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Comment by t__r | Hacker News Reader

99% of people (if not more) do nothing of significant value for the human race. The wealth they create, the value of the product they produce, and the experience they gain all dissipate or become meaningless in the medium to long term. Value for the human race is not a very good criterion to decide whether what you do is bullshit. If you need a purpose in life, get children.

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Ok, then let's kill 99% of the people on this earth. Oh no, where did our civilizations go?

Having long term impact that is noticeable is good and should be everyone's goal. But being this confused about value is what leads to shit like this.

Lying awake worrying about whether or not you're adding value to the human race leads to shit like this. What I'm trying to say is: people should just do what they're good at. As long as you make a decent living, you're contributing to society. What is, let's say, a cleaning lady or bus driver supposed to think of your "value for the human race" criterion?

What? The cleaning lady and the bus driver create more value for society than almost anyone.

The problem is only that their contribution is not properly valued.

100% of what you do is meaningless on a long enough term. Unless you find a way to reverse entropy.

> If you need a purpose in life, get children.

Adding a couple more consumers into the sea of billions is more valuable than dedicating your life to science or art?

Do you have any idea what the average scientist or artist is actually doing? I'm not talking about Einstein or Picasso...

They are painting the murals that brighten the entrances to workplaces across the world, or researching incremental improvements to human knowledge that collectively form the foundation of the next generation of science.

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