Showing posts with label purpose of life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purpose of life. Show all posts

Friday, October 14, 2011

Work to Live, or Live to Work

A story I read on a message board (of course this is either embellished or straight up b.s., but I like the message):

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Purpose of Life

I read a post over at What Worries Jeff Dee? dealing with life, and the purpose of it.

What is the purpose of life? Is there purpose in it? If so, is it subjectively or objectively determined?

Well, if The Merovingian is correct, purpose is merely a label ascribed to the relationship between cause and effect, which means that the "purpose" of which people speak is merely a deterministic outcome linearly based on caual factors.

Or, he and I, as well as the overly pretentious Architect, are full of shit :P

In all seriousness (sorry, just re-watched the Matrix Trilogy), I'm of the opinion that there is no purpose inherent in life.

From an evlutionary persspective, our main drive is to procreate, and, psychologically, we have a heirarchy of needs (Maslow, was it?)....but purpose?

Not the way I see it. There is no purpose. It just is, and it is up to us to define one for ourselves, if we choose to do so. Does this depress me?

No, but suppose I can understand why religion is so attractive ;)