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What if you could do it all over? (2020)

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Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#91

Post by tayo42 »

racl101 wrote: post #45
rwmj wrote: post #7

If you had perfect future knowledge (which is what this article is really about) you wouldn't want to invent Slack (or Google), which lets face it would have been a ton of work with a very uncertain outcome. You'd want to invest in Slack / Google at some early stage, do no work whatsoever, and enjoy the proceeds.

Pretty much. I always find it funny when people say: "I'd invent Google" when they could barely pass their first year Calculus class. As if stating the idea is all it took but not the engineering and well ... the actual difficult work. But everyone can invest. That much is totally doable.

The difficult work is easier to grind through when you know there's a pay off.

I think alot of people aren't passing calculus and doing hard work, not because they're dumb but there's no clear pay off, it's hard to stay motivated

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#93

Post by jebarker »

gchamonlive wrote: post #82
hshshshshsh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just your ego talking. The human race will be just fine with or without you raising kids. Our great great ancestor monkeys and fishes didn't raise their children to push their species to centuries further. They just existed and it's what they do as part of their nature. Trying to project meaning to it just ego at play.

Trying desperately not to project meaning into it, running from your ego... is still just the ego talking, but now through the denial of it, such is the fundamental nature of the ego for the human. True overcoming of the ego is where it doesn't even bother you if things have meaning or not, since there is no separation between your body and the rest of the world. True overcoming of ego is indistriguishable from true…

Well put! I would add that probably nobody achieves this consistently, it's a lifetime practice. So coping strategies like I proposed her can still be useful in the chaos of daily life.

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#94

Post by gchamonlive »

jebarker wrote: post #93
gchamonlive wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying desperately not to project meaning into it, running from your ego... is still just the ego talking, but now through the denial of it, such is the fundamental nature of the ego for the human. True overcoming of the ego is where it doesn't even bother you if things have meaning or not, since there is no separation between your body and the rest of the world. True overcoming of ego is indistriguishable from true…

Well put! I would add that probably nobody achieves this consistently, it's a lifetime practice. So coping strategies like I proposed her can still be useful in the chaos of daily life.

I agree but I'd add that there is nothing to fix. Life is just tough and sometimes you cry because it hurts, and sometimes it fills you with joy and you rejoice. Rinse and repeat until you time has passed and it's now our descendants turn in this world.

Maybe it's clearer in the form of a question: how are you completely sure you are NOT enlightened if you don't know what it is to be enlightened?

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#95

Post by ty6853 »

BadCookie wrote: post #81
mikestew wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…continuing their family line… I’m not Henry VIII, just some rube from Indiana. Our family is nothing special. …or the human species Nor is this some post-apocalyptic future where children are scarce.

Children kind of are scarce, though? Most countries aren’t reproducing at replacement levels. Were that to continue forever, the human population would go to zero. School districts around me are closing schools because there aren’t enough kids to fill them.

Murray Rothbard argued there should be a thriving market for children. There's certainly something to it, there are so many places where children or at least female ones are viewed as completely without value and yet others who view them as both scarce and valuable. We are currently struggling much in this world with the problem of ensuring children end up where they are most cherished and valued.

It sounds terrible, but I'm inclined to agree with him the children would be better off if there really were child auctions.

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#96

Post by HenryBemis »

jmathai wrote: post #6

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.

I remember the "Beatle that got away" saying that "the best thing that happened in my life was to leave the Beatles, and I would never change that" (I don't remember the precise quote, but it was something along those lines). He then went on explaining how "if I was still with the Beatles he wouldn't have the kids he now has, and there is no price for that.

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#97

Post by MangoToupe »

owebmaster wrote: post #58
MangoToupe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you succeed in finding contentment after realizing that?

I think contentment finds you.

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#98

Post by apsurd »

ty6853 wrote: post #83
hshshshshsh wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also selfish to bring humans that goes through immense suffering in their life so that you get meaning out of life or get joy from kids.

I find discussions of selfishness interesting in the context of a biological imperative. Raising kids mostly feels to me like I have a horrible heroin addiction. Loads of cash and time, reduced access to jobs, increased risk of intrusion by authorities and I struggle to see any personal benefit but lots of personal losses. Nonetheless my brain has tricked me somehow into it, at some basic biological level, and it see…

This sounds like the free will argument. we're just complex receptors to stimuli, we don't choose anything, we receive inputs and react accordingly. "it's just biology"

in this sense there's no discussion on why humans chooses kids or heroin, or taking a shit. The answer is "they don't"

so this isn't about kids. you've made up your mind about all reality.

Re: What if you could do it all over? (2020)

#100

Post by ednite »

Hope I’m not too off-base here, but reading this really hit home as i recently decided to make some drastic changes.

I get it, life throws different stuff at all of us. I’ve had more lemons than I ever asked for. But for me, it’s not about living in the what-ifs. It’s more about asking how can I?

Sure, we all think about starting over or going back in time. But for me, those thoughts usually fade when I ask myself: Why not now? Is it really too late?

What helped was letting go of regret.

Just my two cents: drop the what-ifs mindset. If something needs to change, don’t dwell on what could’ve been. Ask yourself: How can I make it happen now?

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