What Is the Point | Hacker News Reader

What Is the Point

2 pointspaulpauper4 comments

What is the point of trying or doing anything. The wealth of Bezos, Gates, Musk, and others has surged 50-200%+ this year alone, all of whom were already astronomically wealthy to begin with, but have now pulled ever further ahead. What is the point of trying if there is no hope even coming close to even being even a tiny bit as successful as any of those people. You go to work and maybe hope to make enough to live off of and have a retirement, but it still feels like what is the point if what you have is so far from this idealization of success.

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Here's a place to start: https://zenhabits.net/lifes-enough-stop-comparing-yourself-t...

More practically: https://forge.medium.com/were-all-finding-out-what-enough-is...

Different people think that diminishing returns in a first-world economy starts at $50k/year, $100k/year, $200k/year, or some other number, but whatever one's desired purchasing power, it has zero relationship to how much Bezos or Gates are worth.

Dude... it's pretty transparent that defining success only in terms of the top .000001% will lead to 99.999999% of people being miserable. Depression lies to people and puts their priorities out of whack, but even your depression must be able to see that this doesn't make any sense.

The science and philosophy of the meaning of life is hard, and I'm not going to feed you easy answers. But you can surely see that you've got things pretty messed up, and you need to talk to a therapist, a doctor, or more likely both.

I know it's easier said than done, but many are choosing to not play the game. And that comes in many forms. Like others have hinted at, you need to find your own level of comfort. I left my comfortable IT job two decades ago, started my own business, and am very happy living below the poverty line serving others. My bank account isn't happy, but my soul sings. The funny thing about it is how people try to help me because I'm not 'successful.'

Comparing yourself to Bezos is a good way to drive yourself nuts. Have your own intrinsic motivations that are separate from idealized images derived from watching YouTube videos. Not sure what else there is to say here.

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