[danielbarla]

While the tone of the post might come off as childish, I don't think it should be dismissed quite so off hand, because I think there's a lot more behind it than one might think.

I cannot but help think that there's a fair bit of truth behind Terror Management Theory [1], which paraphrased states that a lot of human activity is centered around the need to get our minds off the topic of our mortality, or to find something meaningful in it. I can totally see that someone who spends much of their life working towards a goal of essentially getting rich now finds that he is somewhat rudderless after that point. Is finding something interesting to do meaningful? I mean, it's completely subjective.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory

[lazide]

Nihilism when understanding/dealing with the problem is also a common trap in Buddhism, and a big reason why Monks will often discourage unguided meditation practice. The Void is a powerful thing to grasp, and can very much be ‘held wrong’ [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81]

Ultimately, that nothing ultimately matters, also does not really ultimately matter.

All we really have is now, and the conditions which have led to now, and our ability to do things within our power now. And that does matter, as much as anything ever can. Which is something. Getting through to that point is not a given.

IMO, part of what made the Buddha, well, the Buddha, is he tried to make it better. Despite knowing all this. And despite it being much, much harder, messier, and more painful than the path he could of taken - which is opting out.

Will you make it better (in your judgement)? Make it worse (in your judgement)? Rely on someone else’s judgement? How accurate is your judgement?

Or opt out (and what does that mean)?

Buddha (depending on the tradition) taught a path to reduce pain, and in some cases opt out (for Monks, at least, to some extent) by hopefully seeing the truth as best as one can.

That form of Buddhism is not very popular.

Religions that give a narrative involving conquering (Islam, Christianity in the recent past), surrendering (Modern Christianity, Jainism), or being chosen/made (Judaism/Hinduism) for/by a deity to achieve heaven or have one’s fate decided are much more popular.

I expect for much the same reason that action movies, dramas, and epics are more popular than quiet walks in the woods.

[richiricho]

Interesting to see.

I walked through this by myself and it took a decade to do so.

Always crazy to see that these things are as old as we are

[bormaj]

Any reading recommendations for exploring this further?

[lazide]

There are many roads. Finding a local Zen center may be one. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen]. Location dependent, of course.

Be careful to not confuse reading a map, for walking the road.

Take some steps, and see if where it seems to be going makes sense to you.

[tough]

Never mistake the map for the territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation

[hoot]

I read "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts and it completely changed my existence. It really got me away from concepts like searching for meaning, purpose, and making things better.

[danielbarla]

Indeed, and I think your comment throws some light on the depths of the topic. It's easily one of the most profound topics, and is worth exploring in and of itself (even if in this case the blog post author came off extremely tone deaf).

[richiricho]

I think it shows a complete lack of curiosity.

I watch a youtube video about anything like creating my own door fixtures through 3d print and metal casting.

I would immediadlty buy a nice old house, start working on it.

I have so so many things i don't have time due to money and work, he is so so far away from being intersting, it hurts to read that

[eamag]

You can see that's what OP did: he watched a youtube video about robotics (door fixtures), immediately wrote to 70 people (bought a nice old house) to start working on it.

But then he realized it's not what he wants to spend his time on

[richiricho]

Nope. His motivations are capitalstic in nature and his idol is Elon Musk.

He doesn't care to help people or getting into robotics because he is interested in it.

He doesn't have a real deep relationship with someone to share his live with (he mentions his ex-girlfriend).

He is the type of human being who got lucky rich, but doesn't realize he is empty inside. Elon Musk is even worse.

Captialism as an endgoal for society doesn't bring us any closer to a Star Trek future and there are probably a Billion happier but a lot poorer people ou tthere than him.

He doesn't want to spend his time on it because his capitalistic thinking is so narrow that he doesn't care about the things which are already around him.

When you read the last thing from him " It’s the only thing that feels authentic." even his 'just learning physics' is not even authentic. He doesn't do it for being curious, he does it to " I can start a company that manufactures real world things. "

And the only interesting thing about this blog post, which i will forget tomorrow, is because we tent to like to read things which are more rare than others. There was not much insight or brilliance in his live at all.