[katzgrau]

I feel like this is going to get downvoted, but the problem, sincerely, is what you believe.

Money and accolades are bullshit ideas that do not objectively exist. Most of us have just bought into the idea of them.

If you strive to obtain something just because others value it (money, power, recognition), you're going to wind up feeling empty and unsatisfied.

Make your own meaning in this life and resist buying into the impoverished ideas of the world you were born into.

Sounds crazy, but no - chasing other people's idea of value is crazy.

[imetatroll]

While this is nice as a thought exercise, not having at least "enough" money is very painful in my experience. As for power and recognition, recognition comes first and then, I suppose, power in terms of ... importance. I'm not at all sure that power is actually important at all. Are people actively pursuing power? Those that do I suspect already have easy access to money and recognition. I cannot relate.

I think that harsh self evaluation is what allowed humans to experience our current state of existence. Maybe we are entering a new phase where competition can ebb and we can evolve towards something more forgiving towards ourselves, but those of us reading this article are trapped by our biology. In other words, the things that I feel seem largely out of my control.

Honestly I don't know why I'm even writing this. In a year or two when I look back I'm sure to feel embarrassed by what I have written. I usually am.

[katzgrau]

> While this is nice as a thought exercise, not having at least "enough" money is very painful in my experience.

Of course. Consider this - when you're poor - it's not specifically money you're after. You want the baseline items to survive, and money is a convenient way of obtaining them.

But your end goal is not the money - it's what you need.

But beyond that, especially in society, the money has a tendency to become the end in itself. Just get lots of money - it must be valuable because it appears others value it.

Same with power and recognition. Lots of people fantasize about promotions because of what it'll do to their self worth as perceived by them and their peers.

So ... it's not a thought experiment. It's the stone cold truth - money and power are the thought experiments.

[imetatroll]

We either barter every transaction or we have a means by which we exchange values. Money is inescapable.

[katzgrau]

If you believe that without qualification, it's true for you and you'll probably live with the cascading results of thinking that way. If you believe it's a useful societal tool for solving some basic problems but not much more beyond that, the same applies.

[imetatroll]

I am failing to see the alternative in your comments.

[russelldjimmy]

I agree with your comment, and I would like to build on something you said:

> resist buying into the impoverished ideas of the world you were born into.

Instead of “resist”, I might instead say, “see clearly” or “recognise” that these concepts are based on fiction, ultimately (like most concepts). They are useful tools, but we try to make them outlast their purpose. That is when they take over our minds and our lives.

When we observe with absolute attention and awareness, the hollowness of these concepts becomes clear and resisting them won’t even be necessary because we realise there is nothing to resist.

[katzgrau]

> Instead of “resist”, I might instead say, “see clearly” or “recognise”

Thank you, that's definitely a better way of wording it.

[credit_guy]

> Money and accolades are bullshit ideas that do not objectively exist.

Here's a different way to look at money. In the 1800's the British were consistently a few decades of everyone else, so that century was also called Pax Britannica. What they had and the rest of the world did not have was a vibrant financial market. London was the banking city of the world. All the money in the world was going through the London banks.

Maybe money does not objectively exist, but it helps tremendously to organize complex societies.

[127]

Well, I'm certainly not going to chase your idea of value. Seriously speaking, though: money and accolade are both social abstractions. Humans are animals of social abstraction, so it's kind of silly to state things that matter to us the most, don't objectively exist. Evolution can have a hierarchy, multiple layers of the onion. Faster the memes, faster the organism can reach a position where they can out-compete the environment.