Hi Brother! Today I'm doing the Sunday morning shift at my job on a chilly, super quiet winter morning, and for a moment I felt like I was the only person alive in my city. Your video was a good company and very interesting, I don't know why, the context made it much more special.
Stargazer effect my friend! At least that's my personal terminology given how spectating the stars alone is one of the most universal and primal instances this can happen. It's a paradoxical state/feeling of eerie bliss. Being so isolated and interconnected at the same time. The moment where existential dread somehow feels warm, sweef and calming. All the outside markers of being alone, yet a random dude on the internet warmly touches on wonders fundamental to the human condition, reminding us we are never truly alone. Like nobody is invading your privacy, but somehow deep down you can feel your experience is simultaneously so unique and yet so relatable. In the words of Dr. Liara T'soni (Mass Effect): "Embrace eternity"
In another comment you replied you're glad your "ridiculously specific" idea appeals to people. I'd like to say I'm glad you saw it through. Many mainstream ideas start off as "ridiculously specific", and, sadly, never see the light of day for a fear of being as such. There's no telling how many ideas were lost this way. Again, I'm very glad for having the opportunity to see yours. Thank you kindly. :)
The thing that gives me purpose and drive is kinda a type of goal-setting, but instead of setting deadlines or exact number of things I need to achieve to reach my goals, I set directions. For example, some of my goals include learning more skills, improving my health, becoming more successful, etc. This is vastly different than saying I want to learn this one thing, I want to go to the gym 4 times a week, I want to earn 100k/year. As stated in the video, reaching the specific goal feels like the end, and you're left with no purpose, but until you've reached the goal, you don't feel fulfilled or happy, since you're not at your goal yet. If you're 20%, 50%, or 80% of the way there, you've still not succeeded. The actual feeling of accomplishment lasts for a very short time before you feel purposeless again. When setting a direction there is no certain end goal because you can always go further, but since your goal is to improve or get better, every little step of the way feels like a win. I feel accomplished even if I improve 1% at something, and there is always a way to improve as well. Set directional goals, instead of specific goals. Hope this makes sense and helps someone.
I was wondering if you arrive to similar conclusions as I and indeed you did. There are many ideals/principles one lives by forming the hierarchy of values. But I would maybe dare to wonder a bit further and offer a distinction. Because in introspection I see principles and drives (motivations). These principles are more like the overreaching rules one deems as central to a good, meaningful life. But they are not the impetus for action in itself. For example adherence to truth, recognition of reciprocity etc. These can produce motivation in reaction to it's breach, but usually not in default. What I see as my primary drive in life is curiosity. This is the one that does not need something violating my other values (endangering someone important to me, hunger, etc.). Even if my life was in complete tranquility, there would be impetus to learn something new. So basically I live to experience and learn. That includes that what I am capable of, how can I be useful, leading to lesser goals.
You need to release yourself from the quest of meaning and purpose . If you except thier is no meaning and any perpose you have is just a personal construct then you are a lot more likely to find some level of contentment . I look after 2 rabbits , they have no great purpose in thier lives , they don't seek neaning , they just are . I've learnt alot from them over the years
It is impossible to actually release yourself from it. And it's definitely impossible for society to continue without it. We need to make sense of good and bad just as much as we need to make sense of real and unreal.
In a way, it's same as the cancer cure - a quick and painless death would be ultimate solution. Maybe would be better articulated to support enjoyable life which implies reducing unemployable parts while focusing on the positive goal of supporting the life itself.
there are goals that can have meaning without being able to be accomplished, lots of vocational work relies on that, there'll probably never be a time when we aren't trying to end world hunger, disease or invent and discover new things, there'll always be a next milestone, some way we could improve access to food, another type of cancer we can improve our treatment of or another more distant world to probe, these are goals that can't be expected to end or finally be accomplished, the pursuit is enrichment of itself
@@valentine7455 I would say they are not goals. Because it’s not the accomplishing that matters. Every bit of hunger removed is a victory, and so the intention is not to end world hunger, it’s to minimise world hunger - to make it as low as possible. Ending it is just the maximum success, not the only success.
@@Valosken yeah, I see you talked about that, I commented too early without fully processing the video honestly, the way you differentiate goals and ideals I think makes a lot of sense and this clarification helps a lot
There is some degree of irony in discussing the philosophical understandings of purpose and meaning, while playing a survival game. I think that meaning and purpose become more self-evident, the further you move away from a stable society. If you were in a situation in which you were desperately foraging for food and water, on a daily basis, someone posing the question of, “what is meaning and purpose?” might elicit an angered response. It’s because in the face of desperation/self-preservation, pondering meaning and purpose is a luxury pastime. Merely posing the question publicly, would imply that you are distracted from other, more essential duties. So maybe meaning and purpose are more fluid than we are giving it credit for?
@@kendrom It’s more that what you ought to be doing is *obvious* when your life is on the line. This doesn’t make it invalid to ponder when it’s no longer obvious. Survival is also basically just an impulse, and barely a meaning at all.
Wow! Idk what I was expecting when saw this video. Almoat passed it over... glad I didn't. Explains a lot. Especially my friends mentality and how it translates to life. Wild. Out of a game. But it is masterfully created. If you can't find hours of happiness in valheim, you probably won't in life.
@Valosken well we were playing valheim at least 6 hours a day for weeks and weeks... having the time of our life. Felt almost like a drug we couldn't get enough of... got to beat fader in the ashlands and he just went and quit cold turkey. He's like we'll there's nothing to get or do. And I'm like well I find lots of fun in building, fishing, existence. Lol. So we built a day or Two... and hasn't been back on in over a month, and logged like 400+ hours together... I started a new game on new seed w harder difficulty. Loving it. Almost done with it and have ideas for other fun stuff to do... basically the game allows you to do or not do anything you want. Like in life if have free time... up to you how to make that time meaningful...we just don't think about it with friends. Because that time is automatically meaningful (most of the time)
The only reason to do anything is the sense of pleasure you derive from it, either by doing it, or by having done it. If result pleasure of having done it is not equal or greater than the time invested of having done it, we feel unsatisfied with the result. This is why gaming in the end is unsatisfying, unless you just have pleasure in the playing itself. When you're finished playing you end up with nothing, just a score on a scoreboard. It is why I don't like Valheim. The game was fun in the beginning, but the low level creatures end up just being annoying bugs to swat away, and with every new erea that opens up you just do the same thing over and over again. That is not fun, aka it serves no purpose. If meaning is purpose, then the only meaning to life is to have fun for as long as possible. You can do a fun thing endlessly, literally until it is no fun anymore, at which point doing that has lost it's porpose, it's meaning. Saving lives is not just 'good', it is pleasurable to feel good about having done it. Doing good is nothing more than stroking your own ego. It is masturbation.
I disagree with qualifications. I do think pleasure (and pain) are the root of all value, but not personal pleasure/pain, and I don't think pleasure is what value is. But I'll explain that in a video.
