Optimistic Nihilism

Human existence is scary and confusing.

We counter existential dread with optimistic nihilism.

But size is not the most troubling concept we have to deal with. It's time, or, more precisely, the time we have. If you're lucky enough to live to one hundred, you have five thousand two hundred weeks at your disposal.

We can throw words around like two hundred million galaxies or trillions of stars or bazillions of planets, but all of these numbers mean nothing. Our brains can't comprehend these concepts. The universe is too big. There is too much of it.

It seems very unlikely that 200 trillion, trillion stars have been made for us. In a way, it feels like the cruelest joke in existence has been played on us. We became self-aware only to realize this story is not about us.

We learned that we're made of many little dead things, which make up bigger things that are not dead, for some reason, and that we're just another temporary stage in a history going back over a billion years.

It's easy to think of ourselves as separated from everything, but this is not true. We are as much the universe as a neutron star or a black hole or a nebula. Even better, actually, we are its thinking and feeling part: the centre organs of the universe.

There is so much to do. so, do the things that make you feel good.

You only get one shot at life, which is scary, but it also sets you free.