The ennui/nihilism/existentialism seems to have hit me very young; well before I had the words to describe it. You can certainly see its effects on artists and philosophers throughout history. I found Voltaire rather poignant as a teenager and very recently read Tolstoy's "A Confession" which was interesting because he mentioned reading Voltaire as well. More recently, you can see Mike Judge's work (growing up and realizing that your life has become "Office Space" is sort of a mid-life cliche amongst tech workers) and in "Rick and Morty" (with some good juvenile humor thrown in).
I never imagined having children and I think that's a big part of why - it seems rather cruel to create someone who will face the same blackhole of meaninglessness as a way to assuage my own troubles, and I doubt it would work anyway.
Most people throughout history I believe have mitigated this via religion; I think it can be very helpful if you are able to believe in one. My problem is that I never have really been able to.
So I guess I'm onto the next techbro cliche - I've got a book or two on stoicism that I mean to read through at some point and see if there's anything to that.
All that is to say that I think it's pretty tough. I will say that I moved to a smaller company awhile back and it at least feels like I get to make some decisions that matter at least a bit; it's been a good change of pace.
> I've got a book or two on stoicism that I mean to read through at some point and see if there's anything to that.
I think Stoics believed that being "stoic" (quiety going through the suffering) was neccessary to accomplish something good. Which is a problem, because the modern worker often does not want to accomplish anything and sees no point to anything. People with children at least have a purpose of providing support for them, but others often don't see any point to existing, other than the self-preservation instinct.
I never imagined having children and I think that's a big part of why - it seems rather cruel to create someone who will face the same blackhole of meaninglessness as a way to assuage my own troubles, and I doubt it would work anyway.
Most people throughout history I believe have mitigated this via religion; I think it can be very helpful if you are able to believe in one. My problem is that I never have really been able to.
So I guess I'm onto the next techbro cliche - I've got a book or two on stoicism that I mean to read through at some point and see if there's anything to that.
All that is to say that I think it's pretty tough. I will say that I moved to a smaller company awhile back and it at least feels like I get to make some decisions that matter at least a bit; it's been a good change of pace.