More and more people are missing the point of life, and big tech is exacerbating the problem. Wow, that’s quite a claim. Let me walk you through my reasoning, then you can decide whether you agree with me or not.
I will not discuss religion in this essay. If you are religious and being religious gives you a reason (and manual) to live, good for you. I’m not religious, but the question of “what is the point of existing?” still matters to me.
I’ve been cynical for a long time. A nihilist, even. I didn’t think there was a point in life at all, actually. That didn’t bother me in the slightest. It’s a miracle I’m alive at all, and I’m grateful. There doesn’t have to be a greater purpose. Animals don’t bother themselves with this question, so why should we? On a universal scale, my puny existence is just a blip on the radar, and then I’m gone. It’s freeing to think that way, it puts my small worries in perspective.
However. The risk of being a nihilist is that nothing matters to you. And that’s not true for me, I care about plenty of things. So, calling myself a nihilist was just a coping mechanism, to protect myself from these feelings of caring a lot. (It’s people who cannot put a lid on their “caring” who will burn out at times. Hi, that used to be me. I have now installed a proverbial faucet on my supply of “fucks to give”, I recommend it)
I think I’ve finally figured out my reason for living, and it also explains why I’m so pissed off at big tech lately.
The reason for living, in my humble opinion, is: learning.
As a kid, this comes naturally. You grow, you explore, you try things out. Then, you go to school, and the learning becomes systemic to your life (you could also argue: dogmatic). Outside school, you’re also learning. You might join the local table tennis club, or what not. Learn how to ride a bike.
In puberty, some of us start resisting the learning (some kids maybe even earlier?). You don’t see the point of it, you cheat some tests, you copy some homework from your buddy (a 2024 version of this surely involves ChatGPT, but we didn’t have that in my time as a kid). This certainly was the case for me, I put in some half-arsed effort for a lot of things. There was this one guy in my class who put in 100% effort for everything, and everyone hated his guts. Looking back now, he truly was the smart one. He cared a lot about learning, while everyone scoffed.
In learning, and by extension putting in time and effort, lies the key to a happier and more fulfilled life. This guy in my high school class already knew that. The rest of us hadn’t gotten the memo yet.
I finished high school, regardless of my half arsed efforts, and even managed to get through university this way! I was so glad to be done, as I was such a shitty student. “Now, I’m done with all this learning crap”, is literally what I thought when I picked up my Bachelor degree. All this education behind my belt, and still I was THIS STUPID. I thought learning could be DONE. That I was a finished “product”.
Ironically, when I started my career in IT with my history degree, I had to study and learn a lot. Facts about Napoleon didn’t get me very far, sadly. I am really thankful for this “forced learning”, because it corrected my idiotic conclusion of “never having to learn new things again”. I had my aha-moment, and incorporated learning in my life again.
I have learned to program, learned a new language (Portuguese), forget the language because I didn’t use it, learned a new sport (powerlifting), and many other things over the last 10+ years. I will keep learning new things until the day I die. I have finally found that putting in time and effort into learning is what makes my life valuable to me, and others. This last point cannot be understated. Learning something, so you can work with other and help others, is amazing! Examples: learning a musical instrument (enables being able to play in an orchestra), learning how to code (enables being able to work with other devs and techies, fix IT problems for your parents, etc).
My take: when you think you’re done learning, you’ll regress. Use it, or lose it. You are never too old to learn something new.
This goes for mental capacities (skills like programming, new language learning, solving puzzles, writing, etc) and physical capabilities (strength, cardio, mobility). Don’t neglect your brain, don’t neglect your body.
Sure, you can’t avoid becoming old, but you can put in time and effort to learn skills to age as gracefully as possible. I will keep putting a large chunk of my weekly time into keeping up my physical and mental skills (and learning new ones).
It’s a relief to say goodbye to the idea that I’m a nihilist. I’m not. I’m 100% convinced I now have a growth mindset.
Okay, so what’s all this waffling about the meaning of life got to do with big tech?
I feel like I’m spotting a worrying trend that is now culminating with GenAI crap, but that’s been going on for 10+ years, facilitated by big tech solutions.
In a nutshell, most people are now focussing on the inverse of what I think is the meaning of life: we all want to skip the learning, skip putting in the time, skip putting in the effort. This goes for a lot of things: programming, writing, creating art, learning, to name a few.
Examples:
Students are using ChatGPT to craft their university level essays. These are actual writing, literature and language students!! They are skipping the painful process of writing. Are they unaware that they are screwing themselves over? The writing IS the learning. Skipping it is completely missing the point of your degree.
The internet is being flooded with generated “content”. We used to call it spam, but the bar has been lowered these days. Boomers fall for generated images like shrimp Jesus back over on Facebook. But even many seemingly normal people (you?) are using ChatGPT to generate content. Need to write a humblebragging post over on LinkedIn? ChatGPT can help! How about writing it yourself? You might learn a thing or two about how hard writing is.
Even before this GenAI crap took over the internet, we were already on the wrong track.
Big tech solutions were already all about skipping time and effort. Go faster! Do more! Be more productive with less effort!
What you should be focussing on is the INVERSE of that.
Do less, but put in effort. Choose a few skills that are worthwhile for you to learn, and accept that it takes time (and will feel uncomfortable at times). There are no shortcuts for the worthwhile things in life. Taking the shortcut is missing the point of it all.
The ultimate flex these days is to be skilled at something for which there are no shortcuts: playing a musical instrument, crochet, language learning, having a decent amount of muscle mass, pole dancing.
The more you jump on the bandwagon of what big tech promises you, the more you get out of touch with what really matters.
Big tech has taken a lot from us, like: human interaction (order food, order a taxi, pay at stores, all without speaking to another human!), jobs (not all automation is bad, but some of it is!), time (ain’t it funny that tech has given us less free time? We are all working more, and we are also being sucked in our entertainment apps by the expertly-designed algorithms), our privacy (free services are free for a reason, you and your data are the product).
But, the biggest thing Big Tech has taken from many people is that they have forgotten their life’s purpose. Swathes of people now believe that they can skip effort and time, and that learning will be done for them by a computer? And that this will make their life easier/better/more productive/generate more money/…..?
What will this mean for society at large, when more and more people have no useful skills? When more and more people skip learning, skip putting in time and effort? Have fun spending 8+ hours a day on TikTok, I guess?
Look, learning something new isn’t easy. It can be uncomfortable. But that’s the point! Push through, and you’ll feel so much better. You’ll feel proud of yourself. The process of learning is the reward, feeling happy about the effort you’re putting into things that matter to you is the reward, feeling positive that you’re moving in a good direction is the reward.
If you made it this far into my essay, thank you. I rarely take such a strong opinion about things, but I feel very passionate about this one. I really am worried about the direction the world is going. People seem more lost, more confused about what they should be doing. I won’t pretend this is THE solution for you, life is more complicated than that, but I do hope you see the merit in what I’m saying.
For me, seeing the value in learning, appreciating that things take time, and that it’s okay for life to feel uncomfortable at times, has been very valuable. I feel more at ease with myself. I feel more convinced that I’m doing the right things with my limited time here on earth. Not just for me, but also for the people around me. Doing things for other people is actually great. Not avoiding interaction with other people is also great. Tech has made us forget what really matters, namely belonging to a community (or communities) and not only being focused on your own needs. Not being focused on speed and hyper-productivity.
But, you do you, I ain’t yo momma. Just know that, every time you use big tech solutions like GenAI to skip part of what you’re trying to accomplish, you’re only doing damage to yourself.