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Comment by crusso | Hacker News Reader

I always find these self-flagellation articles interesting, but feel like I'm observing a phenomenon from an outside perspective.

Do most people agonize over the supposed "importance" of what they do? Do they feel so insecure when comparing what they do to what others do? Do they feel that what they do really is going to change the world or matter in some spiritual context?

I don't really worry about it. I figure that if I'm content doing what I do, with my work-life balance, with the money I make... then why worry about it. Whenever little thoughts or concerns of self-importance come to mind, I always think of Ozymandias.

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For some, the concern stems from this line of thought: "This is my one life, and after its gone I'll never get it back. I need to make the best of it."

So then we imagine what the best life could be. We don't even have to try hard to imagine the best life - examples of people who had a better life are constantly made apparent. Whether a life more noble, more enriched, more fun, more profound, or any other adjective, it doesn't matter because we see them all.

Then we see that elements of our life are not notable and we regret that others may have done something better than ourselves. And then we feel guilty, sad, upset, or angry that our ONE CHANCE, our life, isn't what it ought to be in order to be the best.

So, we trudge on making the best moves we know how. Its sometimes a bit of relief to see articles like this which, for a few minutes, give a sense of relief that maybe we don't have to cram every ounce of our lives with greatness... I don't buy it though.

This is my one chance, and I'll be damned if I waste my most functional hours of the day on something that doesn't matter.

This is my one chance

That's the thing. Your one chance for what?

I'll be damned if I waste my most functional hours of the day on something that doesn't matter.

Do you have some notion of an afterlife where that even matters?

Really, I'm not that nihilistic in the way I live my life, but intellectually I don't really fight it.

If he doesn't believe in the afterlife, that only makes his limited lifespan more valuable.

More valuable at the moment, I guess so... but also utterly pointless.

Or not, because if you build/do something really meaningful, it will be impacting people long after you turn to dust. People often call that 'leaving a legacy'.

MLK's legacy makes people's lives better, today, every day. Lincoln's legacy does the same. Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, etc. Ansel Adams, John Lennon. All these people are gone, but the version of light that they each brought to the world touches new lives -- people that are living -- every single day.

And then the people who are living get inspired and do the same, on and on forever.

Pointless to the individual after he is dust, though. There is no meaning to dust.

That's the point. If the impact of your life is measured by the number of people you affect, then you want the have best possible affect spread over the most amount of people possible. Some people have lived such meaningful lives that their impact outlives them.

If you can have an impact on the living not only while you are living but while you're dead, that's quite the accomplishment.

Chance to do the things that matter to you or your loved ones. I have recently had a painful remainder of how short life is when my aunt deceased in her late 50s. And it made it painfully obvious that none of the stuff that I'm working on right now really means anything to me. A year, two or ten from now I won't even remember tweaking the site to work on IE9. Nor will the client, nor the customers. And then, ten years from now, one of my parents might die and then I could only wish that instead of spending 2-3 hours finding out why some js or css wasn't working in firefox on mac, I spent that time being with them.

Thats the thing: I don't know what the most important thing for me to be doing is. So the best thing I can do is figure it out. Putting myself in a position of wealth and power opens more doors so that I have more opportunities to figure out just what the hell I'm supposed to be doing here. If I were to "give up" and not strive to grow, I'd have less access to the variety of things which can be done. Therefore, I must work hard and must get better and must do things that matter so that I have a better chance at figuring out what I'm here for. If it turns out that I'm not actually here for anything at all, then I really haven't lost anything because there was nothing to win in the first place. But, giving up before you even know the answer? Thats a sad story.

Okay, I like that answer. Just asking out of curiosity. Personally, I've never found a greater purpose to my life. I don't really think I'm looking for one any more. I have my family, my work, my hobbies, etc. I never feel like I must have some higher purpose to get up in the morning and do my thing... but I know that everyone is different.

Is it actually self-flagellation? A less dramatic description would be "introspection." You could also replace "agonize" with "think about," etc.

I think it's healthy to explore these thoughts, as long as it doesn't consume you. The trouble with a blog post is that you necessarily come off as heavily invested in the topic you're writing about, but it is also possible that he just wanted to be provocative and spark a discussion. It didn't seem as negative to me as some comments have indicated.

Self-concious people are less selfish.. their life will tend to have more meaning.. the ones that surround them are more happy because self-councious people are more aware of himself, more aware of the things he does, and the result of his actions in the life of others..

Sensibility is always a good thing.. with more people like him we wouldnt have experienced the arise of the nazis or the koch brothers destroing everything around because they are the "only ones who matter", "the elite"

is subtle, it may look small.. but the attitude of always think about the results of your own actions (in the moral aspect, not just in the results for himself) is one of the things the western civilization are in deep need..

Do we only act like vampires of resources and the earth, or we contribute a little back? do we worry?

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