Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

I wouldn't even consider debating this with anyone. It's too true.

>"Purpose" is vague enough, so to make things worse I am going to conflate it with "life meaning", "calling" or "personal values".

What is the purpose of the yeast which makes bread? It is life, it has a purpose. What is the purpose of a grape vine? It is life and has a purpose.

Purpose is vague because it technically has to be simple because it's true of single celled organisms as well.

>I recently came across the Japanese "Ikigai" which seems related.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LE5bel_GvU

Only place I've ever seen the word. Possibly the same video you found?

>Ok, I buy this, however, what is this "purpose/ meaning/ calling/ value" thing? What does it mean, really? How do I find mine?

Another great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-STKInWhpU

When you wake up in the morning. You could stay in bed and stay warm, but instead you jump out of bed and get dressed. You then move onto another task and another task. Imagine you're fulfilling missions. Even if they are small side missions, there is a reward in each mission. Making your bed, cleaning the garbage off the ground. Each thing does have a reward.

There will be a side mission sometime in the day which when you actually do it, it becomes your purpose. It's going to be something you would never have done. Perhaps you're in the grocery store and some old lady is struggling to grab something. You grab it for them, and its wierd, you never do this. You didnt expect anything in return but you did get a reward. Not from the lady, but you did receive a reward.

I'd like to provide a counter-example - I've never had any benefits from using LSD or shrooms. The first time I was just tripping and deluded myself into thinking I've discovered something very profound, when in fact I was looking at some basic mathematics like Fibonacci sequence and thinking thoughts like "wow this is so much similar to real life, things repeat, but they also change". Every subsequent time has been progressively worse. One time I've spent an hour feeling most depressed I've ever felt in my life while crying in a fetal position. Last time I tried shrooms, every single noise was amplified 10x and scared the shit out of me. Afterwards, it just wasn't worth trying anymore.

My best friend from high school, a very bright and intelligent young man, met a girl who was very into psychedelics. They started doing them, had lots of fun. I did it with them a few times too, mostly had a good time. At first sight, one would say that the drugs actually benefited them, made them more "open". But after some time, they internalized the stance that they were "immune to bad things" that can happen from drug abuse. Few years later, the friend ran away from home, talking about how his parents are narcissistic and abusing him (which I'm fairly sure they weren't - he told me all about his relationship with parents for years, and there's never been a single sign of narcissism or abuse in his stories, and I've personally met them, hanged out at his house, they were always nice to us and never showed a single sign of any issues), cut off his fingers with a knife, and disappeared without a trace. To this day I haven't been able to find him anywhere online, and I only hope he's alive.

Psychedelics are fun, but to say that they're "immensely helpful even for those than never continued use of the substance" is a huge generalization, requires a lot more data than most people consider to gather, and is harmful as general advice.

A better advice would be something along the lines of "try it and see how it works for you, there's a chance it might help you out".

Also, if you're depressed or anxious, avoid psychedelics, especially heavy doses. At some point it's hard not to start thinking about the white elephant, and once you start falling in the abyss, there's not much that can pull you out.

What is the Purpose of Life? - Sadhguru

> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ7ZvPghdy8

You also used the word "value", which I think is more on point.

We all have a different set of values. If you do things that are in conflict with those values, you will feel bad. So finding a job where the most important values you have are fulfilled is a key point to being happy.

I don't have any particular resource, but I think there must be a lot of books on how to find and understand those values. I personnally worked on that with a therapist.

My example :

I was working in a 45k-employee engineering service company (not sure of the english translation), where I was working on an ERP software for (military) aviation. The tech stack and the human organization was terrible.

It conflicted with some of my values (knowledge, peace, creativity, autonomy...) and was starting to make me feel anxious and angry. I also felt that what I did had no real purpose.

I knew I needed a place where kindness and knowledge were important. When I finally found that, working in a place were I feel the end product makes the world better, my life really was better.

Science can only do so much with the 'internal' meaning. All people I've read are inadequate or point to religion.

Religions, across the board, sure seems to be solely focused on purpose and meaning.

If you want purpose outside yourself, I'd look to a religion or a group that functions similarly. I dug Alan Watts and the like for awhile. More recently have liked St Augustine and other apologetics.

I know the concept religion causes raised flags but I do suggest that you are least give it an open mind while you search.