My mission is to make all the people I come in close contact with "Rich". I see money as a way to reward people who you like and use it against people who you dislike. This is what I work for today.
Be my friend please, haha
Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
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Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#32I live in a country (Italy) that has been crushed and whatever mission I might’ve ever had or sense of accomplishment I might’ve ever earned has been superseded by a never-ending sense of dread and struggle to not drown in a decaying world. I have very little time for glib self-improvement or self-coaching. I’m starting to wonder what purpose all of this could possibly serve (”none at all”, comes my self-reply).
Are Italy's problems related to the hyper socialism in the country? It's something I have heard many Americans say about Europe.
The countries that best embody what Americans think of as "European socialism" are actually the Nordic countries, which are relatively prosperous, innovative, and not corrupt by Western standards.
Italy, to the best of my understanding, is still a collection of unruly tribes most of which function under the "I'll take my crook over their crook" mentality, deeply suspicious and corrupt, all united by a thin layer of quasi-democratic practice (theater).
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#33Become enlightened, and if it's as good as they say, spend the rest of my life teaching others how to get there too. I know for me, it's what I'm here for. Nothing else is as important to me. I can't wait to teach, but it must be from the perspective of my own personal, direct experience. There are already enough charlatans in the world, I don't intend to become one myself.
I don't think there's enough awareness the state can be achieved through specific practice. People like Osho, J Krishnamurti, Eckharte Tolle... they all seemed to have it just spontaneously happen and then try to retrofit techniques they think will probably work. Their approaches seem biased towards people who can already do what they're talking about ("just be aware"), instead of being more systematic processes that circumvent the mind.
The people who inspire me the most are the householders, living in the world who still managed to attain this greatest of prizes. They're the people who inspire me, and something I aspire to be. I think it's a valuable backstory that makes the teaching more approachable and easier to relate to if it's clear you don't need to give up this world to attain true happiness.
Having this mission puts the corporate world and paid work really into perspective as something that supports my life, but doesn't define it. That helps me keep it at a slight distance and allows me to take more risks - which incidentally have paid off.
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#34Take a look to School of Life's "Finding your mission" video [0]
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#35I live in a country (Italy) that has been crushed and whatever mission I might’ve ever had or sense of accomplishment I might’ve ever earned has been superseded by a never-ending sense of dread and struggle to not drown in a decaying world. I have very little time for glib self-improvement or self-coaching. I’m starting to wonder what purpose all of this could possibly serve (”none at all”, comes my self-reply).
Are Italy's problems related to the hyper socialism in the country? It's something I have heard many Americans say about Europe.
Italy is by no stretch of the imagination "hyper-socialist."
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#36My day job is to write tools for the sales people who will try to persuade their clients into buying ads on Facebook, I just can't see how that helps improve the society or humanity as a whole. Ideally, I should be using my skills and knowledge to help the people in need, but that just won't pay as good as writing CRUD apps, and I have a whole family to feed.
Providing for your family is a perfectly respectable 'mission' in life as far as many people are concerned. Pursuing grand ambitions can take a heavy toll on a family, and it's perfectly sane to choose a more well-travelled path if that's what you value.
Yeah, I agree. Ultimately I'm working so I can enjoy the rest of my life.
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#37My mission is to gain knowledge in order to understand the world in a new way, and communicate this such that I can do my part to help help Life succeed in the very long term.
I wrote about what I believe the "Purpose of Life" is on my blog, though I haven't publicized it very much yet:
https://goose.us/thoughts/the-purpose-of-life/
(TL;DR - the purpose of life is to maximize the area under the complexity curve for our enclosing system. I use Sean Carroll's The Big Picture and some MinutePhysics/Earth videos to help make the point.)
Right now I'm learning more about complex systems while practicing writing and speaking in order to refine the message for wider consumption. I would love to engage with anyone on the topic who is willing.
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#38Writing code today is way too hard, my work mission is to try to make it easier. I’m more focused on people who already know how to code than people that don’t. This drew me to work on React, Jest, React Native, Nuclide (Facebook IDE), create-react-app, prettier... I feel like it’s better than a few years ago but there’s still so much more to do.
After reading (1) which is about a hospital management system built using visual tools, with a first version done in 6 months, I really wonder if code is the right tool when aiming at easy, even when building complex systems.
(1)https://www.outsystems.com/blog/introducing-sapphire-hospita...
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#39* Live as if you were to die tomorrow. * Learn as if you were to live forever. -- quote by someone famous (some say its Gandhi, but am not sure) --- Lather, rinse, repeat.
If I were actually going to die the next day I'd probably skip going to work.
Re: Ask HN: What is your “mission” in work and life?
#40I live in a country (Italy) that has been crushed and whatever mission I might’ve ever had or sense of accomplishment I might’ve ever earned has been superseded by a never-ending sense of dread and struggle to not drown in a decaying world. I have very little time for glib self-improvement or self-coaching. I’m starting to wonder what purpose all of this could possibly serve (”none at all”, comes my self-reply).
I am Italian (living abroad in Luxembourg, Singapore, United States for the last 10 years). I feel exactly like you. I lost almost any faith in our beloved Mother country to be able to emerge from the mud and be a beacon of hope and culture once again.
I also hope that in a few years, once I have satiated my appetite for career and startups and money, I will have the willingness to go back and try to apply what I have learned - although I don't believe in doing so through the political system, but rather as an entrepreneur.
This could be a much longer discussion, of course. And I'm also sure that other people from other countries feel similarly (e.g. Greeks, Portuguese, Pakistani, etc).