Hello everyone! I’ve been a lurker on here for awhile, but this is my first post. I’ve held out on posting anything because I’ve never felt like I knew enough to actually contribute to the conversation. Some things about me:
I’m currently 22, female, and a recent graduate of college with a degree in computer science. I’m currently employed as a software engineer at a health insurance company, though I am looking into getting into research some day. I mainly enjoy science, playing video games, and drawing.
I found this site through a link on the Skeptics Stack Exchange page. The post was about cryonics, which is how I got over here. I’ve been reading the site for about six months now and I have found it extremely helpful. It has also been depressing, though, because I’ve since realized many of the “problems” in the world were caused by the ineptitude of the species and aren’t easily fixed. I’ve had some problems with existential nihilism since then and if anyone has any advice on the matter, I’d love to hear it.
My journey to rationality probably started with atheism and a real understanding of the scientific method and human psychology. I grew up Mormon, which has since given me some interesting perspectives into groupthink and the general problem of humanity. Leaving Mormonism is what prompted me into understanding why and how so many people could be so systematically insane.
In some ways, I’ve also found this very isolating because I now have a hard time relating to a lot of people. Just sitting back and watching the ways people destroy themselves and others is very frustrating. It’s made worse by my knowledge that I must also be doing this to myself, albeit on a smaller level.
Anyway, I enjoy meeting you all and I will try to comment more on the site! I really enjoy this site and everyone on it seems to have very good comments.
It has also been depressing, though, because I’ve since realized many of the “problems” in the world were caused by the ineptitude of the species and aren’t easily fixed. I’ve had some problems with existential nihilism since then and if anyone has any advice on the matter, I’d love to hear it.
You describe “problems with existential nihilism.” Are these bouts of disturbed, energy-sucking worry about the sheer uselessness of your actions, each lasting between a few hours and a few days? Moreover, did you have similar bouts of worry about other important seeming questions before getting into LW?
Yes, that is how I would describe it. It normally comes and goes, with the longest period lasting a few weeks. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a byproduct of recent life events or if I am suffering from regular depression, but it’s something I’ve had on and off for a few years. LW hasn’t specifically made it worse, but it hasn’t made it better either.
In that case, it sounds very, very similar to what I’ve learned to deal with—especially as you describe feeling isolated from the people around you. I started to write a long, long comment, and then realized that I’d probably seen this stuff written down better, somewhere. This matches my experience precisely.
For me, the most important realization was that the feeling of nihilism presents itself as a philosophical position, but is never caused or dispelled by philosophy. You can ruminate forever and find no reason to value anything; philosophical nihilism is fully internally consistent. Or, you can get exercise, and spend some time with friends, and feel better due not to philosophy, but to physiology. (I know this is glib, and that getting exercise when you just don’t care about anything isn’t exactly easy. The link above discusses this.)
That above post, and Alicorn’s sequence on luminosity—effective self-awareness—probably lay out the right steps to take, if you’d like to most-effectively avoid these crappy moods.
Moreover, if you’d like to chat more, over skype some time, or via pm, or whatever, I’d be happy to. I’m pretty busy, so there may be high latency, but it sounds like you’re dealing with things that are very similar to my own experience, and I’ve partly learned how to handle this stuff over the past few years.
Hello everyone! I’ve been a lurker on here for awhile, but this is my first post. I’ve held out on posting anything because I’ve never felt like I knew enough to actually contribute to the conversation. Some things about me:
I’m currently 22, female, and a recent graduate of college with a degree in computer science. I’m currently employed as a software engineer at a health insurance company, though I am looking into getting into research some day. I mainly enjoy science, playing video games, and drawing.
I found this site through a link on the Skeptics Stack Exchange page. The post was about cryonics, which is how I got over here. I’ve been reading the site for about six months now and I have found it extremely helpful. It has also been depressing, though, because I’ve since realized many of the “problems” in the world were caused by the ineptitude of the species and aren’t easily fixed. I’ve had some problems with existential nihilism since then and if anyone has any advice on the matter, I’d love to hear it.
My journey to rationality probably started with atheism and a real understanding of the scientific method and human psychology. I grew up Mormon, which has since given me some interesting perspectives into groupthink and the general problem of humanity. Leaving Mormonism is what prompted me into understanding why and how so many people could be so systematically insane.
In some ways, I’ve also found this very isolating because I now have a hard time relating to a lot of people. Just sitting back and watching the ways people destroy themselves and others is very frustrating. It’s made worse by my knowledge that I must also be doing this to myself, albeit on a smaller level.
Anyway, I enjoy meeting you all and I will try to comment more on the site! I really enjoy this site and everyone on it seems to have very good comments.
You describe “problems with existential nihilism.” Are these bouts of disturbed, energy-sucking worry about the sheer uselessness of your actions, each lasting between a few hours and a few days? Moreover, did you have similar bouts of worry about other important seeming questions before getting into LW?
Yes, that is how I would describe it. It normally comes and goes, with the longest period lasting a few weeks. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a byproduct of recent life events or if I am suffering from regular depression, but it’s something I’ve had on and off for a few years. LW hasn’t specifically made it worse, but it hasn’t made it better either.
In that case, it sounds very, very similar to what I’ve learned to deal with—especially as you describe feeling isolated from the people around you. I started to write a long, long comment, and then realized that I’d probably seen this stuff written down better, somewhere. This matches my experience precisely.
For me, the most important realization was that the feeling of nihilism presents itself as a philosophical position, but is never caused or dispelled by philosophy. You can ruminate forever and find no reason to value anything; philosophical nihilism is fully internally consistent. Or, you can get exercise, and spend some time with friends, and feel better due not to philosophy, but to physiology. (I know this is glib, and that getting exercise when you just don’t care about anything isn’t exactly easy. The link above discusses this.)
That above post, and Alicorn’s sequence on luminosity—effective self-awareness—probably lay out the right steps to take, if you’d like to most-effectively avoid these crappy moods.
Moreover, if you’d like to chat more, over skype some time, or via pm, or whatever, I’d be happy to. I’m pretty busy, so there may be high latency, but it sounds like you’re dealing with things that are very similar to my own experience, and I’ve partly learned how to handle this stuff over the past few years.