Spend your time how you want. Time is never wasted. If you don't want to do something, and you have no good reason to do it (friends, family, etc.), don't.
As the article states, you only have so much time. Stop trying to figure out how to optimize it, and live it.
You don't have to hike up a mountain, see the world, turn off that TV show you like, or even skip out on unhealthy stuff like going to the bar or eating that piece of cake you shouldn't have (in moderation) to live an enjoyable, fulfilling life.
If what you're doing right now is enjoyable, that's enough.
We're not? How'd you figure that one out with 100% certainty?
At best said purpose is optional or it would require equal opportunity to come upon the explanation from every person who has and who will be in existence. If said purpose is hidden without even a hint that you're supposed to find it I consider that malicious obfuscation.
Except for your own statements of fact, of course.
Sure, and Louis Pasteur was initially a crank for claiming that invisible micro-organisms were causing infection and disease. Absence of perception does not rationally conclude something is therefore absent.
> I need a reason to change mine from the default option.
The default option is faith/belief. You don't have "strong evidence" each day that the sky will be the same color, the sun will come up, your dining room chair will still hold your weight, your best friend still loves and cares for you, and that your car will likely start.
A large majority of your life behavior cruises along quite happily on faith/belief. Or do you start every day re-checking all the proofs of the physical world before you can do anything?
I don't understand your example. Louis Pasteur determined germ theory by observations of natural phenomena - he observed evidence, experimented, and found an explanation for said evidence. In this case I'd need to see direct evidence of a purpose and a means by which I could observe or experiment with said purpose.
> The default option is faith/belief.
You need to provide some reasoning behind that. And which faith? Some belief? Some god? Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster, and the theory of Atlantis?
> You don't have "strong evidence" each day that the sky will be the same color, the sun will come up, your dining room chair will still hold your weight, your best friend still loves and cares for you, and that your car will likely start at the crank of the key.
You're not understanding - I'd need to have some form of reason to believe that the sky would change, or that the dining room chair's properties would change. I'm saying that my understanding of the world is based upon observations. I observed the sun comes up every day so I assume that it will tomorrow. Unless something acts on it it will continue to do so I have no reason to not assume that. For it to not come up the next day without any reason to would in fact be a supernatural phenomena.
> Your absence of perception does not mean the evidence is absent.
And what I'm saying is that the absence of a "thing observed" can have multiple reasons for "not being observed" - 1) it really doesn't exist or 2) you lack the ability to observe it.
If you don't have a microscope it's hard to confirm the existence of cells, and if your life has been lived in a way that you lack the "spiritual scope" and ways of thinking to perceive purpose then of course you will not observe it.
This has become a secret thing that you should discover and know and most won't know which tells me it's not actually important or required to know.
What about time spent on social media like hacker news that I subjectively feel was wasted?
Usually thanks to a combination of being tired and feeling like I can’t muster anything else. But literally staring at a blank wall for 5 minutes would be more restful (some call that meditation)
It is very easy these days to be always busy without making progress towards anything other than keeping busy. And just like junk food, it rarely feels like the best choice in retrospect. Very easy to make in the moment without even enjoying it all that much while it’s happening
That’s what I was trying to convey. I don’t enjoy time on HN as much as I would enjoy other activities that happen to have a slightly higher activation energy.
For example: I would almost certainly enjoy grabbing dinner with a friend more than I enjoy HN. But opening HN is waaaaay easier than calling up a friend. So that’s what happens instead.
Argument could then be made that we are living it regardless of what we do. Including optimizing.
I take the point about being stuck in analysis-mode and self-doubt, though I think the fear it addresses is less-so FOMO and more-so living with or without needless suffering or drudgery. Paradoxically I think a bit of suffering is part of living well, e.g. suffering for a passion-project, or cause.
A certain strange book that deals with desire had made waves this past year in navel-gaze-y rationalist-adjacent circles, I think this overlaps. The author posits that we don't have real desires. Instead we make up surrogate reasons and social permission structures to get things done. And if we have desires, they're surrogate desires anyway. It's called "Sadly, Porn" - with the allusion being we're living a pornographic life. Personally I think it's fun and interesting, but I've seen reactions ranging between "banal", "amazing", "disturbing", "pomo nonsense"
I think this is why habit-creation is so powerful. We all have habits, whether they are good or bad - they lower cognitive overload so you can act without rationalizing everything. The way a habit can relate to desire can be completely abstract, but if we follow through they can be fruitful.
Yes! I try to optimize for doing as little things I don't enjoy as possible. If I feel like spending 10 hours watching some Netflix show all weekend, I consider that a perfectly good use of my time. On the other hand, things like cleaning/cooking/shopping, I consider them a waste of time and try to spend as little time doing them as humanly possible.
Spending just 100 words writing a novel might be for you. You might even leave behind something.