The search for meaning
impatience, meaning in midlife & the perils of objectification
🏃 I’ve been thinking a lot about impatience since I came back from retreat. I used to relish the rush, but now it feels like the primary way I lose contact with what matters.
💩 You can boil nearly all worldviews down to some version of the statement: This is shit, but...
🙇♂️ Meaning was the theme of the week, and I realised that it’s central to what I do.
🔢 An obsession with facts and knowledge thwarts our search for meaning by answering the biggest questions before its even asked them.
🌄 The solution is not to fabricate or create your own meaning: meaning is built into reality.
🤖 Objectifying yourself as a means to an end is highly addictive and will upend any wider search for meaning: the hidden cost of self-optimisation.
🧘 True meditation is revelation + reverence, and a potent way of generating meaning.
📚 I just finished From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks, after listening to him on Conversations with Coleman. Turns out I’d bought the Kindle version a while ago and not got past the intro. This time, it all felt resonant, and I love the mix of social science alongside an inquiry into meaning throughout life. Brooks reads the audiobook, and I highly recommend it.
💯 Tomorrow will mark 100 consecutive days of publishing something new online. I’ll share my biggest victories and disappointments next week.
