31–40 of 310 posts
Here’s my perspective on life: dying is probably the whole point of your life, or perhaps coming to terms with it, and conquering your fear of it. All other forms of “importance” derive from this root. - It is is unlikely anything you do will “matter”. Out of ~117 billion people to have ever lived over countless millennia, the lives of note throughout history are what? 10k? 100k? Even if it’s 1b meaningful lives that…
If anything, human life got remarkably longer in the last century. Any feeling that it is "too short" is not an objective reality (compared to what?) but indicates the failure of collective societal mechanisms to put the individual at emotional ease with reality and their existence and role in it. Eliminating all existential angst of the human animal is likely impossible as various absurd religious constructs (after…
I wouldn’t want to die tomorrow. Is that desire “objective reality” or not? If it is, how is that different from not wanting to die a century from now?
Most people don’t want to die tomorrow, at the same time we need to come to terms with the fact that we age and that our time is ultimately limited.
Which is an objective reality.
As I grow older, I am discovering that life has different chapters. Each with their benefits and challenges. The other comment is talking about us as a society failing to integrate and value each chapter and instead focusing on youth and youth alone. There is nothing desirable in age for western societies (probably others too, I just don’t know enough).
If anything, human life got remarkably longer in the last century. Any feeling that it is "too short" is not an objective reality (compared to what?) but indicates the failure of collective societal mechanisms to put the individual at emotional ease with reality and their existence and role in it. Eliminating all existential angst of the human animal is likely impossible as various absurd religious constructs (after…
As for the feeling that life is too short; I’ll offer a comparison to the early biblical figures: Adam and his sons lived almost a thousand years. Noah the same. Isaac lived almost 200 years. Compared to biblical figures, we live very short lifespans.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If anything, human life got remarkably longer in the last century. Well, yes and no. That we live longer than our ancestors seems obvious and is a very common belief. And average life expectancy has indeed increased. But it really isn’t that clear cut. For example: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181002-how-long-did-anc...
The only thing what has changed is childhood mortality. If you take statistical lifetime of most animals (say frogs) and count in all offspring with hope to describe their average life duration then it would be low number of seconds. Human as such seems to have always same lifespan programmed in, just natural early mortality has been taken away. Basic statistical bias. Does almost removed early mortality really make…
Although the max age hasn't increased, the proportion of people who reach it has.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean most of the time there running around breaking things and being loud wouldn't say that's great. It's better when there older.
That mostly happens when they feel they don't get enough attention from you. Sometimes you really are busy with something else, like trying to prepare food for them or answering messages from your pestering boss. But often it is because you are trying to be clever at HN instead of giving them your undivided attention.
Guilt-tripping someone who shares that they're not always having a good time as a parent is not cool. Your comment is over-generalizing, and IMO quite mean.
Education is the single most important reason we're born, lived, because it requires each of us to inherit human knowledge, and develop new knowledge for further generation.
What a pity, that, the education system is mostly broken in several places.
If anything, human life got remarkably longer in the last century. Any feeling that it is "too short" is not an objective reality (compared to what?) but indicates the failure of collective societal mechanisms to put the individual at emotional ease with reality and their existence and role in it. Eliminating all existential angst of the human animal is likely impossible as various absurd religious constructs (after…
It's just a common saying that's meant to remind us that we have a tendency to spend huge amounts of time and emergy on things that ultimately don't matter, and hopefully sometimes short-circuit the thought process that causes us to do this.
One of the reasons I got into software development was to try to make enough money to contribute to these causes, or to work on the problems directly in bioinformatics. Unfortunately I haven't reached the point where I would make much of a difference, but who knows what will happen in the next 10-20 years.
No you won’t be able to do everything. But you have enough time to do the things you care about.
And the things that run out? Enjoy them! Running out is what makes them special.