Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” - Albert Camus

It’s “easy” to descend into nihilism and the view that human existence is ultimately devoid of meaning. It’s more challenging (and rewarding, in my opinion) to accept the struggle of life as the point of life itself, to keep moving even when it seems like it’s fruitless.

Basically, I stay alive out of spite against nihilism and the impulse that says to give up.

Living also leaves open the opportunity that things will get better and that some meaning will eventually reveal itself. Nihilism and suicide (physical or philosophical) lead to nothingness and annihilation.

"Underrated" :) [Edit: very underrated, since somebody downvoted as this comment was written. I guess the downvoter(s) interpreted said acts as routing, while the poster may have indicated "something's behind it"]

The poster knows how to do induction.

Have you considered how horrible it might be to have an answer? Perhaps God created you to make pancakes. Would you feel better knowing that was it?

Some people might shy away from answering this question for fear of coming off as pretentious but the way that I see it is that we all implicitly act out our belief about the meaning of life through our words and actions (or silence and inaction). So you might as well get clear on your own belief. The trippy thing is that some people probably live an entire life without getting clear on this question. For me it's joie de vivre [1]. Joy is my north star in a very primal sense of that phrase (imagine you're navigating a terrain you've never been through and you're relying on the star to keep you in the general correct direction... you never know what's ahead but you can always know whether you're heading towards the star or away or you've lost it entirely). I don't have a clear singular purpose in my life. But it's easy for me to tell when I'm doing something that brings me closer to or further from joy. Right now I'm sitting in Golden Gate Park, sipping a coffee, reading a book about the history/ecology/etc. of Joshua Tree. I'm at peace right now because that star is directly ahead of me. I'll leave it at that and also mention that I wax philosophical a bit in my "sabbatical prologue" post [2].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_de_vivre

[2] https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical/prologue

Thank you. The problem – or at least, my problem – is that "There isn't any point" leads to a feeling of "This is pointless." Wandering around life feeling "This is pointless" when you do anything seems... suboptimal.

But it's true, right? If there's no point, then the conclusion is "This is pointless" for every experience. And it ends up feeling so hollow sometimes.

Relaxing and enjoying it is of course the antidote. But I'm starting to wonder if everyone is relaxing and enjoying life without purpose, and therefore our collective purpose is de facto "Netflix and chill."

There's nothing wrong with that, but it ends up feeling like "Well, I may as well sit around and play Dota; it's just as good as doing anything else, since it's all pointless." And that can't possibly be the proper mindset for life... Can it?