Why modern life feels meaningless
in the lives of all people, the quest for meaning and community might eclipse the quest for a job.
Yuval Noah Harari • 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
When people stop believing in an afterlife, everything depends on making the most of this life. And when people start believing in progress—in the idea that history is headed toward an ever more perfect future—they feel far more acutely the pain of their own little lifespan, which condemns them to missing out on almost all of that future. And so th
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
"A lot of people no longer do work that has any meaning to them, since humans are productive creatures... we are meant to create. When we do work that is not creative, that doesn't reflect who we are, that imposes depression, anxiety, a sense of meaninglessness. When we have a sense of meaninglessness, we will want to substitute the meaninglessness... See more
Gabor Mate • Dr. Gabor Maté - Toxic Culture | Bioneers
On the practical level modern life consists of a constant pursuit of power within a universe devoid of meaning.
Yuval Noah Harari • Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
I’m writing this installment with the themes of the last—exhaustion, burnout, tiredness, rest—still in mind. There are so many reasons why any of us might feel exhausted and depleted, but just now I find myself wondering how much of it is the result of aimless labors that serve only the operations of a techno-economic system designed to offer us ev
... See moretheconvivialsociety.substack.com • Living in Expectation of the Unexpected Gift
Existential ideas and attitudes have embedded themselves so deeply into modern culture that we hardly think of them as existentialist at all. People (at least in relatively prosperous countries where more urgent needs don’t intervene) talk about anxiety, dishonesty and the fear of commitment. They worry about being in bad faith, even if they don’t
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