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Living a Meaningful Life

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Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#21

Post by anigbrowl »

midgetjones wrote: post #9
dominotw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine yourself on dying bed Do people really do retrospectives of their lives on their death beds? Seems like a really odd thing to do during final hours of life. I am sure everyone no matter how meaningful their lives are, is going to have regrets. I just hope I am mentally well enough during my final days to enjoy it, not do an inventory of regrets vs accomplishments.

And physically well enough to exact revenge on those that wronged me. Edit: That came out much darker than I meant it to.

Revenge is underrated. Forgiveness is great, but only if the guilty party alters their hurtful behavior. If they just keep up their wicked ways, there's no moral reason to keep forgiving them over and over. Indeed, I'd argue it's rather irresponsible since you know they're going to hurt other people.

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#22

Post by [deleted] »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #16
saiya-jin wrote: post #4

1) Imagine yourself on dying bed - what would you regret/be proud of in your past life? Strive to go that way. 2) Bring good to humanity, and don't do evil. If nothing else, if raising kids, be a good parent and role model - don't bring more unbalanced, fucked up, childhood-issue-riddled people into this world. Too many of those around already.

It is foolish to optimize your entire life just to feel a certain way in the last 5 minutes.

[deleted]

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#23

Post by FigmentEngine »

ianai wrote: post #14
saiya-jin wrote: post #4

1) Imagine yourself on dying bed - what would you regret/be proud of in your past life? Strive to go that way. 2) Bring good to humanity, and don't do evil. If nothing else, if raising kids, be a good parent and role model - don't bring more unbalanced, fucked up, childhood-issue-riddled people into this world. Too many of those around already.

Why optimize for the contentment of one moment of your life? There's no way to know, usually, how such will play out. I think people should optimize for every day contentment with an eye toward the future. I.e. Periodically evaluating how content they feel and making due adjustments. Dying is but a moment.

i optimize for the medium term. long term is too risky and short term leads to local minima

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#24

Post by mmirate »

anigbrowl wrote: post #19
vog wrote: post #2

This article silently assumes that a "meaningful life" means: - making good choices of the projects you work on - making those projects succeed, or at least ensure pushing them forward So it reduces this broad topic "meaningful life" to the aspects of personal time management, project management and motivation management. In short, the article appears to be very work-centric (but including paid work as well as volunt…

Not so surprising, since most people enjoy the satisfaction of having their plans work out, achieving goals and so on - and consumerism, the dominant 'philosophy' of western liberalism, is all about the accumulation of satisfying experiences. Of course, this doesn't sound all that great when it's reduced to its bare bones. That's why extremist ideologues often find great political success by promoting a stark message…

> we're not really cut out for long-term thinking and abstract mentation for its own sake appeals to only a tiny minority. There is great value to living in the moment but most people don't know how to do it

That's the most convincing argument in favor of eugenics that I've ever heard. It's a shame that we can't easily test for affinity for long-term, abstract thinking; nor for ability to live in the moment.

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#25

Post by qntty »

mmirate wrote: post #24
anigbrowl wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so surprising, since most people enjoy the satisfaction of having their plans work out, achieving goals and so on - and consumerism, the dominant 'philosophy' of western liberalism, is all about the accumulation of satisfying experiences. Of course, this doesn't sound all that great when it's reduced to its bare bones. That's why extremist ideologues often find great political success by promoting a stark message…

> we're not really cut out for long-term thinking and abstract mentation for its own sake appeals to only a tiny minority. There is great value to living in the moment but most people don't know how to do it That's the most convincing argument in favor of eugenics that I've ever heard. It's a shame that we can't easily test for affinity for long-term, abstract thinking; nor for ability to live in the moment.

Well that's reassuring since it doesn't appear to be an argument for eugenics at all.

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#26

Post by bykovich »

mmirate wrote: post #24
anigbrowl wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so surprising, since most people enjoy the satisfaction of having their plans work out, achieving goals and so on - and consumerism, the dominant 'philosophy' of western liberalism, is all about the accumulation of satisfying experiences. Of course, this doesn't sound all that great when it's reduced to its bare bones. That's why extremist ideologues often find great political success by promoting a stark message…

> we're not really cut out for long-term thinking and abstract mentation for its own sake appeals to only a tiny minority. There is great value to living in the moment but most people don't know how to do it That's the most convincing argument in favor of eugenics that I've ever heard. It's a shame that we can't easily test for affinity for long-term, abstract thinking; nor for ability to live in the moment.

Under my regime idiots who advocate for euthanasia on the basis of interest in abstract mentition with no true justification will be euthanized to protect those who don't subscribe to their fevered hallucination.

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#27

Post by [deleted] »

saiya-jin wrote: post #4

1) Imagine yourself on dying bed - what would you regret/be proud of in your past life? Strive to go that way. 2) Bring good to humanity, and don't do evil. If nothing else, if raising kids, be a good parent and role model - don't bring more unbalanced, fucked up, childhood-issue-riddled people into this world. Too many of those around already.

[deleted]

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#28

Post by mmirate »

qntty wrote: post #25
mmirate wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're not really cut out for long-term thinking and abstract mentation for its own sake appeals to only a tiny minority. There is great value to living in the moment but most people don't know how to do it That's the most convincing argument in favor of eugenics that I've ever heard. It's a shame that we can't easily test for affinity for long-term, abstract thinking; nor for ability to live in the moment.

Well that's reassuring since it doesn't appear to be an argument for eugenics at all.

It is. If I read the great-grandparent correctly, violence is only needed as an outlet because the majority of humans don't have a particular combination of attributes; therefore, one solution to that brand of inevitable violence, is to artificially select for precisely those attributes.

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#29

Post by dgfgfdagasdfgfa »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #16
saiya-jin wrote: post #4

1) Imagine yourself on dying bed - what would you regret/be proud of in your past life? Strive to go that way. 2) Bring good to humanity, and don't do evil. If nothing else, if raising kids, be a good parent and role model - don't bring more unbalanced, fucked up, childhood-issue-riddled people into this world. Too many of those around already.

It is foolish to optimize your entire life just to feel a certain way in the last 5 minutes.

I mean, who knows what dying is actually like; you might end up thinking about peanut butter and lint. However, feeling shitty about your life can happen at any point, and the death perspective just helps force you to consider what you value about your life.

Re: Living a Meaningful Life

#30

Post by [deleted] »

vog wrote: post #2

This article silently assumes that a "meaningful life" means: - making good choices of the projects you work on - making those projects succeed, or at least ensure pushing them forward So it reduces this broad topic "meaningful life" to the aspects of personal time management, project management and motivation management. In short, the article appears to be very work-centric (but including paid work as well as volunt…

[deleted]
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