Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Four thousand weeks

leebyron.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 255 posts

Re: Four thousand weeks

#101

Post by audiodude »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #95
hellotoby wrote: post #93

Once you can accept that your own life is insignificant and essentially meaningless, you can stop worrying about how many weeks, days, months or minutes you'll be here for and just appreciate the moment in which you are living. Perhaps you can even be grateful that you have lived at all.

“How strange it is to be anything at all” We get preoccupied with the minutiae of day to day life and forget that we didn’t even know we were dead before we were born, and we won’t even know we’re dead when we die. And here we are right now, perhaps only minutes, hours, or days before we go back to being dust. I find it helpful to think about this when my partner gets yet another parking ticket, I feel directionless…

+1 for the concept of "we were dead before we were born". I've always found that the simplest answer to "What happens after you die?" is "The same thing that happened before you were born: everything".

Re: Four thousand weeks

#102

Post by valleyer »

audiodude wrote: post #100
mrfumier wrote: post #92

Seems nice but I stopped at the first textbox. No, I won't waste my time scrolling tru a date picker while I could input the date numbers directly with my keyboard.

You can click on an element of the date and type it directly.

It's an , so the UI of the date picker depends on your browser.

Re: Four thousand weeks

#103

Post by riazrizvi »

Time speeds up as you get older because every day is a decreasingly smaller proportion of your life lived. A fixed 24 hour duration is perceived as a smaller and smaller window into our lives, at any point in time. So life speeding up is just a mental distortion.

Instead then, focus on figuring out how to live more healthily. Advances there objectively provide dividends.

Also if you’re selfishly wondering what type of problems to devote your life to, develop your empathy and do things that benefit others, because as your time on the clock runs down, the value of your successes in that category don’t also diminish, unlike everything else. Giving is the gift that keeps on giving, so to speak.

Re: Four thousand weeks

#104

Post by lanamo »

Thorentis wrote: post #54
eyelidlessness wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a pup and embracing her as my kid feels similar. I know it’s not the same, but I sincerely think that waking up every day putting my pup first is the best thing I’ve ever lived for. Everything else is just icing I have more reason to enjoy.

A sad indictment on modern society that this paragraph is able to be written.

John Wick here. please be nice. you probably never had a dog - i hope you will one day and experience the joy of such a companionship.

Re: Four thousand weeks

#105

Post by narrator »

p1esk wrote: post #99
narrator wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to counteract fading memory of events is to sit down and write a few thousand word diary entry when something great happens. Describe the whole experience from start to finish in as much detail as possible. File it away with the time it happened and an appropriate title. I've done this for great experiences in my life. I go back and read them on a regular basis.

I did this for a few years and I’ve never read my diary since. I’m not sure I ever will, let alone anyone else. Thinking some more about it, it’s pretty clear I mostly did it for comments (livejournal.com).

If you kept your diary secret and wrote it for yourself, it would probably be more useful.

Re: Four thousand weeks

#107

Post by lazerl0rd »

What I never end up understanding about such topics is what is truly meant by "understanding" [that we have finite lives]. Don't we all know that anyways? Are we being asked to calm down and accept that? If so, isn't such futile for those that couldn't initially (as I don't see how reading a book would change their psyche) and placebo for those that could (as they've just never considered life in that way)?

Re: Four thousand weeks

#108

Post by kirso »

twelve40 wrote: post #98
kirso wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, it can be both stress and revelation depending on how you look at it. Part of 4000 weeks is a chapter that is called "Cosmic insignificance therapy" which goes along the lines of nothing we do really matters in a grand scheme of things. Again, depending on how you see it - it can be both shackling but also liberating. The both of extremes of: - I want to put my head in the sand and ignore the reality (w…

now I really don't want to read it, sounds pretty depressing : (

That's the point :) It is not.

We are mortal, that's just a fact of life. I do agree with the comment OP though that both: - Maximising every day is bad - Ignoring life is bad

In the end its all about balance and content as the top voted comment goes.

I would still recommend the book to everyone!

EDIT: Also as one of the comments notes here:

"If you don't feel some existential dread at some point it's because you aren't being honest with yourself"

Re: Four thousand weeks

#109

Post by eyelidlessness »

wnolens wrote: post #84
infamousclyde wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you find the parent comment sad? I'm not sure I understand your sentiment.

The thing that most makes this poster's life worth living is caring for an animal which was engineered to be pleasant to care for. And a lot of people use these animals to replace human relationships (I've seen it quite a few times, so blatantly) as they are simpler and more stable. And the indictment is about society (in which human relationships are really hard to have for so so many reasons), not this poster, who…

Well, if I can speak for myself, my relationship with my pup has improved my relationship with several humans. And whatever she was engineered for, a simple and stable relationship has been something we’ve built over just shy of four years and still work on.

To the extent there’s any notion of replacing human relationships and to your sibling comment’s point, she didn’t replace parenting a human child for me. That would never have happened, I had already decided that and agreed with my previous partner about that before we adopted pup.

There is one way my relationship with pup has curtailed other human interactions: I don’t want to spend a lot of time with people who find being around pup a nuisance. People who want to enjoy her are very welcome. People who are cautious about unfamiliar dogs are also welcome and they almost always warm up to her immediately. People who want me to exist without consideration of my pup don’t get my time. I have the same expectations for the presence of humans in my life who are important to me and aren’t harming anyone.

Re: Four thousand weeks

#110

Post by jmathai »

p1esk wrote: post #99
narrator wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to counteract fading memory of events is to sit down and write a few thousand word diary entry when something great happens. Describe the whole experience from start to finish in as much detail as possible. File it away with the time it happened and an appropriate title. I've done this for great experiences in my life. I go back and read them on a regular basis.

I did this for a few years and I’ve never read my diary since. I’m not sure I ever will, let alone anyone else. Thinking some more about it, it’s pretty clear I mostly did it for comments (livejournal.com).

I do this with photos. It bring me great joy to remember past moments.

I write emails to my young kids and will share them with them once they are older.

I guess I’m a nostalgic.

Post reply on HN