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I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

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Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#281

Post by kowbell »

slowroll wrote: post #277
otikik wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I could try to focus on my hobbies, but you realize very quickly that to get good at anything, you need hundreds/thousands of hours. The point of hobbies is not "getting good at them". It's enjoying them for their own sake. Otherwise they turn into ... work. > I'm just a blip in the universe and when I'm gone it will be unchanged, the same as if I had never existed. Yes. The Universe doesn't expect or have any spec…

It sounds like the idea of “the universe has no plan for you” really didn’t help considering you needed therapy

Are you implying that if someone believes the universe has a plan for them, then they won't need therapy?

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#282

Post by openknot »

palijer wrote: post #199
Draiken wrote: post #135

This is always a tough subject for me because everyone seems to have at least an idea of what they want to achieve. When I was younger I had these silly dreams of moving to another country, getting married, becoming a programmer to make games, have my own company and get rich (haha). I did become a programmer and got married, but never left the country or became rich. Now on my 30s I know how limited my options are.…

I used to feel a bunch of that same pointlessness, and I still do sometimes, but a novel helped me frame what I was feeling. Stoner (1965), by John Williams. It is not about drug use. It essentially covers the life of an assistant lit professor born in 1891 that ended up not living up to his expectations in all areas of life and how he handles them internally. It really helped me draw meaning from my life again while…

Stoner is one of the best novels I've ever read. He dedicates almost his entire life toward studying literature because he had a passion for it in university, despite never achieving resounding success (not a spoiler, as this is revealed on the first page of the novel).

There are wonderful passages like: “In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of being to which, if one were lucky, one might find access; in his maturity he had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to gaze with an amused disbelief, a gently familiar contempt, and an embarrassed nostalgia. Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the intelligence and the heart.”"

It changed my view on love and relationships.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#283

Post by gunfighthacksaw »

teamtestbot wrote: post #274
cl42 wrote: post #271

The young man, who does not know the future, sees life as a kind of epic adventure, an Odyssey through strange seas and unknown islands, where he will test and prove his powers, and thereby discover his immortality. The man of middle years, who has lived the future that he once dreamed, sees life as a tragedy; for he has learned that his power, however great, will not prevail against those forces of accident and natu…

Man, I feel like I skipped those Middle Years and went straight to living my life one meme at a time after college.

Reality does surprise me now and then by reifying a meme I laughed at a few years ago. Usually the physical manifestation is less funny than the original meme though.

I think it was all related to the 2016 US election which is when those 4chan chaos magicians joined forces to elect ‘orange Pepe bad’ to troll normies.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#284

Post by falaby »

layer8 wrote: post #247
randomsearch wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the point of it? Live for others. You (and I) are incredibly fortunate. We have our basic needs taken care of. We have more than that. There are many, many, people in the world who have problems that you can help solve. That could be - spending time with a lonely elderly person, volunteering with the homeless, building a website for a charity that can't afford to pay for a great one, building a startup that…

> > What's the point of it? > Live for others. What’s the point of that? They are a blip in the universe just the same. Adding one level of indirection doesn’t solve the existential problem.

Screw the universe. People need help, and you can give it to them. It might not be "existential", but at least it's real.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#285

Post by leetrout »

askonomm wrote: post #183
leetrout wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not being trite: Thats the point! There is no single point except to exist and from that to try to exist peacefully with your fellow people. You are right, we are here briefly. No different than a flower blooming for a time. Whats the point to blooming just to die? Thats the point. As alan watts said... the journey itself is the point.

What you wrote reminded me of this extremely powerful (to me at least) bit by Jim Carrey on the latest The Weeknd album (which is about being in a state purgatory): Heaven's for those who let go of regret And you have to wait here when you're not all there yet And if your broken heart's heavy when you step on the scale You'll be lighter than air when they pull back the veil Consider the flowers, they don't try to loo…

Thats great. Thanks for sharing.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#286

Post by roci-ceres »

cl42 wrote: post #271

The young man, who does not know the future, sees life as a kind of epic adventure, an Odyssey through strange seas and unknown islands, where he will test and prove his powers, and thereby discover his immortality. The man of middle years, who has lived the future that he once dreamed, sees life as a tragedy; for he has learned that his power, however great, will not prevail against those forces of accident and natu…

how would one go about skipping directly to the thrid?

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#287

Post by mathematicaster »

roci-ceres wrote: post #286
cl42 wrote: post #271

The young man, who does not know the future, sees life as a kind of epic adventure, an Odyssey through strange seas and unknown islands, where he will test and prove his powers, and thereby discover his immortality. The man of middle years, who has lived the future that he once dreamed, sees life as a tragedy; for he has learned that his power, however great, will not prevail against those forces of accident and natu…

how would one go about skipping directly to the thrid?

Just do it (tm).

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#288

Post by narrator »

cl42 wrote: post #271

The young man, who does not know the future, sees life as a kind of epic adventure, an Odyssey through strange seas and unknown islands, where he will test and prove his powers, and thereby discover his immortality. The man of middle years, who has lived the future that he once dreamed, sees life as a tragedy; for he has learned that his power, however great, will not prevail against those forces of accident and natu…

We are very rarely the main character in the various stories that would get written about the time we are alive by an omniscient narrator. Most of our lives are much too boring to hold the reader's attention.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#289

Post by roci-ceres »

slowroll wrote: post #277
otikik wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I could try to focus on my hobbies, but you realize very quickly that to get good at anything, you need hundreds/thousands of hours. The point of hobbies is not "getting good at them". It's enjoying them for their own sake. Otherwise they turn into ... work. > I'm just a blip in the universe and when I'm gone it will be unchanged, the same as if I had never existed. Yes. The Universe doesn't expect or have any spec…

It sounds like the idea of “the universe has no plan for you” really didn’t help considering you needed therapy

Taking therapy does not mean that the person failed to realize his dreams. Successful and unsuccessful people both might feel the need to therapy at some point in their life.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#290

Post by [deleted] »

layer8 wrote: post #247
randomsearch wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the point of it? Live for others. You (and I) are incredibly fortunate. We have our basic needs taken care of. We have more than that. There are many, many, people in the world who have problems that you can help solve. That could be - spending time with a lonely elderly person, volunteering with the homeless, building a website for a charity that can't afford to pay for a great one, building a startup that…

> > What's the point of it? > Live for others. What’s the point of that? They are a blip in the universe just the same. Adding one level of indirection doesn’t solve the existential problem.

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