51–60 of 139 posts
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Never needed that: I like life because I know I will die soon and nothing I do matters. That is the thing I would've liked to know earlier.
So, why continue living? The nihilist pit is something I recommend you claw your way out of, ASAP.
Because there are lots of fun things you can only do when you are alive.
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If you have children you can help continue a chain of humans millions or maybe even billions of years long.
I will be childfree, so will my sister. Both of us are queer. As far as I know, all my three cousins (two of whom are queer) feel the same. There's no reason to expect that your children will want to reproduce, and it is pretty selfish to project your own dissatisfaction with life onto another human that way.
My life turned out alright. Full of problems, pains and questions like everyone's else's but, in the grand scheme of things, I'm incredibly fortunate given the amount of poverty and misery in this world. I always liked the thought experiment of living my life again. However, I'm much more interested in the thought of living in the future . If I could do it again, I'd take the risk of living 1000 years from now. I kno…
We could also end up in millenia-spanning dictatorship of immortal piece of scheize egomaniacs like stalin, hitler, puttin', trump and so on and on. All of them would kill millions to achieve that, in a heartbeat with no remorse.
We could also destroy our ecosystem beyond easy repair and live in postapocalyptic mad-maxesque world (sure it will bounce back in a million years or two, but we would most probably be wiped out along the path). I look out of window on a dense beautiful wild forest in full bloom, doesn't get much better than that.
Nah, these are pretty good times we, most of us at least, have right now. If you are not happy now, chances of being happy some other time are slim.
I stand for every decision I made even if they were not perfect from current perspective. I can compare starting conditions of other kids from same school and I must admit, I am doing amazingly well. I am pretty sure I don’t want it to do all over. The future is more exciting. It became clear, I can’t pull all alone patient monitoring startup and I need to do something simpler during the time I have. I rolled the dic…
I myself can clearly see that at least some some negative experiences helped me in long run. The key is that they needed to be bad enough to force introspection and change, but not devastating enough to just destroy everything beyond repair.
Family and children eliminated thoughts of my “unlived” lives. Life is hard. Focusing on gratitude helps me be thankful for what I have instead of thinking about what may have been.
Never needed that: I like life because I know I will die soon and nothing I do matters. That is the thing I would've liked to know earlier.
- Kurt Vonnegut
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So, why continue living? The nihilist pit is something I recommend you claw your way out of, ASAP.
For me it’s not a nihilist pit. The fact that I’m gonna die and nothing I do matters that much alleviates some dread. It’s not a deep and endless ocean I’m swimming in, just a comfy little pool.
Parenting is the ultimate exercise in giving.
There may be more than a comfy little pool to swim in :)
https://www.andrews.edu/services/development/annual/the-joy-...
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> I think the fantasy of going back hides the reality that new possibilities are always stretched out ahead. It also hides the incapability of many to do what they should to succeed. Most people already know what they should do different to succeed without going back in time but still they do not have the will power to do it and they probably would still not have if they had a time machine.
Ironically, I think characterizing life as a question of success-or-not was THE major barrier in my life to finding the contentment I was actually looking for.
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For me it’s not a nihilist pit. The fact that I’m gonna die and nothing I do matters that much alleviates some dread. It’s not a deep and endless ocean I’m swimming in, just a comfy little pool.
Lots of studies show that people who give to others (time, money, etc.) live better lives when measured by happiness, low stress, physical health. This requires you to believe what you do can matter. Parenting is the ultimate exercise in giving. There may be more than a comfy little pool to swim in :) https://www.andrews.edu/services/development/annual/the-joy-...
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> I think the fantasy of going back hides the reality that new possibilities are always stretched out ahead. It also hides the incapability of many to do what they should to succeed. Most people already know what they should do different to succeed without going back in time but still they do not have the will power to do it and they probably would still not have if they had a time machine.
What do you mean by succeed? I find learning to not care so much about succeeding - at least in the usual criteria imposed by the society - is maybe the best thing I've learned since touch typing.
Having an objective and achieving it. Not an overall expectation of winning in life but saying "I want to go to the gym 5x a week for 1 year" or "I want to be able to run 10km" and achieve it.