problem is that when people talk about finding "happiness" they are actually talking about "winning at life". Which is impossible of course. Every time that you do something that you think will make you happy, and you ask yourself 'is this it?' you allready know the answer, because someone who's satisfied wouldn't ask 'is this it?'. And if you spend years thinking about "finding happiness"…

> You have found happiness when the idea "life is meaningless" seem obvious and irrelevant. 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 ca…

I'm curious as to why, when faced with unpredictable phenomenon, you chose to go with the hypothesis "everything is random" rather than "everything is choice" when you have an experience that appears to be choice, and would probably have a hard time naming a truly random phenomenon.

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

#149

Post by whamlastxmas »

putlake wrote: post #38
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.

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams has recommended the systems approach vs. a goal-oriented approach. I think he explains it in a more accessible way. Here's his presentation pitching his book: Passion is Overrated and Goals are for Losers http://www.slideshare.net/Scottadams925/goals-are-for-losers...

He also writes about it in "How to fail at everything and still succeed" but probably in less depth since I think it's only a chapter.

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

#150

Post by 3minus1 »

goldenkey wrote: post #117
3minus1 wrote: post #115

He's really taking that Shakespeare quote out of context. It's about suicide not striving towards goals.

Which is really the only choice in existentialism. You are the one out of your realm..not the letter.

are you suggesting that the letter is about suicide, because it's definitely not.
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