This question is better informed by the works of Martin Seligman and his happiness/wellbeing department of psychology, Jordan Peterson’s early book “Maps of meaning”, and Victor Frankl.
Seligman suggests that meaning is one of the big things required to live a fulfilling and happy life.
Jordan Peterson proposed that meaning is narrative based and you can write your own meaning by journaling about your past/present/future.
Victor Frankl (post holocaust book—“man’s search for meaning”) invented logotherapy, suggesting that people need a reason and a purpose to exist. Described that while surviving the camps he was propelled by the desire to be able to one day tell his story. V also describes his patients and some of the ways he reflects back a cognitively meaningful conclusion to their struggles (man who died before his wife, was suggested that it was to save his wife from dying first and suffering without the man).
Buddhist meditators realise that meaning is subjective. because meaning is located in the brain, we can change it, we can manipulate it and we can make it work differently. I can do things like discount how much I value something, whenever I notice a motivation I can examine it’s parts and find it’s impermanence, I can notice how meaning does not satisfy and is just some chemistry in my brain. I can notice the self is an illusion and my own meaning is made up to satisfy something like an “ego” (ego is a word being butchered by many definitions).
Post rationalists can approach the problem like a game. What’s the meaning at the end of the game? Okay, why don’t I just stop playing the game and just do that. I call this the “just stop playing the game” game, and I’ve wanted to do it for as long as I was a rationalist. Only to realise that, the “just stop playing the game” game, is just another fancier game. Seeing the game, playing the game anyway, and realising it’s a game, or seeing the game and not playing the game, starts looking like the same thing. A prison I can’t escape. knowing these details, from the PR perspective, how do I play the game of my own choosing, my own meaning, while knowing I’m still in a game.
There’s also the theory of spiral dynamics which describes how different people find meaning from different broad structures in a sociologically predictable and mapped out fashion. I will write an article about it at some point and have several drafts half written.
It’s important to separate meaning from meaningful and the reasoning around meaning from the core meaningful thing. The difference between, “I really like sweet deserts” and “I like ice-cream” (but for meaning, X matters, Y are the reasons why it matters).
personal front:
Meaning is subjective, I accidentally made myself miserable by wanting things I could not have, then I accidentally made myself very disappointed by never wanting anything. It’s been a meditative challenge to find the balance where I can want something and not be sad if I don’t get it, and also not want something too hard that I feel meaningless being unable to get it, or meaningless once I do get it.
I explore what matters to other people, and that’s been fun and interesting. There’s a deep world of what matters to other people and why, and it’s worth sharing and enjoying.
There’s a complexity of validation for my own meaning, or some 1st person subjective desires never go away.
One thing I would like to acquire is the ability to have an enjoyable subjective experience almost all of the time.
This question is better informed by the works of Martin Seligman and his happiness/wellbeing department of psychology, Jordan Peterson’s early book “Maps of meaning”, and Victor Frankl.
Seligman suggests that meaning is one of the big things required to live a fulfilling and happy life.
Jordan Peterson proposed that meaning is narrative based and you can write your own meaning by journaling about your past/present/future.
Victor Frankl (post holocaust book—“man’s search for meaning”) invented logotherapy, suggesting that people need a reason and a purpose to exist. Described that while surviving the camps he was propelled by the desire to be able to one day tell his story. V also describes his patients and some of the ways he reflects back a cognitively meaningful conclusion to their struggles (man who died before his wife, was suggested that it was to save his wife from dying first and suffering without the man).
Buddhist meditators realise that meaning is subjective. because meaning is located in the brain, we can change it, we can manipulate it and we can make it work differently. I can do things like discount how much I value something, whenever I notice a motivation I can examine it’s parts and find it’s impermanence, I can notice how meaning does not satisfy and is just some chemistry in my brain. I can notice the self is an illusion and my own meaning is made up to satisfy something like an “ego” (ego is a word being butchered by many definitions).
Post rationalists can approach the problem like a game. What’s the meaning at the end of the game? Okay, why don’t I just stop playing the game and just do that. I call this the “just stop playing the game” game, and I’ve wanted to do it for as long as I was a rationalist. Only to realise that, the “just stop playing the game” game, is just another fancier game. Seeing the game, playing the game anyway, and realising it’s a game, or seeing the game and not playing the game, starts looking like the same thing. A prison I can’t escape. knowing these details, from the PR perspective, how do I play the game of my own choosing, my own meaning, while knowing I’m still in a game.
There’s also the theory of spiral dynamics which describes how different people find meaning from different broad structures in a sociologically predictable and mapped out fashion. I will write an article about it at some point and have several drafts half written.
It’s important to separate meaning from meaningful and the reasoning around meaning from the core meaningful thing. The difference between, “I really like sweet deserts” and “I like ice-cream” (but for meaning, X matters, Y are the reasons why it matters).
personal front:
Meaning is subjective, I accidentally made myself miserable by wanting things I could not have, then I accidentally made myself very disappointed by never wanting anything. It’s been a meditative challenge to find the balance where I can want something and not be sad if I don’t get it, and also not want something too hard that I feel meaningless being unable to get it, or meaningless once I do get it.
I explore what matters to other people, and that’s been fun and interesting. There’s a deep world of what matters to other people and why, and it’s worth sharing and enjoying.
There’s a complexity of validation for my own meaning, or some 1st person subjective desires never go away.
One thing I would like to acquire is the ability to have an enjoyable subjective experience almost all of the time.