<p>What do you find meaningful, in general?</p>
<p>What are your ultimate goals? That is, what things or events or moments do you work towards or hope for because you could not imagine a good life without them?</p>
<p>College. None specifically, just furthering my education past the high school level.</p>
<p>I can imagine a good life without them but a better life with them.
Id like to live in England for a year. And own a horse as well as an African grey parrot.</p>
<p>Siriuss: I want an African grey too.</p>
<p>I think I’ve developed a sort of mad ambition for creating new things. it’s amazing to put your blood, sweat, and tears into something and finally getting a beautiful finished product (which is not really ever finished, since you’re always thinking of improvements, but I digress).</p>
<p>the main problem is getting myself to start. I’m a natural procrastinator so it’s hard to get myself going to sacrifice blood, sweat, and tears</p>
<p>I find education to have intrinsic meaning. I can’t really sit around idle in class, because I feel as if I am wasting my time. Rarely do you see me doing anything but learning in class. Even in the last period on the last day this year - I was teaching the method of shells to find volume to classmates. I don’t know if I really enjoy pedagogy for what it is, or if I’m just posturing myself to better fit my academically-oriented school and perhaps even impress that bystander in the crowd . . . </p>
<p>My ultimate goals are nebulous. I have a strong desire to relearn how to play the piano again later in life. But I know this will have to wait until after I’ve secured a decent job; I just don’t have time right now to invest in learning how to play after my 6 year hiatus (I’ve played for 5 years and am currently on a 6 year, and counting, hiatus). I also have somewhat of a desire to sire children. Why? I kinda want to live vicariously through them. I’m not very successful by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps they shall be. I already live vicariously through the people I tutor or mentor; their successes are my successes - and their failures are my failures. But what is clear is that children require considerable investment, and I’m not sure if I can be a good parent, and compounding the problem is whether the other party wants children. </p>
<p>My day to day goals are somewhat more defined. I have tried to to live up to the hip-hop translation of carpe diem. I’ve been trying to embody the ideal of the hedonistic high schooler, and I have found my baby-steps in that direction to be immensely satisfying. </p>
<p>More on this after I hit the gym … and get that endorphin rush … I’m not quite feeling it yet in my writing …</p>
<p>Kind of ambiguous, but I want to help someone achieve something great, or at least reach their full potential. I know so many awesome people both from my hometown and at college, and I think I’d be really proud to have been if not an inspiration, somewhat of an influence upon them, probably because I think I’ve changed a lot over the years and owe a lot to the people who’ve helped me become who I am.</p>
<p>IceQube is so pedantic it is adorable.</p>
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<p>That’s so sweet! Have you thought of becoming a teacher? I’ve found that some teachers have really changed my life, and by being a teacher, you can change hundreds of lives every year. Your selfless altruism sharply contrasts with my pseudo-altruism!</p>
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<p>:). </p>
<p>All right, time to hit the road, for real.</p>
<p>when i found out that humanity can maybe cure aging in this century that i happen to be a part of, and even reduce human suffering all around dramatically, yeah, i wanted to be around to see and help it happen!</p>
<p>then when i found out that there is probably a significant chance that humanity will become extinct this century i wanted to try to help reduce the risk of such an awful thing happening.</p>
<p>So 1) avoid near-term extinction and 2) make life more awesome for anyone who wants it to be, are the two things i hope happen and want to put my efforts towards :). </p>
<p>whatever happens to humanity i hope we try to do as much as we can to make sure the story is good. even if we become extinct soon, if we tried to prevent it then that is better than if we did not. but I do trust humanity to give our survival a good fight. i just hope that it is good enough and the outcome is survival. that would be part of good life. if we are gone then I feel that devalues so much of the work of everyone that got us here.</p>
<p>Are there really simply two choices - near-term extinction and long-term prosperity? What I see as more likely is diminished quality-of-life for every on this mortal planet. As I pen this essay, my computer is drawing power from the wall outlet. This power comes from the coal plant near my house. The coal plant is spewing out an insidious array of chemicals, from nitrous oxide to sulfur oxide to particulate matter to carbon dioxide. These chemicals end up in the great commons we call the troposphere, and we all partake in drinking from this “poisoned chalice” of ours. While this does not mean instant annihilation, it does mean reduced quality-of-life as we irritate our lungs with these pernicious chemicals, develop respiratory problems, and further displace ourselves from our ancestors, who roamed the Earth, breathing in the fresh and pure air. This makes me shudder. Do I really want to have a child in this world? From the moment he or she is born, he or she will be bombarded with these noxious chemicals of our time. The first breath - a mouthful of sulfur dioxide. Nonetheless, I do not see near-term extinction as likely. I do, however, see diminished quality-of-life as the more likely route humanity will sail. And it’s not just air pollution, either. The sheer number of people in this world are far outstripping Earth’s various resources. Those with means, or those residing in countries with means, will fare better than those with lesser means.</p>
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<p>You go :)! I really wonder what this generation will have achieved in the next 30-40 years. I’ve recently noticed that the age of movie stars I look up on IMDB have been getting younger. Some are even about my age. I can’t wait to see the day when our generations stars starring in serious movies, and when our generation starts producing politicians, and when our generation takes the limelight.</p>
<p>Changed: Right? They’re so intelligent. I’ve been fascinated with them for ages. Fortunately I foster parrots but I’ve only worked with them at the agency I mainly foster conures</p>
<p>Becoming a surgeon. Getting married. Adopting two children. Raising them. Seeing them happy.</p>
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<p>The opposing trend has been paramount, even considering depressions and the falls of empires, since the beginning of civilization. Every generation, many have said that the next would be worse off, and it was never true. Do you really suppose it will be now?</p>
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<p>given that they weren’t dying of the common cold, getting their brains bashed out by a member of a rival tribe, or having their teeth rot out of their mouths.</p>
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<p>Rich populations have fewer children. People across the world are getting richer, except where military thugs step in the way in the name of fairness.</p>
<p>An exponential growth then perhaps a logistic growth.
However, with medical advancements, people are living longer. I once heard that the life expectancy of our generation will be around 100, whereas the generation before us has a life expectancy of around 80. Considering that more countries are developing and industrializing and technology is advancing at such a rapid speed, people around the globe, not just the people in the now developed countries, are going to live longer.</p>
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<p>So we’ve substituted a host of problems for another platter of problems. </p>
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<p>I’ll have to lucubrate about this … </p>
<p>Your post reminds me of the one Blue Book passage about TV and the decline of culture. The author argued that when novels first appeared, people lamented the decline of culture. Yet now, we’d probably say that novels are a good thing, save the Stephen King ones.</p>
<p>^ Stephen King is a better writer than Harold Bloom. That’s why Bloom has to spend his career being a prick and making things up about idiomatic expressions in Harry Potter, instead of writing books that make great movie adaptations.</p>
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<p>well … people use to work less. that sounds good to me :). as far as i can tell people don’t like working as much as have to nowadays to pay for shelter, food, and status enhancing things, which they need to compete effectively. </p>
<p>from the wikipedia page on working time…</p>
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<p>^ People work longer because they want more things. There are jobs with fewer hours, and you’re free to seek them out. Most people prefer the 40 hour workweek because it comes with a higher standard of living in the way of wealth.</p>
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<p>How would you like to be my personal assistant?</p>