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We hear millennials whining that the reason they aren't successful is because they didn't have rich parents. "I could be Donald Trump if my dad gave me some money."
What is your excuse, OP?
Have you had a physical checkup lately? You could have low testosterone.
Do you eat a lot of sugar? That causes low energy and depression.
How often do you get outside in the sun? Sun is good for depression and overall health. Go bike riding, go for a long walk, go hiking. You can do those things yourself but you will wind up feeling much better.
Exactly. It is definitely not normal for a 36-year-old person to feel there is nothing left to know or learn.
No human has ever existed who knew everything.
I'm 34 and I feel that way. Sure, there are major gaps in my, and all of humanity's, knowledge base, and some 'ultimate questions' may never be answered/answerable. But if we assume a few permanent limitations on topics such as 'actual extent of the multiverse/the totality of what exists', there really isn't anything to embrace, learning-wise. I could spend years studying the minutiae of some aspect of the world or another, becoming an expert in it in the process, but if I'm already satisfied with what I'd consider to be a 'strong layman's grasp' of just about everything (and not truly deeply interested in those specific topics for their own sake), then there's a certain existential impasse one reaches. I live every day in partial denial that I've reached it, for the sake of sanity, but the reality is that I could've written something very similar to this post title, if not the actual post, some years back. For me personally, I'd add 'book reading' to 'Interneting' to give a fuller picture, but the larger point remains the same.
Maybe you need to ask yourself why you aren't interested in doing anything. Race in the America's Cup. Take up sculpture. Write a book. Become a professional poker player. What I am saying is find something to do that's interesting to you. If nothing is interesting to you then consider getting help for depression.
Speaking from experience...it gets old rather quickly.
I’ve thought about just hitting to road and spending my life traveling, but I’ve concluded that it’s just not something that “gets me off” like it does for many people. Seeing things with my own eyes doesn’t really excite me the way it supposedly should. Perhaps if I could do time travel or explore the cosmos millions of light years away I’d be interested...you know, see things that have never been seen before.
The internet has made the world a very small place. With just a few clicks we can see what many say are the most beautiful sights a human can behold. We can also learn anything there is to know about the people that inhabit those places. I’ve concluded people on earth for the most part aren’t all that different. The times I have traveled I just felt lonely and reverted back to the internet while I was there.
I did “travel” to the drive-in movie last week...I had no idea what two movies were playing but I did sorta enjoy just laying there in the back of my car with the hatch open looking at the stars, listening to the sounds and eating popcorn.
Outside of the religion aspect (I'm an atheist), you and I seem to have some very similar thoughts on the subjective experience of life--our reactions to and opinions of lived experience. First two paragraphs of this are something I could imagine myself writing. And personally, I always *wanted* travel to fill that void for me, but...when I'm home I find myself yearning to be elsewhere, and when I'm elsewhere I have tended to find myself homesick. This is ignoring my issues with anxiety, which has restricted my travels far more than planned (planned or at least fantasized about by adolescent me), but that's a somewhat unrelated topic and I don't wish for that to interfere with this discussion
Well learning about and arguing about philosophy or religion or politics was just way more captivating at age 20 than learning about some random slow moving classes taught by one person with no back and forth or original input/perspective. I was addicted to the big questions that don’t really have any answers.
Me too. And now that I'm bored with those big questions, or bored with my powerlessness in effecting any real change in the world in accordance with what I perceive to be my 'values' (skeptical though I am that they may hold up under extenuating circumstances--in other words, in real life), there is...nothing to strive for, really. I've toyed with the idea of writing a book for years, but the world doesn't need another mediocre novel. Either I write something transformative or I don't write anything. And I haven't been in the position to do the former, yet, and may never be.
Think we're on very similar wavelengths (once again, ignoring religious beliefs).
For someone who thinks he's learned all there is to know, he doesn't seem to know much. He obviously doesn't know how to be interested in life and what it has to offer. I think he needs to have his mental health checked.
You must not be familiar with the concept of world-weariness, also known as ennui. 'Interest in life' isn't a constant; intelligent people are probably more prone to feeling as though they've 'learned it all' and have nothing of any great significance really left to discover. Some people presumably never concern themselves with this (ie, learning 'regarding questions of personal/universal significance', the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life, etc) and so can never really reach that 'after' point, anyway. Being content to relatively mindlessly re-live mundane routines day in and day out seems to serve many people quite well, but I am not such a person and I'm very confident the OP isn't, either.
Are people like that descended from royalty so they inherited all kinds of wealth or something?
My friend was maybe 40 when his father died (mother had already passed away) and he inherited a ton of oil stock. Before that he did work but basically just part-time. He told me once he knew he'd never have to worry about money. That it would always be there and once he received his inheritance he stopped working.
But this is also when his bitching about life started. Which is easy to do when the biggest decision of the day is to read a book if you wake up early or go back to sleep.
Our falling out began when he wanted to hang out with me on Sunday afternoons and then have dinner. Never mind I had things to do like shopping, laundry and simply unwinding on my day off.
I'm reading a lot of self-aggrandizement here. It's a natural protective reaction, I think, to depression and/or addiction. Why take the first step of making a healthy life for yourself when you can blame the internet, or whatever else made you the oh-so-world-weary dilettante you've become?
My friend was maybe 40 when his father died (mother had already passed away) and he inherited a ton of oil stock. Before that he did work but basically just part-time. He told me once he knew he'd never have to worry about money. That it would always be there and once he received his inheritance he stopped working.
But this is also when his bitching about life started. Which is easy to do when the biggest decision of the day is to read a book if you wake up early or go back to sleep.
Something very close to this happened to a friend of mine when he was about 35. His dad died tragically and now my friend is set for life.
Except in this case, he didn't get bitchy, he just got this sort of haughty attitude about people whom he judged weren't enjoying the leisure life in the manner he was.
For someone who thinks he's learned all there is to know, he doesn't seem to know much. He obviously doesn't know how to be interested in life and what it has to offer. I think he needs to have his mental health checked.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Marcinkiewicz
You must not be familiar with the concept of world-weariness, also known as ennui. 'Interest in life' isn't a constant; intelligent people are probably more prone to feeling as though they've 'learned it all' and have nothing of any great significance really left to discover. Some people presumably never concern themselves with this (ie, learning 'regarding questions of personal/universal significance', the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life, etc) and so can never really reach that 'after' point, anyway. Being content to relatively mindlessly re-live mundane routines day in and day out seems to serve many people quite well, but I am not such a person and I'm very confident the OP isn't, either.
Quick internet search and I got familiar; since the op has done nothing but surfing within their 36 years of living, guess they are familiar too.
I get board I do do that. However, one thing I have learned in my 60 years of life, life never stops giving a person something to do. However, a person can stop looking for something else to do, that much is true too. Life never just seems to work itself out, it just gets (entropy) complicated. As far as that 'feeling', 'they've learned it all', that to shall pass. A person will get out of life exactly what they put into it. It is the gift that keeps on giving.
The only way a person can live a mundane routine life, is if they chose that path. it isn't rational for them to think otherwise.
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