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Why We Exist

Feb 07, 202513 min read

“Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” — Leo Tolstoy

*“You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” — Albert Camus

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.” — [@niebuhrIronyAmericanHistory2010]

TODO Men Searching for Meaning

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

= Life’s Highest Calling = Life Purpose/Mission/Meaning/Aspirations = Core Values/Philosophies/Principles = Life Truth North / North Star = Dharma = Ikigai 1 = plan de vida = 人生使命 = 個人天職

[@XiaoYeZhu.YouXieShiZheXieNianWoCaiDongXiaoYeDeRenShengSiKao2012]

大多數人是不知道自己爲何而活的，甚至於也不知道自己要什麼。他們等著別人來指點迷津。」我的朋友楊德昌導演生前最常這樣說: 「所以我們要拍電影給他們看，讓他們知道，每天都是全新的一天，有著各式各樣的可能，作出自己的選擇，找到自己相信的東西，勇敢活下去。」

Missions are infinite. Goals are finite.

  • You never reach a Mission, you live out a Mission.
  • Missions are life journey, with no specific ends.
  • Missions are directions/scope of life, not the destination of life.
  • Mission statements usually (and should) sound like vague platitudes.
  • Goals are focused around discrete achievements, with specific ends.

Leo Tolstoy emphasizes the importance of viewing life as a service with a purpose beyond personal happiness. He suggests that joy emerges when individuals dedicate themselves to something larger than their own self-interest.

Albert Camus argues that seeking a singular meaning of life can hinder truly living. His existential perspective implies that life itself is an ongoing journey without an ultimate destination or fixed meaning. Camus encourages embracing the present and finding significance in everyday experiences rather than searching for an overarching purpose.

  • ⭐️ Not to find the meaning of life, but to use your life to create things that are meaningful.
  • Find something much bigger and more important than you are, and dedicate your life to it.
  • Fulfillment is found through connection to something greater than the self.
  • The 3 Big Questions
    • The “1 Thing” Question: If you had to boil life down to one truth or philosophy that makes life valuable, what is it?
    • The “Being” Question: How does that 1 Thing impact your being? In other words, how does it shape the core of who you are and your character?
    • The “Doing” Question: How does that 1 Thing impact your doing? In other words, how does it shape what you do with your life?

3 Heuristics for a Fulfilling Life

  1. Big ambitions
  2. High standards
  3. Low expectations

Successful people don’t have a career, they have a mission. Most of them are terrible procrastinators and find it almost impossible to make themselves do anything they’re not genuinely interested in.

Elder v.s Elderly

我們每個人對於已經存在 137 億年的宇宙而言，都是倏忽/轉瞬即逝的存在。任何人世間的紛爭/擾，放在已經存在 137 億年的宇宙旁邊，都是那麼地微不足道。在人生這段旅程中，沒有一樣東西能永久留下，它們終將淡去消失、煙灰雲散，不會有任何聲響。

  • The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it. To be remembered by people is to live forever.
  • “To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.” — Thomas Campbell
  • “Your biological age is the number of days you’ve lived. Your psychological age is the number of thoughts you’ve entertained. Your sociological age is the number of contributions you’ve made.” — James Clear
  • “(It’s true that) none of us will get to live forever(, but) none of the people who die are gone. They’re with us every day. I once heard a pastor at a church say that they’re like ships sailing out of the harbor. Yes, at some point, as they get past the horizon, we can’t see them anymore. But that doesn’t mean they’re gone. I don’t think we ever lose the people who pass away. They stay with us every day, in our memories, but also in the way they shaped our lives.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence.” — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote a letter (found in Letters of Note) to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice:

April 22, 1958 57 Perry Street New York City

Dear Hume,

You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal— to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.

I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles … ” (Shakespeare)

And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you’ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don’t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect— between the two things I’ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming.

But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure he’s not after the “big rock candy mountain,” the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance?

The answer—and, in a sense, the tragedy of life— is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your perspective has changed. It’s not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.

So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?

The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on “the meaning of man” and that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use the term “god only knows” purely as an expression.) There’s very little sense in my trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because I’m the first to admit my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two paragraphs.

I’m going to steer clear of the word “existentialism,” but you might keep it in mind as a key of sorts. You might also try something called Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre, and another little thing called Existentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre. These are merely suggestions. If you’re genuinely satisfied with what you are and what you’re doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) But back to the answer. As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES.

But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors— but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every man, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and desires— including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that his life will be MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter.

As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires).

In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life—the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.

Let’s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let’s assume that you can’t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN— and here is the essence of all I’ve said— you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.

Naturally, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. You’ve lived a relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. So it isn’t any too difficult to understand why you seem to feel the way you do. But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.

So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. But you say, “I don’t know where to look; I don’t know what to look for.”

And there’s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don’t know—is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice.

If I don’t call this to a halt, I’m going to find myself writing a book. I hope it’s not as confusing as it looks at first glance. Keep in mind, of course, that this is MY WAY of looking at things. I happen to think that it’s pretty generally applicable, but you may not. Each of us has to create our own credo—this merely happens to be mine.

If any part of it doesn’t seem to make sense, by all means call it to my attention. I’m not trying to send you out “on the road” in search of Valhalla, but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that—no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company.

And that’s it for now. Until I hear from you again, I remain,

your friend, Hunter

TODO existential crisis

See also:

Footnotes

  1. What you are good at + What you love + What you can be paid for + What the world needs ↩

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