
The Purpose of Life Is to Be a Nobody - fufufanatic
https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-purpose-of-life-is-to-be-a-nobody-72ceeb078373
======
smoyer
Don't waste your time reading this article - if any of this was true, you
could do as much good or evil (or anything you felt like) without
repercussion. The reality is that our actions may not have broad global
meaning but they can have huge local actions. This reminds me of a story about
starfish [0].

This author has some other issues - the "I write to reduce noise" part is
nonsense as if you really wanted to reduce the noise, you wouldn't write at
all (or talk). And he can't even bother to get his idioms correct (e.g. "modes
of dust" should be "motes of dust".)

So ... each of you is in fact special at least in some small way. And you can
go out an do some good that at least impacts one person. At least go out today
and make a stranger smile - that person might need a bit of cheer.

[0] [https://eventsforchange.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-
starfis...](https://eventsforchange.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-starfish-
story-one-step-towards-changing-the-world/)

~~~
throwaway18917
And yet in four billion years when the sun expands and engulfs the inner
planets, nothing will matter, nor will have mattered. We ARE a insignificant
in the universe; I don't see how that's untrue.

~~~
Kluny
I don't see how it's relevant. Things that will happen in 4 billion years have
no bearing on my actions today.

~~~
vixen99
Our experience is that many discoveries have changed the world and created a
different future than that which we otherwise might have experienced. They
would have had to be inevitable for them not to matter and that's certainly
contentious though true in some cases. Given they have made a difference how
does an extended time scale necessarily negate their influence? Your assertion
might turn out to be true or not.

------
jasode
_> If you gain your worth from being a CEO and the fact that you wield a
degree of power in the context of a business, rather than, say, from intrinsic
values, then you will eventually find yourself in a position of conflict._

As with so many writings with the themes of minimalism / zen / detachment /
spiritual enlightenment / etc, the authors have a childish view of CEOs. Yes,
there are lumbering corporations with middle managers climbing to CEO to
satisfy "vanity". However, for HN audience, I don't think that's the type of
CEO that's interesting to us.

 _> The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can focus on the things we can
change. And there’s a lot we can change._

And sometimes to execute those changes, _we have to be the CEO_ instead of
being a cog in a wheel (aka "nobody") in somebody else's company. You
sometimes have to be the owner/CEO of 10-person startup to be an agent of
change.

~~~
cynicaldevil
I don't think the author necessarily means being a CEO is an unworthy line of
work. What he wants us to understand from this is that it's futile deriving
one's worth from the fact that he's the CEO and that he has the ability to
boss other people around, but instead he must seek worthiness from the fact
that he has the potential to bring about significant change in this world;
more than most people could, because like you said, he is not just some "cog
in the wheel", but someone who is in charge of many like-minded people who
belive in him.

------
Gatsky
I used to be able to avoid this nonsense by walking past the self help and new
age aisles in the bookshop, but now it gets repackaged as clickbait on the
front page of HN.

Yes we have all experienced losing ourselves in an overwhelming sense of our
finitude compared to the unfathomable megacycles of human civilisation and the
universe.

But you can't live like this. It cultivates disconnection from the world.
Meditation can give you the same benefits without the mumbo jumbo, and you can
develop it into a daily practice.

~~~
dfischer
What type of meditation?

~~~
Cozumel
Read anything by Mouni Sadhu as a good start, avoid anything 'western' like
'meditating to music' etc and all that 'guided meditation' nonsense. The
branch of Yoga dealing with the mind is Raja Yoga and I can recommended
[http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1906-09rajayoga.pd...](http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1906-09rajayoga.pdf)
it might take you several lifetimes to get through it all, but it's worth it!

------
taway_1212
> We’re brought up to think that we’re special, and we like believing it.

It must be an American thing. In my country (Poland), children are usually not
brought up this way, and if someone would try it, it might raise some eyebrows
as bad parenting.

~~~
jvandonsel
Yes, this mode of parenting is rampant in the U.S., unfortunately.

