does the pointlessness of your life bother you?

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

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I honestly believe that our wiring makes us incapable of caring about the pointlessness of our existance.

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I think this is an easy conclusion to come to for a normal person, but I think this is exactly the sort of assumption that drives depressed people crazy. They don't see this "hope floats" attitude as being obvious at all.

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Can you expand on this FFK? I dont really get what you are saying.

edit: If you are saying that it is hard for depressed people to realize that the 'pointlessness' of life is not what is really making them unhappy, then I agree with you.

Poker has actually made this clear to me because I have had so much variance and Ive noticed that my personality changes depending on how well I am doing.

[samjjones]

For those seeking the "meaning of life", just look around in nature. What is the point of any animal's existence? The obvious answer is survival of oneself and one's species.

[Fast Food Knight]

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I honestly believe that our wiring makes us incapable of caring about the pointlessness of our existance.

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I think this is an easy conclusion to come to for a normal person, but I think this is exactly the sort of assumption that drives depressed people crazy. They don't see this "hope floats" attitude as being obvious at all.

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Can you expand on this FFK? I dont really get what you are saying.

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Sorry, that wasn't clear. I interpreted your comment to mean that our wiring to survive, thrive, and procreate keeps us from dwelling on and fully comprehending the finite qualities of life. I was trying to say that I think that's true of most people, but depressed people lack these traits and instead feel that they perceive life and impending death much more realistically than "happy" people. They don't get how the rest of us march on with such a chipper attitude despite how pointless it all really is... to them that "wiring" makes no sense.

[econophile]

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For those seeking the "meaning of life", just look around in nature. What is the point of any animal's existence? The obvious answer is survival of oneself and one's species.

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This kind of thinking leads to the belief that evolution has a purpose, such as improving species or something. I contend that animals don't have a point, but they just happen to exist because they can.

[samjjones]

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For those seeking the "meaning of life", just look around in nature. What is the point of any animal's existence? The obvious answer is survival of oneself and one's species.

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This kind of thinking leads to the belief that evolution has a purpose, such as improving species or something. I contend that animals don't have a point, but they just happen to exist because they can.

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What compels wild animals to have sex?

[GTL]

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For those seeking the "meaning of life", just look around in nature. What is the point of any animal's existence? The obvious answer is survival of oneself and one's species.

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This kind of thinking leads to the belief that evolution has a purpose, such as improving species or something. I contend that animals don't have a point, but they just happen to exist because they can.

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What compels wild animals to have sex?

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when they have sex, little animals get made. then we can see the little animals bone each other and ask questions about it. there are plenty of animals that never have sex, we don't talk or think about them very often.

our world is made up of things that procreate.

[olliejen]

I can't make sense of little kids who with cancer. There's nothing fair or meaningful about it and the idea itself that there is no higher/bigger purpose of it, that it's just a random/pointless occurrence, depresses me.

But, I'm pretty sure that there isn't "something else" that is bothering me. It's pretty much exactly that pointlessness.

[disjunction]

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For those seeking the "meaning of life", just look around in nature. What is the point of any animal's existence? The obvious answer is survival of oneself and one's species.

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I actually don't think this is true. I think it's the product of the 20th century paradigm. In the last 100 years we discovered a lot about genetics and evolution and stuff and now we think it's the meaning of everything? Who says?

Yes, for millions of years the average entity has become more and more optimized to survive and procreate. But who says this is the meaning of life for you in particular? The paradigm we're all born in says that if you don't prioritize survival and procreation, you're a defective entity. But this is like me saying that the world revolves around baseball, and mathematicians are nothing but defective baseball players. Or a better analogy is how big guys view everyone in terms of whether they can be taken in a fight. If you have different priorities, you have different priorities. They can have meaning the same as anything else.

(Note that I'm not trying to make an argument about having children. I actually want to have children. But all I'm saying is that having children is as meaningful/unmeaningful as anything else, don't let what they told you in some biology classes make it seem any more or less meaningful. Biology has not explained consciousness and since it can't do that, it doesn't have much to say on meaning of life.)

Anywho, in absence of evidence one way or the other, I don't believe in pointlessness. I choose to believe that everything has meaning.

[Aloysius]

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I honestly believe that our wiring makes us incapable of caring about the pointlessness of our existance.

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I think this is an easy conclusion to come to for a normal person, but I think this is exactly the sort of assumption that drives depressed people crazy. They don't see this "hope floats" attitude as being obvious at all.

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Can you expand on this FFK? I dont really get what you are saying.

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Sorry, that wasn't clear. I interpreted your comment to mean that our wiring to survive, thrive, and procreate keeps us from dwelling on and fully comprehending the finite qualities of life. I was trying to say that I think that's true of most people, but depressed people lack these traits and instead feel that they perceive life and impending death much more realistically than "happy" people. They don't get how the rest of us march on with such a chipper attitude despite how pointless it all really is... to them that "wiring" makes no sense.

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Good point - one thing I can not stand (this is probably in large part because my father is a psychiatrist who treats very unstable patients, and I heard alot about this growing up) is when people blithely assume that those who struggle, or are depressed, or whatever, are just "not trying" or something. They are just wired differently.

But KKF's basically correct, imo, in that for most people, our genetic hardwiring, and our base motivations, tend to preclude the view that life is pointless.

-Al

[geormiet]

Like anyone else who is reading this, I am well off compared to the rest of the world's standards. I have the luxury of having all I need to live healthy, which allows me to dwell on my pointlessness. People who struggle to eat and have shelter don't think about it.

Maybe our bodies aren't wired to have things this easy, so we have trouble dealing with it and it results in things like depression.