> Throughout history and throughout cultures there's a universal: children, adults, and the elderly all like to feel like they have some kind of purpose in their community.
There is a sample bias there where the people who are recorded are the kinds of people who feel that way, and the people who don't feel that way are lost to time.
> I think you gravely underestimate how important this is, and how bored and dismal life would be if you didn't have some kind of purpose in your community.
I'm speaking from experience. I have a large family of low achievers I grew up with, and not one of them has ever voiced a concern about purpose, only annoyance with effort. I think this worrying about our place in the universe and where we fit in and "what am I living my life for" is only a concern for a narrow piece of the population, and it happens to be the same slice that talks a lot online.
Most people only worry about their skills and place in the world relative to their ability to survive comfortably. They will happily spend their days idle, going to church, playing games, exercising, whatever, and really only experience any degree of existential dread as it relates to their own impending mortality.
There is a sample bias there where the people who are recorded are the kinds of people who feel that way, and the people who don't feel that way are lost to time.
> I think you gravely underestimate how important this is, and how bored and dismal life would be if you didn't have some kind of purpose in your community.
I'm speaking from experience. I have a large family of low achievers I grew up with, and not one of them has ever voiced a concern about purpose, only annoyance with effort. I think this worrying about our place in the universe and where we fit in and "what am I living my life for" is only a concern for a narrow piece of the population, and it happens to be the same slice that talks a lot online.
Most people only worry about their skills and place in the world relative to their ability to survive comfortably. They will happily spend their days idle, going to church, playing games, exercising, whatever, and really only experience any degree of existential dread as it relates to their own impending mortality.