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Comment by crazynick4 | Hacker News Reader

I would take this article a step further and say that all the "bottom lines" in the article can be affixed with ", if they don't feel they have a purpose".

Most people live meaningless lives, that is why they feel empty. If you're just chasing the next raise or promotion or just raising a family so that they in turn can do the same you will inevitably end up feeling empty, whether you're living by default or not. On the other hand, if you have some goal or passion you are pursuing ( one that you believe to be even more important than yourself) , then you will find yourself in the right city, surrounded by the right people, as a result of that.

I agree with the article for the most part but I think it's missing a big piece as far as suggesting _what_ should be driving all these "default" people to change.

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I'm torn on this. Yes chasing a higher purpose is important but on the flip side, there is the simple art de vivre which is increasingly getting forgotten, and in the process causing a lot of stress.

Having very young kids and hanging out with elderly near the end of life helps to re-prioritize on what is truly important, as human beings. Sure we may be working on Project X which has the distant potential to meaningfully increase the human condition of humanity as a whole—and that is a noble goal. But I feel that in that effort, it is very easy to lose the art of being content in the moment with friends and family (particularily those you don't get to pick), savoring simple pleasures such as a meal or a walk in an ordinary park, and helping each other through the struggles of life.

I suppose it could be a difference in personality types or maybe I'm just not there yet. I can only do the whole live-in-the-moment thing for so long before I start getting this nagging feeling like I should be working on something. And the best feeling is always when I feel like I've made progress. Of course it has to be something I feel is important and not just something imposed from the outside, like job/school/etc.

Living in the moment doesn’t mean you never work on improving yourself or the world, it means giving into that nagging feeling you describe and then later, giving in to the nagging feeling that you just want to stop for a while.

> Most people live meaningless lives

I don't believe I've ever heard this phrase uttered by someone who wasn't an arrogant prick. Different people find different meaning in their lives. That they don't share the same definition of meaning that you do does not make their lives meaningless. For a lot of people, chasing social and economic status and raising a family absolutely does have meaning for them.

Now, if we're only talking about people who feel empty, well, feeling like your life lacks meaning is kind of the definition.

I don't believe I've ever heard this phrase uttered by someone who wasn't an arrogant prick.

I don't think there was any need for that.

I would argue that arrogance is the opposite quality that leads to the meaninglessness conclusion. It's a recognizance of your smallness in the universe, and that you will absolutely die and be forgotten in as little as a couple years. And so will almost everyone else. That doesn't strike me as arrogant - maybe a little nihilistic, but not arrogant.

I'll concede on how that came across - I meant to say what you described in your last sentence, and I agree it was a truism Of course there's a difference between just raising a family bceause it's the next logical step and because it's what you really feel is important to you at that point in life.

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