I’m currently going through a phase where “how does this all fit together, what does this all mean, what is my purpose/role?” is a very salient question. In my case, I have lots of gears and details about what sort of roles I might play, why I might want to play, them, and whether “role” is actually the right abstraction. It is a hard problem, and a somewhat scary problem, but I feel like I have traction on it.
I was chatting with someone else recently who is also sort of asking “what does it all mean? what do I do? what is my purpose/role?”. In their case, the question felt like it had somewhat lower stakes than me. But, unlike me, they felt very unanchored – they had one particular direction they knew how to go, but that direction didn’t seem obviously that great, and then they had a million other possible directions they could go. Lower stakes problem, but less traction.
I mention these just as two particular ways an agent might find themselves confused about meaning.
I’m currently going through a phase where “how does this all fit together, what does this all mean, what is my purpose/role?” is a very salient question. In my case, I have lots of gears and details about what sort of roles I might play, why I might want to play, them, and whether “role” is actually the right abstraction. It is a hard problem, and a somewhat scary problem, but I feel like I have traction on it.
I was chatting with someone else recently who is also sort of asking “what does it all mean? what do I do? what is my purpose/role?”. In their case, the question felt like it had somewhat lower stakes than me. But, unlike me, they felt very unanchored – they had one particular direction they knew how to go, but that direction didn’t seem obviously that great, and then they had a million other possible directions they could go. Lower stakes problem, but less traction.
I mention these just as two particular ways an agent might find themselves confused about meaning.