Ask HN: What is your mission in life? - cvaidya1986
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muzani
Mainly it is serving Allah.

Everything positive is an act of piety, from smiling to strangers, answering
Stack Overflow questions, to simply getting a contract done quickly and above
expectations. Avoiding anything that pulls me towards sin - things like
banking/finance institutions is the major temptation for sin, as well as day
trading.

Never focusing on money as a goal in itself. Money is there to do good and to
invest into good deeds. I would invest all my money and energy into something
if it is good enough for the world.

Being honest, especially when it is bad for me. Never be deceptive. The truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Never promise or commit to that
which can't be done, never hide flaws when selling.

Liberating others. People are trapped in dead end jobs, especially where I
live. They are forced to accept bribes, lie, and other immoral things. I like
to work with people whose goal is to train and improve pay for their staff and
avoid jobs whose only goal is to disrupt and make life difficult for the
majority.

Craftsmanship. I see craftsmanship as not the process of creation, but
extracting the meaning of what is already there.

Like when you take photographs, you don't just look for a subject matter with
beautiful lighting, colors, crisp focus. A food photographer tries to capture
temperature, flavor, moisture. A wedding photographer tries to capture emotion
and even inject a little sexiness.

With programming or UX/UI, you are not just building features. You are solving
a problem. You understand the pains of the user, the emotions, the process,
find a way to cure it.

It's not about creating something new, but deeply understanding, appreciating,
and immersing myself in God's creation, both the good and the bad.

~~~
meric
I try to do the same, I hope you don't mind I borrow your words.

~~~
muzani
Go ahead, no copyright

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AnimalMuppet
My purpose is to honor, obey, and serve my Lord Jesus Christ.

Subordinate to that, my purposes are to love my wife, to love my children, to
raise them well, to be kind and helpful to those I meet in life.

I live this out imperfectly, on all fronts. But that's my purpose.

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Kevin_S
I have a "purpose" I am aiming to achieve I suppose.

I believe there are some universal truths and that they are able to be
understood by man. I try to identify these very very basic truths, confirm
them, then apply them to my life.

I am still young (24) and recently have focused on learning about what other
people think those truths are, to give myself a basis of understanding. Part
of this is freeing myself from my own beliefs, so I purposefully don't totally
follow any religion/political allegiance/ideology. So for example, I have
studied some of the major religions (Hinduism & Buddhism so far) and have
delved into philosophy. I think understanding what other people think is truth
will help me understand.

We'll see how this all goes in the long term, but it has inspired and
motivated me to keep learning.

On the career side, I am setting myself to start a PhD in Accounting so I can
hopefully become a tenured professor. Helping people is a big part of what I
want out of my career, and this falls in line with that.

~~~
mycat
We are in hard times where good and bad are subjective.

[https://youtu.be/OcEGUaVIEnk](https://youtu.be/OcEGUaVIEnk)

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slimshady94
A rough guideline for me is to help advance humanity on its path of technical
progress (because the life I love is because of technological progress); to
help those living in poverty around the world (because after I die, chances of
me being born into a poor third-world country are too high); and to reduce the
threat of global warming (because after I die, I want to be born again and not
be un-existent in a timeless void because our planet is trashed).

My reasons are selfish unfortunately. I'm also not extremely motivated to make
a personal impact on my own, so I aim to earn a high salary so I can donate to
people who know what they're doing.

~~~
cvaidya1986
So become an investor in other people's social impact projects?

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madamelic
Automation.

I think humans are wasting a lot of time doing things that don't really
accomplish anything important.

Real simple tasks like cooking food, doing laundry, scheduling things, etc.

Really any super simple task that has repeated and predictable steps: I want
to remove those completely but not at the subordination of other humans or
high cost.

There are basically two issues with current solutions: Humans are involved and
they aren't completed without input from me. I still have to decide the task I
want to be done and I still have to pay lots of money to have it done. These
solutions should be affordable, ubiquitous and low touch (much like you don't
think of your refrigerator) where basically every person uses automation,
which frees up time for everyone to do enjoyable tasks.

My big pet peeves with lots of startups are that they are pointless (they
don't solve a problem, just introduce a solution or toy) and they are almost
always targeting well-off customers. Why do the rich Millenials (forgive me)
get all of the products and everyone else doesn't?

~~~
cvaidya1986
Do you support UBI when everything is automated? Or do you think there will be
infinite new possibilities created as older tasks get automated?

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rl3
Make double digits billions, and dump the majority of the proceeds into
creating the most advanced research institute humanity has ever seen.

No research papers, and thus no publishing to journals. Lots of basic research
and epistemic hygiene. Emphasis on understanding core mechanics of things from
the ground up. Clinical trials used only as mere regulatory formalities, not
as crutches to throw things at the wall and see what sticks.

Secondary goal is to bring about the creation and large-scale deployment of
robotic infantry to fix the security and human rights situation in some of the
world's poorest countries. The technology to do that has already existed for
some time.

Beyond that I'd really love to write and direct an HBO series based on _X-
COM_. Bringing back a ton of 90s games with AAA production values would be
really fulfilling as well. Recapturing the magic of SimCity 2000 with modern
technology is to me what dreams are made of.

~~~
cvaidya1986
Nice vision. Do you have a startup or a project currently aligned with that if
you don't mind me asking?

~~~
rl3
Yeah. With any luck it'd be the thing obviating the need for research papers,
though that is a late-stage goal. Either way the degree of alignment is fairly
high.

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sharemywin
this reminds me of the monster ad:

When I grow up, I want to file all day. I want to claw my way up through
middle management. Be replaced on a whim. I want to have a brown nose. I want
to be a Yes Man. Yes Woman! Yes sir! Coming sir! Anything for a raise sir!
When I grow up…I want to be under appreciated. Be paid less for doing the same
job. I want sunshine blown up my dress.

~~~
tjr
In high school (2+ decades ago), we had to take some skills assessment exam
that purported to suggest a good career for us. I don't remember what mine
said, but a friend revealed that his recommended job was "clerk".

(He's now a front-end web developer.)

~~~
Toast_25
Was it called G.O.A.T. by any chance?

In all seriousness though, that's one of the reasons I dislike academia. It
seems to have a propensity towards limiting people, maybe it's just been my
experience so far.

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mkjmkumar
I learned how to complete the vision of leaders with persistence and
dedication. In my IT career came to know that I can make any vision
successful. I am following and think they are doing good to the world. My new
leader who wants to convert my idea and his idea into a product. Note: I am an
employee working on half of salary what I earn in my last organization.
Obviously, money is not always the great thing.

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miguelrochefort
We all know that the ultimate goal is entropy. The best way to get there is to
improve efficiency.

The low hanging fruit is human communication. It's ridiculously inefficient.
We need another revolution, like Gutenberg's printing press or the Internet.

Nothing is more frustrating to me than seeing people build more apps and
websites. I have over 100 apps on my phone and over 1000 online accounts.
Everything now has its own app (city, festival, school, bank, store,
appliance, car, restaurant, grocery store, airline, taxi, band, currency,
etc). Clearly, it doesn't scale.

My mission at the moment is to build a general-purpose computer-assisted
communication interface (think IDE for the mind) that will replace 80% of
applications.

~~~
cvaidya1986
Nice! How would you differentiate from existing assistants?

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crypticlizard
To make self-driving cars at thing as soon as possible. Right now a lot of
companies from what I understand really need to be able to get enough data
accumulated so there's openings I think to be able to drive for them and
collect data on a laptop, that sounds like the coolest thing ever to me...

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askafriend
My mission is simply to be. To exist in the chaos and beauty of the world.
Take it in for all it's worth, contribute something back, and go about my
merry way.

~~~
cvaidya1986
Wise. 'row row row merrily life is but a dream.'

------
tabeth
Education.

All problems on this Earth, and perhaps life, no, evolution itself is simply a
function of "education".

Helping people adapt better to the variety that is existence is my life goal.
Unfortunately, the monetization aspect is in direct, to say the least.

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psyc
To live to see a more equitable, more pleasant world, brought about by both
technological and cultural evolution. To contribute to that in some small way
would be icing on the cake.

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taway_1212
I don't have any.

~~~
cvaidya1986
Honest. I like it.

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cm2012
To protect the people I care about.

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AlexAmee
Contributing to science

~~~
cvaidya1986
A noble goal.

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ljk
this might sound cliche, but make the world a better place

~~~
cvaidya1986
A noble endeavor indeed

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kleer001
To flow very well.

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b_emery
Create new knowledge

~~~
cvaidya1986
Does all knowledge already exist and is meant to be discovered or new
knowledge can be created?

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Raed667
I have none

~~~
cvaidya1986
An open mind

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jetti
To be happy.

~~~
cvaidya1986
How about just to be?

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owebmaster
enlightenment and reproduction.

~~~
cvaidya1986
A very optimal mission.

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bennysince86
make games

