How has the meaning of life changed for you as you've gotten older? \ stacker news ~FiresidePhilosophy

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How has the meaning of life changed for you as you've gotten older?

1519 sats \ 12 comments \ @nym 3 Apr FiresidePhilosophy

Growing up in small-town Minnesota in the 60s, life's meaning seemed straightforward – get educated, find a steady job, start a family, maybe even get that picket fence house. Our generation had a roadmap laid out for us.

But life has a way of messing with your plans. When I was young, I thought my purpose was to be a success story, chasing that American Dream. Raising kids and experiencing heartbreaks changed my perspective. Success stopped being about material things or career status.

Now, it's simpler. Life's meaning is in those late-night chats with my adult children, laughing until it hurts. It's seeing my grandkids finger paint with a wonder you can't recreate as a grown-up. It's finding peace in a quiet moment in the garden.

I went from chasing some grand meaning to finding it in the little things, in connections. It's not as flashy as my youthful ambitions, but it's richer, truer, and way more fulfilling. Funny how you can spend a lifetime figuring things out, and sometimes it's as simple as waking up grateful to be in this messy, beautiful world.

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46 sats \ 0 replies \ @quark 3 Apr

The meaning of life was many things, typical things, being happy, being loved, being successful, but now, now the meaning of life is just to stack sats. You get all the meanings by stacking sats. that's the ultimate meaning. There is no more meaning of life evolution. (I reserve the right to change my opinion tomorrow)

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @cleaningup12 3 Apr

Now I'm in my late 40s I'm much more at peace

My younger years were very anxious

81 sats \ 0 replies \ @beorange 3 Apr

Now, it's simpler. Life's meaning is in those late-night chats with my adult children, laughing until it hurts. It's seeing my grandkids finger paint with a wonder you can't recreate as a grown-up. It's finding peace in a quiet moment in the garden.

As it should be. However the ability to create and explore is a big part of it (as you can witness in your grandkids), never lose that spark.

52 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b 3 Apr

It's hard to touch what meaning I felt like my life once had. I spent many years trying to get to financial and emotional escape velocity (where payday loans weren't my only buffer and I wasn't trapped in a life that made me miserable).

Then I spent a lot of time searching for meaning in my work and had a hard time finding it.

I took a heroic-ish dose of mushrooms in 2018 or so and was left with the impression that the meaning of life is kind of self-referential, that life itself was the meaning, that life is what's significant. Also, that lifers can either be a force for good, furthering life's meaning, or contribute to the base case, chaos, without effort. I often think about which I'm choosing when I do things.

I think that you're right that connections give the most juice for the squeeze, where the leverage for doing good is highest. It also feels high leverage and rewarding of course, as if we are designed to take advantage of it.

340 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 4 Apr freebie

was left with the impression that the meaning of life is kind of self-referential

I got the same impression from Gödel, Escher, Bach.

Unfortunately, I stopped reading it at some point. It's a pretty large book with 777 pages. But I really liked it. Funnily, I bought the book for a very dumb reason in hindsight: I heard it contained a proof of Gödel's incompleteness theorem and thus I started reading it as part of my preparation for an exam about logic. That was definitely neither efficient nor effective but it sucked me in. Maybe it just got too thought-provoking so I forgot to continue it, lol.

I really liked the concept of strange loops and that there were a surprising amount of computer science elements in it:

To describe such self-referencing objects, Hofstadter coins the term "strange loop"—a concept he examines in more depth in his follow-up book I Am a Strange Loop. To escape many of the logical contradictions brought about by these self-referencing objects, Hofstadter discusses Zen koans. He attempts to show readers how to perceive reality outside their own experience and embrace such paradoxical questions by rejecting the premise—a strategy also called "unasking".

Elements of computer science such as call stacks are also discussed in Gödel, Escher, Bach, as one dialogue describes the adventures of Achilles and the Tortoise as they make use of "pushing potion" and "popping tonic" involving entering and leaving different layers of reality. The same dialogue has a genie with a lamp containing another genie with another lamp and so on. Subsequent sections discuss the basic tenets of logic, self-referring statements, ("typeless") systems, and even programming. Hofstadter further creates BlooP and FlooP, two simple programming languages, to illustrate his point.

I think you and @elvismercury would enjoy it. I need to read it from the start again, it's been too long.

6 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury 4 Apr

That was definitely neither efficient nor effective but it sucked me in.

Counterpoint: GEB is the most effective / efficient way you can possibly learn about the incompleteness theorem, because it's the most effective way to understand why it could possibly be interesting or pertinent to anything whatsoever. At least, that's how I found it.

I think you and @elvismercury would enjoy it. I need to read it from the start again, it's been too long.

I was just thinking of this, too. The idea I'm toying with is: what if I took an entire year to read this fucking thing all the way through, and do the exercises, etc?

But then I thought: if I was going to devote 300 hours to a project, is this the project?

And then I got depressed and stopped thinking about it.

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @DudeJLebowski 4 Apr

I've gone from not really knowing what I want to be when I grow up, to definitely having no idea what I want to be when I grow up more.

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 3 Apr

Excellent question!

I can broadly divide my life into Before Fatherhood and After Fatherhood.

Before Fatherhood, I wanted to roam around the world, travel as much as possible n get a better understanding of the BIG BAD WORLD.

After Fatherhood, I want to streamline n simplify my life as much as possible. I find that if I don’t feel so rushed, I won’t feel so disgruntled about my young kids taking up my entire life hahaha

17 sats \ 0 replies \ @anna 6 Apr

Beautifully said. That's presence right there. I've heard the statement that living in the past breeds depression, while living in the future breeds anxiety. That is probably an oversimplification, but I think it must factor into why so many people seem to be struggling with mental health these days. At times, my possibilities felt endless and I was stuck in the mental loop of asking if I had made the right choices and what I should do next to live up to my potential.

I've gone through so many different ideas of who I want to be, how to search for meaning in my life, what path I should be following. I traveled, tried all different jobs, searched for more fulfilling relationships, and kept coming back to the conclusion that I was still stuck with myself. I was desperate to feel like I was here for a reason. As I got older, I realized contentment is a state of mind and a choice.

Now I feel like the meaning of life is simply to live. To eat, sleep, create, observe the beautiful world around me. It is a blessing to have my big human brain and the free time to keep asking the question of what is the meaning of the life, but I am happiest when I recognize the beauty of cooking a meal, cleaning my home, connecting with my community.. the simple things in life, as you said

6 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 6 Apr

I am really excited about getting older and slowing down. When I was younger, I was incredibly narcissistic. I used to have rigid ideas of what my life was supposed to look like. I always had a plan. As i get older, I realize more and more, its all about giving. The more I give unconditionally, the better I feel. And I do not plan much anymore. I am learning to surrender to the moment.

6 sats \ 0 replies \ @halalmoney 4 Apr

From: broad with a limited measurable impact (serve God by being good to His creation).

To: specific and measurable (serve God by being good to His creation through identifying a major societal problem and then contributing to the solution).

In other words, fine a problematic itch to scratch in a noble manner.

For me, the itch is the State and the noble scratch is to help separate Money from State. This may not be achieved in one’s lifetime but progress can be measured (cough, Timechain Calendar, cough).

6 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 4 Apr freebie

We're in a similar place and it sounds like we've taken similar paths, except no grandchildren for me yet. Laughing with my adult daughter is indeed a great joy. I also like @beorange 's comment about that spark, though. I have the shark thing about moving or die.