Quoth wrote:Gardening...it’s quite difficult to knock gardening.
I won't argue with that.
Realistically the difficulty is in finding something which is rewarding to pursue, most pursuits can be used for good or bad ends, it’s simply a case of adaptation.
I find that the most compelling things to pursue on a long term basis are the ones that have no tangible value whatsoever, and the only way for those things (or their natural sequence) to stay compelling is if you never question them. You just go on living your life forever trying to one-up your big brother and not realizing that that's what you're doing.
It's a weird thing. For example, I remember that computer coding could be a lot of fun, and I miss that. But it's an activity that doesn't exist without a goal beyond the activity itself. For the creation process to be rewarding, you need to
believe that you're solving a problem. And nowadays I question whether it's even any good for any new computer programs to be created. Because there's no problem that can't be solved by machines -- and then be made worse than before by people.
One question that I often ask myself is: "Is it even a good idea at all to embrace that kind of desire to be bigger than myself? Or is living life one small thing at a time the only sensible way to live?"
I can still get some small measure of satisfaction from smiling back at someone when they thank me for a small favor or when a stranger gets a joke that I made in-game. But I only get disappointment from even thinking of what I could possibly ever do for society at large (and vice-versa). So option B seems the most plausible.
What that means in practice, though, isn't so straightforward. And it's tricky when you need to worry about "grown-up stuff", like health insurance and retirement savings and
oh my gawd, they're taking those things away from me and blablabla. But I think it's probably workable. Not being on "social media" is definitely a start.
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