"People between 40 and Ω (an indeterminate number defined as “really, just way too old”), are primarily employed as meaning-makers for the under-40 set. This is because they are mostly good for nothing else, and on average not valuable enough themselves for society to invest meaning in."
I don't believe in the concept of a "meaning game". It's not a game.
There really is very little to understanding life's meaning, regardless of age, despite all the philosophers and theologians still trying to figure out the details. It comes down to this:
Life is first and foremost about loving everything and everyone. I don't mean that you have to be happy, but if you show your love through your actions, and they are not selfish, but you still take care of yourself, then you will have done all that you can. If you've not been given the ability to interact with the outside world, that's ok too- you just do the best that you can.
If you have been given the ability to do something that is better than your other abilities, you should try hard to use that if it shows your love. Your love may be playing triangle in a death metal band, and that's ok. You may not always have that ability, and if more people did what they did best for the benefit of their craft and others, the world could be much more interesting. You often don't have to quit your job to do it, though quitting is fine also.
If you get to the point where you become less able to do something, don't dwell on that. Just do the best you can do with what you have. You might fail, miserably. It's not a guarantee of success, but if you do your best and keep doing your best, then you'll have few regrets. You may have wasted many years- it doesn't matter. You may do incredible things through small interactions with people that no one may ever learn of, because all of us see only a small fraction of what's really going on. Whatever you do, just don't give up.
> Life is first and foremost about loving everything and everyone.
For you. The real truth is life has no meaning other than the ones we each assign ourselves; meaning is entirely subjective and as such there is no one answer, there's billions of answers.
A life without direction is like a car careening down the highway without anyone driving. Sure, you could do it, but it can be dangerous to yourselves and others. I've personally been affected by people that have lost direction, and affected others negatively whenever I've been without direction.
For those seeking a reason to why we exist, there is no better reason than to love. Trying to get us off of the planet and explore the universe is love. Taking care of the homeless and hungry is love. Saving some animal species is love. Having dinner with a neighbor and listening to them tell their stories is love. Doing your best at your job to help others grow is love. Calling a family member or friend to see how they are doing is love.
Personally, I believe in loving others and loving my God and trying to do the best I can with what I have. That's my meaning and that's the real truth for me, and it could be for a number of people.
> For those seeking a reason to why we exist, there is no better reason than to love.
Again, for YOU. Don't project your desires and need for purpose onto others and presume we're all like you. YOU think there is no better reason than love, that doesn't make it true for everyone. YOU have a need to understand why, some of us have no such need because we recognize the question is invalid, there is no WHY because that presumes purpose which doesn't exist objectively, only subjectively. The meaning is always subjective, your reasons are not my reasons and you're speaking as if it is, as if all people need such things and that's simply not the case.
My point is, don't tell people what the meaning of life is because you're going to be wrong; that's YOUR meaning for YOUR life and that's it.
I didn't interpret it as another meaning game, but rather the same same meaning game but being played from the other side this time.
To provide a concrete example: on one hand there is the motivated engineer willing to do the best she can, ultimately, for the profits of her employer (this is her playing the meaning-game by fulfilling her desires) ... and on the other hand there is the manager of that engineer whose job essentially is to keep her motivated so that she remains productive (this is him playing the meaning-game of creating/ maintaining desires).
That concrete example can be extended to many other memes of culture.
At some point, intelligent members of society (read: YOU PEOPLE) will realize that there is no such thing as zero-sum fiat monetary system. You don't need to tax someone for the government to create a new spending program. There is no scarcity in USD (its fiat money, there's infinite supply). When there are economic resources untapped, the ~50% unemployed & underemployed, the Government MUST step in and provide stimulus. The multiplier on the economy has been well studied and would benefit society greatly.
IN FIAT MONEY SYSTEMS (USD, CAD, JPY, AUD, CHF, etc.) FEDERAL DEBT IS PUBLIC INCOME. FEDERAL SURPLUS IS PUBLIC DEBT.
Those skills would get you callbacks. The killer in South Florida, at least, is the "3-5 years experience" requirement so often seen in job postings. A nice portfolio could overcome that hopefully.
...having been in several organizations in recent years which are challenged to find enough people, everyone says 3-5 years, but everyone will hire someone with obvious talent, a portfolio of stuff on Github and enthusiasm to learn, at much less than 3-5 years of experience.
>>Basically you should teach yourself how to build essentialy any CRUD app (blogs, wikis, basic twitter, news site, hacker news, reddit, etc). When you can do that, you're employable--and probably well above average, honestly.
That's a tall order to become barely employable. I'm guessing this is written from a Silicon Valley / SF market perspective?
Barely employable? ...Ruby/Rails/Full Stack jobs are so hard to fill it's insane. Starting salaries are in the $130-150k range for mid-level $150k plus for senior and even junior level is a six figure gig. Sure it'll take time to get to a hirable state but it's perfectly doable.
Amazing if it actually happens. I don't think basic income guarantee alone will get Greece's economy going. Sadly, the economic/monetary illiterates will blast the basic income for anything less that a complete economic revolution.
To clarify, I don't see basic income as THE magic touch to get Greece out of its troubles and it doesn't do much by itself. It just happens that I'm excited about that piece of the whole plan. Implementation is still king and, for the good or bad, Greece is going to be the testing ground and provide data for future debates.
