How to Exist • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Exist

#111

Post by coolThingsFirst » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 8:41 AM UTC

As a long time meditator I know it's genuine from this:

> See how long it takes before you’re dying for it to be over.

This is actually true and it shows that they have properly done the exercise correctly. The reason is that daily living creates psychological sludge which somehow gets embedded on the level of feelings. Those stuck feelings are what give that sense.

Once the thought layer is peeled focus comes on feelings and then let's just say there's one more layer beneath into full blown Presence which is blissful. Why it's blissful to this day I still don't understand.

Re: How to Exist

#112

Post by jagadaga » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 8:57 AM UTC

  > By “don’t do anything,” I mean don’t move, don’t fidget, don’t indulge any thoughts or daydreams.

Keeping all these rules in your head is also a thought, no?

Re: How to Exist

#113

Post by iammjm » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 8:59 AM UTC

augment_me wrote: post #29

In "Four thousand weeks" by Oliver Burkeman, he breaks down that this obsession with action stems to the industrial revolution when it was decided that workers should sell their time for a living. Before that we used to have task-oriented jobs, like milking the cows, which you cant do more than once in a while, or harvest the fields, which you can't do until it's ripe. In general humans are more evolved to this kind…

I think it’s way older than that. Evolution is all about adaptation and survival. When thick armour and large sharp teeth get replaced by soft skin and abstract thinking, anticipating danger and mitigating it and preparing for it becomes a full time job of every waking hour. Everything else is luxury and almost an act of mini-suicide

Re: How to Exist

#114

Post by xenocratus » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:09 AM UTC

> This is a crazy thing to notice after having been alive so many years — that your existence itself is so much to bear.

Alternative interpretation: my existence is not about sitting there, getting mouldy on the sofa. It never crosses my mind that I should feel unrest because I can't / don't want to just sit there and do nothing, nor does it feel like a revelation to think about it. Maybe it also says something about you if this is something you worry about on some deep level.

Re: How to Exist

#115

Post by bdauvergne » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:11 AM UTC

Is the writer american, because it seems to me, a french man, a specially american take on life. Being contemplating and content seems a lot easier for us.

Re: How to Exist

#116

Post by crent » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:14 AM UTC

jagadaga wrote: post #112

> By “don’t do anything,” I mean don’t move, don’t fidget, don’t indulge any thoughts or daydreams. Keeping all these rules in your head is also a thought, no?

I get where you’re coming from but they are listing these things out because those are some of the things you will likely automatically do to distract yourself from the present moment. I once tried to instruct someone on how to meditate and afterward they told me they spent the entire time working out solutions to problems in their head. I tried explaining that actively doing something, like solving problems in your head, means you are not meditating - you are thinking. They couldn’t bring themselves to sit there without getting their mind involved in something.

Re: How to Exist

#117

Post by iammjm » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:19 AM UTC

dominicq wrote: post #60

tayo42 wrote: post #57

After having kids content like this is so unrelatable. When I finally have my own time, I'm going to do something fun, not worry about existential stuff lol. Before kids I was on and off into meditation,my place in the world, being calm or w/e.

Same lmao. Similarly, I don't want to be rude or assume things but I'm really annoyed with 20-something-year-olds giving out life advice. (I don't know if the author is in 20s)

Such a boomer sentiment. Good advice is good advice no matter how old the mouth that utters it

Re: How to Exist

#118

Post by iammjm » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:20 AM UTC

musicale wrote: post #50

Someone has discovered existential dread.

No, he’s discovered a temporary way out of it.

Re: How to Exist

#119

Post by oleggromov » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:22 AM UTC

I recently found out that I'm the most miserable when I'm rushing.

If something happens, and I allow it to break the flow of things, I become stressed and worried and time flies. When I allowed myself to simply exist for a week, without a crazy planned-in-advance vacation, the week felt like a month. No joking.

Where this urge to always rush comes from is a good question. I imagine it's very much cultural, we're expected to rush and be busy.

Re: How to Exist

#120

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 9:27 AM UTC

jagadaga wrote: post #112

> By “don’t do anything,” I mean don’t move, don’t fidget, don’t indulge any thoughts or daydreams. Keeping all these rules in your head is also a thought, no?

[deleted]