from Hacker News

Hunter S. Thompson on Finding Your Purpose (1958)

by zeeshanm on 8/29/16, 3:25 AM with 257 comments

  • by AndrewKemendo on 8/29/16, 5:33 AM

    I remember reading this in college and coming away with the feeling that what he was proposing was impossible.

    I didn't know what my Abilities were and how they relate to the others around me such that I can use them effectively.

    Not only that I didn't even know what I desire aside from food and sex.

    Luckily I was on a career trajectory and had quite a bit of experience ahead of me so I took solace in the idea that world travel, responsibilities etc... would flesh a lot of those abilities and desires things out for me.

    It's been 13 years since, and I still have no idea where my Abilities lie or what I Desire aside from food and sex.

    I like his suggestion to read Sartre, though I suggest Camus instead.

  • by giis on 8/29/16, 4:42 AM

    "In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important."

    I find this is quite new & profound.

  • by unexistance on 8/29/16, 4:56 AM

    "no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company."

    Conformity

  • by oasisbob on 8/29/16, 7:39 AM

    I'm away from my well annotated copy* of _The Proud Gentleman_ but this letter has almost certainly come from that collection. It makes more sense in context of his other writings from the time.

    Another quote, from the same, which I remember as vividly as (and juxtaposed with) this letter:

    "Everybody is looking for someone who can stand up in the wind. It is lonely standing up and crowded lying down. I refuse to be an anchor for other people’s dreams—but then I refuse to anchor mine to anyone else."

    * I wish my younger self knew the risk of loaning such a loved and personal book

  • by fsiefken on 8/29/16, 1:16 PM

    Coincidentally, yesterday I attended a talk by Bernardo Kastrup on the topic of finding our purpose in life. Kastrup is a philosophical idealist, he explained an alternative to the existentialist view of creating your own story and meaning in a essentially meaningless universe outside of ourselves reasoning in part from recent insights in physics. For example:

    * S. Gröblacher, T. Paterek, R. Kaltenbaek, Č. Brukner, M. Żukowski, M. Aspelmeyer, and A. Zeilinger. An experimental test of non-local realism. Nature 446, 871–875 (2007) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7138/abs/nature05...

    In minute 38 I ask the question if he can describe an example of finding meaning in life. https://youtu.be/D-EeF1quouY?t=2305

    In one of his books he says the meaning of life is "about experiencing existence, in all its angles and glory, for the sheer and pure sake of experience itself! We don’t eat a nice meal, make love or travel to beautiful locations just to understand or make sense of something. We do these things because the experiences themselves imbue our lives with a kind of timeless meaning, independent of comprehension." -- Kastrup, Bernardo. More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth And Belief (p 203). John Hunt Publishing.

    Ask yourself the right question in the moment itself, fully aware of your emotions and the things around you, and the answers could rise up automatically - 'the meaning of life' cannot be an armchair intellectual exercise he says. This has been my experience in life as well, it takes practise to get back to the Nexus. As Dr. Soran tells Picard: "They say time is the fire in which we burn. Right now, Captain, my time is running out. We leave so many things unfinished in our lives... I know you understand"

  • by e15ctr0n on 8/29/16, 6:30 AM

    For those not familiar with Hunter S. Thompson and looking to get an understanding of his outsize personality and cult following, I highly recommend watching the 2 movies in which Johnny Depp played his character:

    * Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/

    * The Rum Diary (2011) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376136/

    If you are not already a fan of Johnny Depp, these movies should do it.

  • by kosei on 8/29/16, 7:44 AM

    My favorite passage from this:

    "a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance."

    So very true.

  • by losteverything on 8/29/16, 1:08 PM

    Frost's The Road Not Taken, originally written as a joke, is an easy frame to view my life, imho

    "And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. " is just the choice Thompson postulates.

    To me, I now believe the overarching purpose of life is to have children. Two distinct groups: those with children and those to help those with children.

    Parenting (becoming a parent) puts a humans heartbeat into perspective like nothing else can

  • by Tadlos on 8/29/16, 6:32 AM

      Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone   
  else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living 
  with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let 
  the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner 
  voice. And most important, have the courage to follow 
  your heart and intuition. 
    -- Steve Jobs

  • by ioda on 8/29/16, 11:10 AM

    My Journey In search of purpose

    1. Hated working for others. One day manager refused to grant hike (in salary). Googled for a resignation letter, and mailed him the first one found.

    2. Didn't know what to do. Decided to do freelancing. Took up a project that was too big for my mouth (read, implementing an ERP for a small retail chain) . Took away some good 2.5 years of my life, for peanuts. But learned a ton. The project was a failure from client's perspective, but I had my contractual obligations met.

    learning - Freelancing is not my cup of tea

    3. Started an e commerce company. Was one of the first companies in hyper local space. But had a similar feeling that this is not my cup tea, since it required raising large amount of capital for a poor margin business. Shut it down after 2 years.

    Learning- I want to build something organically

    4. Finally I stumbled upon a business which I truly love. It is yet to make any money. Have been toiling for the last 2 years. But I enjoyed the journey hell lot. And most importantly I feel I can make this work

    5. So I took some 5 years to find that one thing that I really love doing, and that I am reasonably good at. Still the unproven part is whether there is a 'need' for that in the market, to make it economically viable.

    6. Was it worth it? It was hell lot of pain. Getting depressed at times. But to me there was no choice. So no regrets. I would have done the same , if I were to go back and do. And hopefully we (me and my co founder) will make it.

    Overall learning- You cannot discover yourself without getting lost. And getting lost is painful, at times, very very painful. But some pain are worth it (for some).

    Whether to float or to swim is a hard choice. But if you decide to swim, make sure that 'to swim' is the only choice you have. Else you are more likely to 'get' back to 'float'.

  • by rdtsc on 8/29/16, 3:52 PM

    I like Hunter's writings but I wouldn't look for coherent philosophical ideas in it. I see his writing as artistic, very entertaining, really unique phraseology, inspirational, stuff that really represents the feel of the 70's in US (at least that is what I am told, I wasn't born yet then).

  • by terryf on 8/29/16, 6:57 AM

    TL;DR: Finding the correct path to take in life, is the correct path to take. Cleverly self-referential, yet not impossible. Succint.

  • by SanderMak on 8/29/16, 7:52 AM

    > If you’re genuinely satisfied with what you are and what you’re doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.)

    I find myself doing this. Avoiding books that I think might upset my current reality for no apparent gain. It does make me feel intellectually dishonest, though. As in, I should be able to read anything and handle it rationally.

  • by randomsearch on 8/29/16, 8:40 AM

    As others have said, don't look for goals look for a lifestyle.

    Understanding how best to live your life is a gradual learning process and is not really so complicated.

    The school of life video on it is 60 seconds and covers the basics:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdhJ_S_z3w

  • by Paul_S on 8/29/16, 11:33 AM

    I was the happiest when not thinking about it. There is a trite and often reapeted lesson there.

  • by SCAQTony on 8/29/16, 6:11 AM

    "Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does…" — Jean Paul Sartre (Existentialist philosopher)

    Following your passion[s] may or may not be bad advice but predicting the consequences of doing should be measured. Life has a way of making that self evident.

  • by sytelus on 8/29/16, 8:10 AM

    Is finding goal in life so hard and complicated? Why not settle with "do something that helps survive, expand and evolve human species"? Of course, the deeper question is why we want to do that? But until we figure that out, isn't that a worthy goal to pursue?

  • by louprado on 8/29/16, 4:54 AM

    "But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life".

    So says every philosopher that ever lived.

  • by nasakin on 8/30/16, 12:45 PM

    One of the best things I've ever read in my life. Thank you for sharing this.

  • by 323454 on 8/29/16, 4:13 PM

    Such a different voice compared to his later work. It really drives home that HST, though seeming crazy, was fully conscious of what he was doing and intentional in his choices.

  • by amist on 8/29/16, 5:07 AM

    I prefer Mike Rowe's opinion on that subject.

    http://youtu.be/CVEuPmVAb8o

  • by 3minus1 on 8/29/16, 12:31 PM

    He's really taking that Shakespeare quote out of context. It's about suicide not striving towards goals.

  • by paulpauper on 8/29/16, 3:49 PM

    Flagged. this site seems to be an agreegator that is intended to generate adsense ad revenue , not original content

    For example, the article on the sidebar about the 'dying man' was copied from Reddit and elsewhere

    https://www.google.fr/#q=Powerful+Advice+From+a+Dying+Man

    We should try to link to original sources, not aggregation sites.

  • by size12font on 8/29/16, 4:08 PM

    Be happy is having something to look forward to. People always complicated this topic.

  • by GoToRO on 8/29/16, 8:56 AM

    There is no purpose.

  • by blubb-fish on 8/29/16, 11:52 AM

    I'd be sceptical of life advice from somebody who committed suicide.

  • by S_Daedalus on 8/29/16, 4:41 AM

    "All advice can only be a product of the man who gives it"

    That's on a par with, "Buy the ticket, take the ride." I think.

  • by ycombinatorMan on 8/29/16, 3:57 PM

    Reminder: this is a man who killed himself

  • by ObeyTheGuts on 8/29/16, 9:25 AM

    This just reaks peasantry. All creatures desire power and you do all to have more power if some thing gives you more power than other you drop the weaker one for stronger one. Very strighforward and simple. Now peasants create this how to do smallest amou of competition while satisfieng max hedonism retarded bullshit...

  • by chebastian on 8/29/16, 4:59 AM

    Was about to repost this but then i saw, "10 foods that most def will give you cancer" that host page gave me cancer.