Published on February 11, 2025 12:00 AM GMT

Let's set the scene - Nihilism

We are chunks of self important jelly staggering about on the surface of a tiny nugget of rock in a second rate solar system.

Sol's system is ~ four billion years old

We have been “Ourselves” (Anatomically modern) for ~200,000 years

Countless people have lived and died, and you are but one member of our endless shoals.

When you die, that's it, no second chances, no refunds.

Well, you're here, alive, what to do, what to do?

There doesn't really seem to be any objective final point to it all. However there are definitely better and worse outcomes and journeys.

Let's try to define a positive direction to travel

Be aware that the more positive you are in a category the easier it is to maintain or improve your position and that the reverse is also true.

Generalized non-exhaustive Utility categories

In rough order of importance with a rough descriptor

Social Status: Down the Rabbit Hole | Melting Asphalt

The only goal is of course Maximize your utility:

To do this make positive trade-offs between utility categories, ideally trading away surplus.

As a rough set of examples:

Epistemic Accuracy / Sanity

Do good scienceCheck your expectations against your observationsLearn about “rationality”

Health

Eat well, sleep well, exercise, keep yourself clean, be lucky, take the time to de-stress. Aside from those poorly defined ideas above, there are approximately one billion books written about “health”, 90% are lies. Good luck.

Social Capital

Demonstrate your ability to provide utility to others, bonus points if you can consistently do so.

The more social capital you have with a person, the more likely they will do things for / with you. Ideas to increase social capital:

Be beautifulBe an excellent conversationalistHave high levels of utility (perhaps even in excess) in your other categoriesBe part of the “In-group”, make your own if you can't find oneDo favours for people when you get an opportunitySpend time with themGive them giftsGenerally fulfill the preferences of others (eg being related to people increases your social capital with them)

Time

Prioritize commitments, eliminate the costly and least rewardingInvest time in learning efficient and effective methods

Skills / Knowledge

Define what you want to learn or be able to doPractice it, learn it.Mountains of advice out there on how to do this.

Wealth

Earn it, trade for it, acquire it, inherit it, all the usual waysThere are better ways and worse ways. Many thousands of ways to acquire it. Don't run out of wealth, you tend to die if the state is prolonged.Get out of the scarcity trap by hook or by crook

Preference fulfilment

Define preferences, prioritize from most preferred to leastDefine your circle of control and what you are willing to trade to fulfil these preferences.Start fulfilling these preferencesOr well, change what you prefer. Possible but by definition unpleasant. Human minds are weird unstable things. Perhaps if you meditate enough, nirvana may be yours by simply having no preferences.

Nirvana

So yeah, you have obtained all the utility you desire in all categories defined above?

Well done! You have reached Nirvana.

Warning, due the unstable nature of utility you will not stay satisfied without continued effort!

Your map of reality needs to be guarded from pernicious and false memesYour body and mind constantly change in what is required to maintain healthPeople forget their love for you over time, die, change or move awayTime drains away like the sand in the hourglass, one day it will run out.If it's not used, it will be lost, get rusty or simply become redundant Wealth inflates away, rots, rusts, gets lost, stolen or traded badlyPreferences evolve with time and events; other people can persuade you or you may just change your mind.

Welcome to the eternal fight, the war to beat the final enemy, the struggle against entropy.

The struggle to get what you want and keep it. It's not a zero sum game, enjoy the journey.

That should keep you busy! ;)

Random Ideas to get you started

Eat a good lunch, grow a carrot, have a good conversation, make a baby laugh, go for a cold shower, splash about in a pool, write down your thoughts on paper, walk a comfortable distance, try a new food, try to eat the same food for as long as you can, cook something, learn something, read a book, play a game.

Hunt down Eudaimonia, help many others a little, help one or two people a lot, make a thing, make a system, start a business, get involved with some hedonism, serve a cause.

Additional notes:

Network effects in social capital

Social capital exhibits powerful network effects. Each connection potentially links you to their entire network. High social capital in one relationship often makes building capital in others easier - people trust their friends' friends. The value of your network grows non-linearly with its size and the strength of connections within it. However, maintaining these connections requires ongoing investment that scales with network size.

Compound returns:

Improvements in one category often automatically generate gains in others. Better epistemic accuracy leads to better decisions across all categories. Improved health provides more time and energy for everything else. Skills stack and combine in unexpected ways. This creates compound returns - gains that generate more gains. The challenge is identifying and investing in these self-reinforcing cycles.

Threshold effects:

Many utility improvements exhibit threshold effects - points where gains become self-sustaining or even self-amplifying. Enough wealth eliminates financial stress, freeing mental resources (improving mental health). Sufficient skill level makes further improvement enjoyable rather than tedious. Adequate social capital creates opportunities without active seeking. Reaching these thresholds can shift you from scarcity spirals to abundance loops."

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