From time to time, more often than I would like, I have a full blown existential crisis. It can be triggered by something as simple as a YouTube video, suggested to me by YouTube, that is a cancer patient talking about their final days.
That's what it was today.
Given we're (largely) engineers and science minded folks here, I ask HN: How do you handle deep existential questions?
More specifically, here are some questions I really struggle with:
- How do you deal with the fact that we don't know why anything at all exists? Why, for instance, do atoms, subatomic particles, etc, exist AT ALL? Why not NOTHING?
- How do you deal with the fact that your life is meaningless. You will die and - at best - leave behind a legacy for history books. More likely, you will die and it will be completely insignificant. To put it another way: How do you deal with the fact that your life is MEANINGLESS?
- How do you deal with the likelihood that you will suffer greatly at some point in the future, whether it be from cancer, or some other disease? How does a day of 9-5 work, capped off with a horrible prolonged cancer treatment at the end of your life, not corrupt your mind?
That's what it was today.
Given we're (largely) engineers and science minded folks here, I ask HN: How do you handle deep existential questions?
More specifically, here are some questions I really struggle with:
- How do you deal with the fact that we don't know why anything at all exists? Why, for instance, do atoms, subatomic particles, etc, exist AT ALL? Why not NOTHING?
- How do you deal with the fact that your life is meaningless. You will die and - at best - leave behind a legacy for history books. More likely, you will die and it will be completely insignificant. To put it another way: How do you deal with the fact that your life is MEANINGLESS?
- How do you deal with the likelihood that you will suffer greatly at some point in the future, whether it be from cancer, or some other disease? How does a day of 9-5 work, capped off with a horrible prolonged cancer treatment at the end of your life, not corrupt your mind?