Can’t speak for anyone else, and I don’t know what my counterfactual selves feel like. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6NvbSwuSAooQxxf7f/beware-of-other-optimizing—I don’t know if you and I are similar in ways that matter on this topic. In fact, I don’t know what mental features are important for how to optimize on this topic. Anyway, this is not advice, simply a framing that works for me.
For me, I believe it’s worth it. The tunnel widens a lot, and has LOTS of interesting features in it, but it does not end—there is a fairly fundamental truth underlying that loneliness, and I don’t know of any acceptable ways for me to deny or forget that truth (to myself).
I’ve become hyper-aware of the complexity and variance in humanity, and in myself moment-to-moment and year to year. This makes me quite able to have deep connections with many people, EVEN WHILE understanding that they model the universe differently than I on many dimensions. We can’t have and don’t need agreement on everything, or even on ontologically fundamental topics. We can agree that sitting around a campfire talking about our human experiences is desirable, and that’s enough. With other groups, I can explore moral philosophy without a realism assumption, even if I don’t particularly want to hang out with them on less intellectual topics.
Can’t speak for anyone else, and I don’t know what my counterfactual selves feel like. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6NvbSwuSAooQxxf7f/beware-of-other-optimizing—I don’t know if you and I are similar in ways that matter on this topic. In fact, I don’t know what mental features are important for how to optimize on this topic. Anyway, this is not advice, simply a framing that works for me.
For me, I believe it’s worth it. The tunnel widens a lot, and has LOTS of interesting features in it, but it does not end—there is a fairly fundamental truth underlying that loneliness, and I don’t know of any acceptable ways for me to deny or forget that truth (to myself).
I’ve become hyper-aware of the complexity and variance in humanity, and in myself moment-to-moment and year to year. This makes me quite able to have deep connections with many people, EVEN WHILE understanding that they model the universe differently than I on many dimensions. We can’t have and don’t need agreement on everything, or even on ontologically fundamental topics. We can agree that sitting around a campfire talking about our human experiences is desirable, and that’s enough. With other groups, I can explore moral philosophy without a realism assumption, even if I don’t particularly want to hang out with them on less intellectual topics.