While I understand this approach, it's not that nothing matters, it's that the esteem of people you don't admire doesn't matter.<p>Here's a thought experiment: if you are able to see a the still mostly full moon tonight, and luckier still if you can actually see some stars, when you look at the moon, consider that you are actually looking <i>down</i> at it. You, as a person are hanging over it sort of perpendicularly to the surface of this sphere. Keep your eyes on it long enough that you see it move just so imperceptibly slowly, until you feel a bit dizzy or get a bit of vertigo from the motion. From this vantage point of hanging off the side of a sphere, it's like seeing the moon for the first time, and once you have seen the movement you will recognize in that moment that you are <i>_on_ a planet</i>, which is suddenly finite with an obvious curvature, and the most immediate question is, what the hell is this thing and how is it possible we can distract ourselves from contemplating it?<p>It is the literal definition of physical perspective, where when you view the moon as downward from you, it makes everything here seem both finite and possible. The stars when you look down or out at them become asymptotic points on a blanket-like manifold. The mistake was that we think these things were merely "up," and things "down" here are the sum of the real. I think when you see how we are situated relative to the moon, other planets, and stars without the narrative filter of a self that looks inward, it's not that nothing matters, it's that anything that obfuscates this sense of clarity you can get about our place in the cosmos just from looking down the hollow space between us and the moon - is necessarily absurd.
I've read books whose gist is the same point this author makes, and I agree it's such a freeing realization.<p>Out of the estimated 117 billion[1] humans who have walked the Earth, how many who have died can we actually name off the top of our heads? A few hundred at best? Maybe a few thousand if you're a history buff? And of that group, how many will still be remembered at the heat death of the universe? I'd bet money that the answer is "none of them".<p>So what's the point of trying to be remembered or leave a legacy? It's a game that we're destined to lose, so why play? Personally, I don't care how big my gravestone is, or whether I have my name on the side of a building, or whether I have an element in the periodic table named after me. Because it'll all come crumbling down in the end. This too shall pass.<p>And rather than being depressing, it's actually liberating. It means I'm done climbing the corporate ladder. It means I can work just hard enough to pay the bills at my day job, while leaving ample free time to engage with creative pursuits that satisfy me. It means I can have kids if it makes me happy, but I don't feel pressured to out of a sense of "continuing the family line" or some other bullshit.<p>No matter how hard I try, literally nothing you or I do will be remembered on a long enough timespan. Hell, I don't even know the names of my great-grandparents, and chances are that, if I ever have kids, my great-grandkids won't remember mine. It's like Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" quote[2]. I don't know what the meaning of life is, but I'm pretty sure it's not "try to wrest some sort of immortality by being remembered after you're gone".<p>1. <a href="https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/#:~:text=This%20major%20change%20in%20our,ever%20been%20born%20on%20Earth" rel="nofollow">https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...</a>.<p>2. <a href="https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot" rel="nofollow">https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot</a>
> <i>How insignificant am I in relation to this vast universe?</i><p>as far as we have discovered, any one of us is among the most beautiful, remarkable, complex things we know of, and on top of that we have emotions!<p>what's the sun? fusing hydrogen. What's Jupiter but a big hurricane? what's a black hole? these things are large, but they're lacking in subtlety, variety, and complexity compared to us. What's in between them? nothing, vast nothing. It's the rest of the universe that so far appears to be insignificant to me.
A far better Conan story is his private opening for Johnny Carson, remembered after Johnny's death:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TazTAqBQakQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TazTAqBQakQ</a><p>Johnny told him "Just be yourself. That's the only way it CAN work."<p>Conan spends the entire bit unpacking that advice.
In my opinion the key is to live your life believing that (for the most part) what other people think of you is not important. Assuming you have a good moral base and are not actively doing things that are actually a detriment to society or individuals then why let some random person you barely know dictate how you feel about yourself?<p>That being said I think it is also important to recognize that for the smaller subset of people you do genuinely care about you should also very much care what they think of you. There are exceptions to this, of course. If you find someone excessively judging you from this group then it might be time to rethink what you are doing or if you should be invested this much in them in the first place.
my reaction is opposite. live like everything matters.<p>time is short, tomorrow not guaranteed. this is not freeing as much as it is restricting.<p>if i could live for a 1000 years, sure then i can live like nothing matters. a bunch of starry eyed nonsense imo.
Why does anyone care about their legacy? In the long run we’re all dead.<p>The only things one should concern themselves with are things they have the agency to change. This can be frighteningly hard to tease out sometimes, but literally all other worries are wasted cycles of a short life.<p>Live like the future matters and do your best to improve it. It’s the hardest game with the simplest of rules.
As Feynman put it, “what do you care what other people think?” I think the common and incorrect reading is some kind of snarky interpretation. I think the correct reading is to make an honest inventory and realize what exactly it is that gives you reason to care what other people think and what does not.
The science based counter-argument to all this is the understanding that time is eternalistic, so even though we die our lives never disappear out of existence. I choose to go the complete opposite route of the author here, and try to live each day as if it matters gravely.
"But the care of thine honour and reputation will perchance distract thee? How can that be, if thou dost look back, and consider both how quickly all things that are, are forgotten, and what an immense chaos of eternity was before, and will follow after all things: and the vanity of praise, and the inconstancy and variableness of human judgments and opinions, and the narrowness of the place, wherein it is limited and circumscribed? For the whole earth is but as one point; and of it, this inhabited part of it, is but a very little part; and of this part, how many in number, and what manner of men are they, that will commend thee?" -- Marcus Aurelius: Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν, 4.iii (AD 161 to 180), transl. Meric Casaubon.
The unsettling thing about people who insist that humanity is irrelevant because it's small relative to others things is that they must necessarily believe larger people are intrinsically more relevant than shorter and thinner people.
> How insignificant am I in relation to this vast universe? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.<p>> (1) You can become depressed and lose faith.<p>> (2) You can become more self-aware and stop caring so much.<p>1. is our ego speaking, 2. is curiosity speaking.<p>Universe take me for a ride, show me as many things I can, I'm plenty content as an observer.
I don't understand the obsession with either side of significance or insignificance. People ought find out what works for them - and it's individual. Personally, I loved Ray Dalio's book Principles - not as a discussion of finance (which it also is!), rather as a means to help <i>me</i> solidify the idea of codifying my life principles. These in turn, provide tremendous meaning and support to my decision making process.<p>Everything, every action, every step one takes has some form of an impact on something. The question is merely whether or not as individuals we care about it. Significance is in the eye of the beholder, and measurable on a scale that <i>you</i> determine.<p>Am I insignificant compared to anything in space - absolutely. But what if my generations learn the lessons <i>I</i> deem important for them to learn? I might argue my impact is massive, it's now generational. Remember my name or not - but instilling and living ideals.. sounds like a large impact to <i>me</i>. That may not work for others. YMMV.
<i>(2) You can become more self-aware and stop caring so much about what other people think about you.</i><p>I am tired of this advice. People who are successful get all the right people to care about them. This does matter.
Going through a shitty phase (which happens often) I've been trying to cope in various ways, reaching high and low, inside and outside, for meaning and purpose and guidance.<p>I don't subscribe to most existing models, not out of a rebellious choice but because I cannot find or follow their logic to a satisfactory conclusion.<p>So far this is what I have, make of it what you will:<p>• There must be a default state, and a part of it must reside in everything built upon it. It doesn't make sense that something began from Nothing, but I like to think that something began from <i>Everything.</i><p>• But it doesn't mean that a superset system can control a subset system 100% – Think of our relationship with computers and the programs running on/in them, along with all the physics involved and the virtual results.<p>• Veritasium's video on "Math's Fundamental Flaw" [0] was a good source of inspiration: Shit may be coded with hard immutable logic but still have virtually infinite possibilities.<p>• If you think your mind, or your "will" or "heart" or "soul", matters in any way and can make any difference, try to find the cutoff point between -where- that metaphysical quality <i>starts</i>, what sets "you" apart from everything else: What's the difference between you and every other person's mind/soul? Or a person's mind and a computer program? The difference between a world with no humans in it, and a world with 1 human? A barren asteroid and a planet with life? Can a rock access the mysteries of the Universe? Can you?<p>TL;DR: What you see right now may be what you will ever get, everything may just be circumstance, but there -just might- be a way to touch something greater.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQX2HjkcNo&t=1772s" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQX2HjkcNo&t=1772s</a>
So I think it boils down to, “My general theory about life is that “things usually work out.””<p>A foolhardy view that conveniently removes the denomination that are dead.
Oh really? Try holding your breath for 60 seconds while telling yourself nothing matters…<p>You’ll get yourself in all sorts of entanglements by subscribing to these sorts of belief systems<p>In reality, nothing matters existentially yet everything matters in the moment. Your ability to accept both of these realities at the same time is freedom
This article’s doing a bit too much, primarily by calling out that famous actors whom we recognize and care about should act like nobody will remember them, which is a bit of a dubious premise.<p>You’re better off reading Camus.<p>This article is more stoicism than nihilism.