19 Comments
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kora 🌊's avatar

This was brilliant. Thank you

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Just Show Up's avatar

Wonderful and timely for me. THANK YOU so much for writing it!

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Ned's avatar

A wonderful piece that wrestles the needs for insight and prose, while providing a rather well-needed salve for my existential angst. Cheers.

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Vikas Kalra's avatar

Yesterday I had a conversation of the same concepts in here. I had the concepts roughly defined but not so clearly laid out as you have done so wonderfully in this essay. I forwarded this to my friends! An example of one that really resonates - most of us are really aiming for a state, not a goal. Society wants labels, understands labels so we take pieces of these future states we haven't fully defined and drop arbitrary goals from a limited perspective. A common example. Someone may really want validation that they are highly successful so they try to express the need for success by picking a career highly coveted by their immediate social circle. And pursue that career for years or decades before they realize or admit they had no strong interest in that career.

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Frederik Gieschen's avatar

This was excellent. Love the idea of making explicit the 'portfolio of meaning.'

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Blake's avatar

Linear/non-linear distinction seems to be another take on the cart model, which I think is a simpler but more useful tool: https://mindslice.home.blog/2022/10/23/how-to-move-carts/

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Jedii Master's avatar

Beautiful thinking...

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Nayn Aly's avatar

what do you do all day?

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Unverified Revelations's avatar

very little, i am extremely ill

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Nayn Aly's avatar

your illness is self imposed by the masters of existential philosophy which chose to banish the monstrosities of life by their unwavering support of a world of infinite hopelessness and despair because why not if there is nothing to lose than die at the end of your life so you can emerge as a newborn baby as the heaven stories have always told but it is really your choice to make

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whyage's avatar

tl;dr: carpe diem

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Tom's avatar

Viktor Frankl in a nutshell.

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Samhere's avatar

Incredible.

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Kim Willis's avatar

Absolutely brilliant

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Newtothis's avatar

Beautifully written and something I needed to hear in my own search for "meaning". I think I was looking at it the wrong way the whole time. This was helpful to read and gives me a lot to think about. Cheers

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Walt Schultz's avatar

Wonderful! Two thumbs up!

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PJ Roustan's avatar

A well composed nod and validation to my new favorite book, Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age. Thanks for this!

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