it is what it is broskies. appreciate every moment :)
Four thousand weeks
171–180 of 255 posts
Re: Four thousand weeks
#172There are a few ways people take such a message - yes, life is precious, be conscious of what we invest our time in. This part makes sense. Yet, it is worth asking, what makes for a meaning life? What makes the 4000 weeks worth it? For some, they chase wealth, power, career success, get one's name recognized, etc - these are milestones to be achieved. Things to accomplish. Others will say, such accomplishments are no…
I've said it before and I'll say it again, hedonism gets a bad rap.
Lower-case hedonism (not the philosophy) gets a deservedly bad rap. There is little long-term satisfaction in pleasure-seeking.
Maybe Hedonism is sound.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#173There are a few ways people take such a message - yes, life is precious, be conscious of what we invest our time in. This part makes sense. Yet, it is worth asking, what makes for a meaning life? What makes the 4000 weeks worth it? For some, they chase wealth, power, career success, get one's name recognized, etc - these are milestones to be achieved. Things to accomplish. Others will say, such accomplishments are no…
This is a lot of words just to say you're a nihilist. Further you're trying to disguise a chicken-and-egg paradox as some deep insight. > if we can function from a state of feeling content as we live each day .. then what we do during the lifespan given to us matters little Why do you think people desire meaning in the first place? "Nothing matters, just be content" is a poor substitute for the things you call a futi…
You use the label “nihilist” as if it disproves anything. “Oh, it’s just X”
Re: Four thousand weeks
#174I’m impressed by the beauty of this site and sophistication of the UI. However I _hate_ this type of messaging that does nothing for you except make your mental health worse. I don’t want to think about how many weeks of life I have left! Inducing existential dread is NOT what any of us need to start living our lives more fully (which I assume is the intent of this site). You wanna zone out on YouTube? Go for it. Tha…
Couldn’t agree more.
Maybe this website would serve some purpose if we weren’t constantly being reminded of getting older, weaker, not having much time left, maybe you will get Alzheimers if you don’t do this One Weird Trick, etc. But as it stands we are reminded plenty of how short our lives are.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#175I’m impressed by the beauty of this site and sophistication of the UI. However I _hate_ this type of messaging that does nothing for you except make your mental health worse. I don’t want to think about how many weeks of life I have left! Inducing existential dread is NOT what any of us need to start living our lives more fully (which I assume is the intent of this site). You wanna zone out on YouTube? Go for it. Tha…
> Inducing existential dread is NOT what any of us need to start living our lives more fully I’ve found, as I watch friends and family age, that learning to confront and work with this dread is essential to living life fully. Especially as decline and decay start to dominate aspects of your life more and more. The people that I know that are uncomfortable talking about these topics progressively live in a world of fe…
That would be nice if we were taught any concrete ways to do that. But we aren’t. “Confront”? What does that even mean?
The Dalai Lama allegedly meditates on dying every day. With the whole decay visualization business.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#176The older I get, the more I appreciate the wisdom of religions, especially (but not exclusively) Buddhism. Versions of this can be found in many wisdom traditions.
Strive for tranquility and peace of mind by living simply, deeply caring for others, increasing genorosity, taking pleasure in the simple things, controlling the mind, cultivating positive emotions, being ethical.
If you do these things you will reduce suffering for yourself and others. That to me is an ultimate goal.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#177I’m impressed by the beauty of this site and sophistication of the UI. However I _hate_ this type of messaging that does nothing for you except make your mental health worse. I don’t want to think about how many weeks of life I have left! Inducing existential dread is NOT what any of us need to start living our lives more fully (which I assume is the intent of this site). You wanna zone out on YouTube? Go for it. Tha…
If you let the bad emotions and feelings do their business, instead of constantly trying to escape from them, you wouldn't be feeling this way. You, and many others in this modern world, remind of Dostoyevskian characters: neurotic, overly-emotional, busy buzzing around, the cause of all their own problems. No one can sit still in silence, alone with themselves -- they're always running away. There's always some emot…
It’s adorable that you made an account to scold some random person for how their inner life works, as if you could glean that from a one-paragraph comment.
But as we all know: those who scold random people are the great teachers-by-example.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#178There are a few ways people take such a message - yes, life is precious, be conscious of what we invest our time in. This part makes sense. Yet, it is worth asking, what makes for a meaning life? What makes the 4000 weeks worth it? For some, they chase wealth, power, career success, get one's name recognized, etc - these are milestones to be achieved. Things to accomplish. Others will say, such accomplishments are no…
I recently thought that pain is very certain and reliable: stub my toes and it’s equally painful every time. Pleasure is also consistent but less so: eating an applie pie is pleasurable. Maybe not two days in a row though. Satisfaction is much less certain and reliable. Something might be satisfying today but not next week. Hanging out with friends. Satisfying. We laugh. Then it gets less satisfying. We still laugh.…
> I recently thought that pain is very certain and reliable: stub my toes and it’s equally painful every time.
Mental state matters here. A cut stings, but I've been cut and not noticed.
> Pleasure is also consistent but less so: eating an applie pie is pleasurable. Maybe not two days in a row though.
I think some forms of pleasure stem from novelty. "Variety is the spice of life" and all that.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#179Site creator here! Thanks to all who spent some time reading and scrolling through. I’m happy to see such great discussion here, and gives me some confidence the excerpts pulled were the right ones to get the core ideas across.
The site forces me to use a calendar widget to input my birth date. I have to scroll over 30 years back in time by months.
Yeah, I gave up trying immediately upon realizing this.
Re: Four thousand weeks
#180Very aesthetically pleasing website!
I was just browsing in a bookstore yesterday and this book caught my eye. I promised to myself that I’d only leave with one, so I put it down as I had spotted Jeff Hawkins latest book (from 2021) that I had planned to read.
Has anyone read this book?