Ask HN: What Is the Meaning of Life? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What Is the Meaning of Life?

4 pointsjoshestroud8 comments

Hi HN,

I’m an engineer in the Bay Area. For a long time, I’ve thought about the meaning of life. I think in philosophy and startups that means having a model of how life works on an individual level, and running the gears until things click and you’re making progress. Somewhere in there is insight into emotions, knowing one’s self, and having fun on the way.

What are your thoughts on HN meaning of life? Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

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I don't think there is a "meaning of life" in the sense of any objective, universally applicable meaning that we are all subject to. At least not at a level of abstraction that is useful. In my view, we are just biological machines that are the way we are because evolutionary adaptions over millions of years lead to a certain combination of genes propagating together to yield us.

So the "meaning of life" then? Well, I personally adhere to the idea that "the meaning of life is a life of meaning", where the big idea is that each of us get to choose what it means to live a "life of meaning." Maybe your choice is to believe that a "life of meaning" is to help the poor and needy by direct hands-on intervention, and so you join the Peace Corp or similar organisations, or spend your time volunteering at a local soup kitchen / homeless shelter / etc. That would be a perfectly reasonable choice I think. But OTOH, maybe you believe that a "life of meaning" means a life dedicated to the advancement of scientific knowledge, and so you dedicate your pursuits to Physics, or Electrical Engineering, or Cosmology, whatever. Equally valid choice IMO.

In fact, in my view, while some choices might seem less "good" to me, from the subjective point of view of the individual chooser, all choices are equally "valid".

Now I get that some people reject this kind of thinking for one reason or another. Some people don't like the idea that they are responsible for determining the meaning of their life... that may strike them as a pressure / responsibility that they never asked for, and don't want. Others may believe there is some external source of meaning that is applied to us all "from above" ("god" or some similar notion). In which case, I say it's fine to believe what you want, all I ask is that you don't try to force other people - who may not share your beliefs - to live their lives as though they are bound by your beliefs.

I spent much of my 20s obsessing over the meaning of life.

To me, the "answer" was to realise the question could only be asked because of quirks in language. We can ask the question, but it doesn't touch upon anything real.

I get my happiness in life (which I think is a different point) by enjoying small pleasures – a beer woth friends, or a movie at the cinema, or an engrossing book. I'm a simple guy. :)

Don't forget that insight into emotions, knowing one's self, and having fun on the way were well established for dozens of millennia before what we now call engineering, philosophy, and startups came along.

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their [significant others].

I kid, I kid. It's really:

Be excellent to each other, and party on!

Wyld Stallyns!!

The meaning of life is to make more life.

Any other meanings we might attribute to life are just ways of coping with the brutally recursive nature of life.

To me, it is to improve the lives of as many people as possible, as much as I can.

My (Catholic) view of the meaning of life can be boiled down to "Understanding that we are all here together and can easily make other people's lives better or worse depending on how we act and choose to treat them." Day to day, that means attempting to moderate my own selfishness and ensure that I don't cause a chain reaction which causes others pain -- don't yell at that cashier so they don't go home and yell at their kids who then struggle to cope and lash out, consequences which might ripple out from my initial burst of impatience and affect more than the person in front of me. Obviously there's further theology in my belief system but you asked for a more philosophical answer than a religious one :)

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