111–120 of 179 posts
This got a whole stack of upvotes, reached #1 on HN... But most of the comments here are super negative. That's weird, why would that be?
BTW, the negative commentors need to work on building up their "humor" skill XP.
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Causality doesn't imply you have no control at all in your life.
Yes it does, it means every "frame" (yay video games terms) of your life, including the complete state of your mind, is a cause of the previous "frame". Every decision is a product of your experience and state of mind, that are the product of you previous decisions, that are the product of your previous experience.. something, something!
We'll never know anyway, but I feel like there would be nothing, no universe, no life, no space etc... if there was not this "random" thing.
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What, you don't think that your main life decision was whether to be comfortable, well-off, or mega-rich?
It's not that hard - orienting your life around becoming rich is clearly a trap and, as for the remaining two options, it's better to make more money than less as long as the job doesn't suck too badly.
Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1]. Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right. [1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy…
His goal was to make notoriously dense writings accessible to everyday people who are interested in literature.
I think this piece about life as a video game has a similar goal. Just as I would rather learn about Proust through Alain De Botton, I would rather learn about philosophy through the contemporary vehicle of video games.
Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1]. Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right. [1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy…
One of the philosophy scholars you mention, Alain De Botton, wrote an entertaining and insightful book called How Proust Will Change Your Life (or something along those lines). His goal was to make notoriously dense writings accessible to everyday people who are interested in literature. I think this piece about life as a video game has a similar goal. Just as I would rather learn about Proust through Alain De Botton…
The point is that the human body if treated well in the ideal conditions is meant to live 120 years or so. Over time, litte damages we do to it like not get enough sleep, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, eat trans fat, take drugs, stress at work add up to years off.
No one is perfect, and just about everyone will end up taking a decade or two off this max even if their goal is not to. But living to 100 while still enjoying life should be everyone's goal. Remember that having a 100 year life span gives you 25% more life than 80. That's a really big difference and enhances your perspective greatly. I don't feel that life is over at 35, in fact it's pretty much just getting started.
And this is all not counting any technological advances that may enable us to drastically increase our lifespans. I hope Mr. De Gray and Kurzweil are correct. But even if they aren't, you should shoot for at least 100.
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It's not that hard - orienting your life around becoming rich is clearly a trap and, as for the remaining two options, it's better to make more money than less as long as the job doesn't suck too badly.
Defining your life around money goals is probably a bad idea period. If you can, do what you love.
I would like to share my opinion on living life. What is the main goal? Some may think that it's getting better at something to get a raise and more money. First there is a school, then there is the 1st job, the you try to get a better one and you are trying and trying and trying to get higher. In my opinion, that's not the main point and it's just a side-effect of the life. Article suggests that 1st 15 years of life…
While I mostly agree with you, one could also argue that there is a meaning to life and that is not to be happy but is to instead do all that one can do to further human survival (or whatever we end up turning into). One person providing some obscure service eventually bubbles up to the guys colonizing other worlds. There is a default meaning to our life, and it's merely survival. I believe there is a balance between…