The Finite, Irreplaceable Hours of Your Life
enemyairship.com
enemyairship.com
"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
I actually ended up taking his advice though. Since the article wasn't illuminating, insightful, enjoyable, or in any way worth my time, I renounced any obligation I felt to continue reading it.
So I quit reading.
The first few paragraphs bemoan people who are willing to suffer through the valleys to get to the peaks, while the middle of the article is all about how difficult it is to find rewarding experiences and how it usually takes a lot of hard work to see rewards manifest.
Despite his protestations, I think the author does have a sense of "time investment" and is probably often glad he "stuck with it."
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/02/what-is-wealth.ph...
and
Goes on to say how he played a computer game for more than 365 hours of his life. I wouldn't count some 360+ hours of the same game as "the most remarkable experiences possible" but that's just me.
http://m.kotaku.com/5891076/why-the-indie-game-that-was-supp...
I mean I know that you will see things like that Hans' guys' TED talk about how much better everything is for everyone now, but things are still pretty fucked up for a LOT of people in the world. Look at Mexico.. or even a number of countries in Europe are having a really hard time now.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have morally bankrupt hedonistic worldviews where human life really has little or no value and their only long term goals are to "have fun". This is a common problem with our culture.
Your goals for life should not be to have a few thrills or entertain yourself. Your goals should be to effect positive change in the world. There are many suffering people, many problems to solve, lots of innovations and changes that could really improve things for everyone. That's the meaning of life. Not getting a few chuckles. And everyone can potentially make a very significant positive impact if they take their lives seriously.
Also I think we need to start innovating outside of the computer. We have real problems to solve. Its definitely easier to say than do -- I am a software developer -- but I really wish that this programmable matter stuff would take off, or at least maybe people would really start to take seriously ideas like ultra-local food and energy production.
As for me, I believe most suffering is the inexorable result of overpopulation to "life is cheap" levels, which there's no ethical way to fix within the lifetime of today's generations. I'm willing to pay my fair share (not more) out of our society's resources to treat the symptoms, but I'm not going to divert my own efforts and sacrifice limited opportunities for the rare experiences I value most.
The United States uses more oil than the other 3 or 4 top countries combined. The reason there is so much suffering is because resources are not only distributed incredibly unfairly, but actually many countries and groups are deliberately repressed.
On reflection, I shouldn't have said "no ethical way to fix". A fundamentally different civilization, freed from our punitive "if anyone will not work, neither shall they eat" attitude, needn't make people suffer for being regarded as superfluous by the economy. And defense against "why should we feed you?" is largely why societies lacking trusted safety nets do overbreed whatever resource base is available, including foreign donations.
This is valid advice and a good reminder for any time investment, whether entertainment, work, your own business, or, as you say, improving the world. Replace "watching Lost" with "fixing leaking roofs in Mexico" and the point still stands - there are more and less effective ways of improving the world, and if you do not take the time to re-evaluate your choices, you will waste time and energy that could help more people. Sure, you could go and become a carpenter in Mexico and build houses. Or you could create a small business loan system to lend money to a thousand carpenters in Mexico. The point is, be flexible and free to change your direction if you see a better way.
You make a good point about being open to changing direction, but I think that is your point, not one made in the article.
And look, less than half way in: "... The same metric can and should be applied to all activities: is the experience worth the irreplaceable hours of your life? Not just consuming media, but hobbies, travel, acts of creation and destruction ..."
Anyway :)
Should it? Why? What makes positive change a more valid goal than making more mans? (http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2481) And in turn, what's so morally bankrupt about the pursuit of fun? With a focus on the individual, it would seem to value human life more than simply measuring the size of the shadow you cast.
As far as Darwin or simple propagation, our science and technology have taken us beyond natural human evolution.
The pursuit of fun without regards to positive social change or individual growth does not create medium or long term benefit for the individual or society.
Generally moral codes which explicitly take into account social responsibility are more beneficial for society. The current state of affairs in our consumerist capitalist society disproves the common belief that individual interest magically translates into common interest.
Second, please don't dismiss my own fucking problems as ``first world'', as if you know shit about other people's life. Again, you are not a douchebag, so don't behave like one. Yes, I know there are Foreign People suffering now. They can suck it up. We are all grown-ups now, we have problems too, and we have to take care of ourselves. We can not spend all of our life feeling sorry for others.
Third, you don't understand very much about hedonism, morality, philosophy or living. Let's try to be humble and not spit "morally bankrupt!" at every lifestyle with which you disagree. For example, Kant didn't arrive to the conclusion that, to be moral, he had to give all his belongings to the poor. Figure why.
You almost imply that Kant wouldn't have a problem with hedonism. That doesn't sound very educated or well thought out.
"Don't complain about having difficulty at work, at least you aren't starving!" We all have problems, some worse than others. That doesn't mean you can just dismiss any problem someone has just because they aren't in the worst situation possible.
As for spending as much time on amazing things as possible... There are many people who believe you need lows to properly appreciate highs. If everything is amazing, then everything is actually normal... And nothing is amazing.
For years, I had a boss who would ask me how I was doing, and I'd reply, "Meh. Okay." And he'd respond, "So pretty good, huh?" He got me. He knew that I had a good life, and I was happy. And that it was relatively free from problems. When I had a weekend of playing video games and generally just having fun, that was perfectly normal. For others, that would be ignoring their responsibilities and goofing off.
I'm not saying not to have fun, just that life is easier to appreciate if you have a proper scale.