Nothing you do is ever going to matter

[samonix]

No-one likes to admit it, a lot of people secretly thinks their sweet idea will one day be turned into an awesome game or that book you've been working on for years will suddenly take off, but the world will never know you've existed.

Does this depress people, or make them feel like they should just focus on enjoying the world and not trying to change it? Do you think I'm totally wrong and YOU are the exception that will echo through the generations.

Personally, i don't like this idea; which is strange because I have no belief in the afterlife so my impact on the future will be completely unknown to me anyway.

 

[brumley53]

Well someone has to make the great games we all love and enjoy, so why the hell not try to be one of those people?

 

[Astoria]

Just because it's highly unlikely doesn't mean you shouldn't try, a lot of celebrities started from the bottom and worked their way up so why can't you?

 

[daemon37]

Well I'm currently working on my PhD in psychology/vision science. So I hope my research will be meaningful, at least to other researchers.

 

[tzimize]

Unoriginal.

OT: Depends on how you look at it op. Sure, I'm not gonna win the nobel prize or an oscar (or some other prize that is internationally recognized), but I AM the most important person in the universe for at least 1 person in the world. And I'm pretty important to a handful of others.

That surely mean I matter? A lot?

I dont care at all if the world recognize me as important or not. In fact, I dont really care much about the world at all. If my international impact on the world is zero, it doesnt bother me at all.

 

[loc978]

Nah. What I do matters to me and those around me. I have no need to impact the larger world. If I do, fine. If not, well...

-so there's no sense letting it get to ya.

 

[KuwaSanjuro]

Nah. What I do matters to me and those around me. I have no need to impact the larger world. If I do, fine. If not, well...

-so there's no sense letting it get to ya.

Agree. Its not always about affecting the world in a meaningful way but if its meaningful to you or the people around you then that makes your action worthwhile.

 

[Dark Knifer]

So no-one should try on the basis that it is unlikely that you will amount to anything? So how have we had people who have amounted to stuff, because I was under the impression that they tried to succeed and did. If your not going to try then yes your life will be worthless. But if you put some effort into it, chances are you'll have more then enough reasons to exist, even if it doesn't impact society much.

 

[Fenring]

I'm confused, are you saying the world will never notice me or any effect I may have on it, or that I cannot change anything in the world?

 

[Bloodastral]

If at first you don't suceed, try, try again. Imagine if Isaac Newton hadn't bothered to discover gravity, then where would we be? Floating off into space and being eaten by black holes that's where! So the motto of this story is don't give up.

 

[Bender Rodriguez]

Couldn't care less about your statement.

Things that matter are remembered, like my families history and my granddads heroic action in WWII will be remembered by our family.
Thats enough, i don't get the obsession some have with not leaving a mark.

Its sad, focus on your life and live it.

 

[Drakane]

attempting for greatness and failing is something, attempting for nothing and succeeding is failure.

 

[alimarin]

No-one likes to admit it, a lot of people secretly thinks their sweet idea will one day be turned into an awesome game or that book you've been working on for years will suddenly take off, but the world will never know you've existed.

Does this depress people, or make them feel like they should just focus on enjoying the world and not trying to change it? Do you think I'm totally wrong and YOU are the exception that will echo through the generations.

Personally, i don't like this idea; which is strange because I have no belief in the afterlife so my impact on the future will be completely unknown to me anyway.

You can make things matter. Simple answer, sort of simple question.

Truth about being dead is, you won't even know that you are. Your brain gets on a hormone trip as it dies.

 

[Stasisesque]

There are very few things you can achieve which will give you worldwide fame, alternatively, there are very few things you can achieve which will give you worldwide invisibility, so to speak.

I know a vast number of published authors, none of whom your average Joe will have heard of, simply because there are millions and millions of published authors out there - only a tiny handful of whom gain enough notoriety to be spoken about. Even then, those who do reach the golden fleece of the literary world often have to have done something completely unrelated to get their 15 minutes of fame. Would so many people give a damn about J. D. Salinger if he hadn't shunned publicity to the point of infamy? Do many people even know of anything else he wrote?

That doesn't mean you shouldn't try, just don't expect world fame - hell, don't even expect riches. Starving artist is a colloquialism with extreme basis in reality. You'd have to go to great lengths to be ignored by every last person on the planet - something you can't even achieve by pissing everyone off, they'll still remember you.

So no, it doesn't depress me, because it simply isn't true. I'm known and will be remembered past my death, I may not be living a celebrity life of luxury, doesn't mean I'm not important.

 

[HydraZulu]

I'm like you in that I don't believe in an afterlife, but isn't that even more of a reason to do the very best you can in this life? You might not have any significant impact on the world, but there's a solid chance that the opposite is true as well, and if you don't try, how will you know? If you try your hardest to live your life as best you can, then when your number's up, you can leave this world content that you did everything you could. Nobody in the past, present, or future will EVER do EVERYTHING right in their lives, it's impossible (the whole dividing by infinity thing), but my plan is to do as much as I possibly can while I'm alive, so that when I'm about to die I can say that I lived as full of a life as I possibly could have. That's good enough for me.

And for the record, your post IS kinda depressing, not really in the subject matter, but in how you present it.

 

[AcacianLeaves]

No-one likes to admit it, a lot of people secretly thinks their sweet idea will one day be turned into an awesome game or that book you've been working on for years will suddenly take off, but the world will never know you've existed.

Does this depress people, or make them feel like they should just focus on enjoying the world and not trying to change it? Do you think I'm totally wrong and YOU are the exception that will echo through the generations.

Personally, i don't like this idea; which is strange because I have no belief in the afterlife so my impact on the future will be completely unknown to me anyway.

That's some flawed, self-pitying, self-defeating thinking right there. With that attitude, of course nothing you do will ever matter. Classic books, games, art, and music comes from someone, somewhere. Great politicians and leaders also had to start somewhere. They didn't have superpowers, they just had talent and determination.

That being said, not everyone's goal is to be well known and achieve worldly success. Some people just want to raise a family. Others want to help their community in a meaningful profession like doctor, police officer, firefighter, etc. How you measure the success of your life may be entirely different from somebody else.

 

[Hiikuro]

Is it not those who chose to pursue what they love, despite the overwhelming pressure of giving up by thinking it "wouldn't matter", that actually do succeed?

I'd rather try, and enjoy the process, than give up for shallow reasons. I don't do what I do because I want to be known. I do it because I want to shape the universe. If what I shape is never seen, that doesn't matter. It has still existed in time and space, and that is enough for me.

 

[Drummodino]

Heck every single action effects someone or something somehow. Even if it's not that meaningful everyone has some impact. Honestly though I don't really care about that, the only thing that really matters is if you enjoy life - which I do without giving a damn about making a difference

 

[alimarin]

People for some reason can't grasp self improvement for the sake of self improvement. I can grasp it pretty well, why stop when you can do even better?

 

[TriggerOnly]

No-one likes to admit it, a lot of people secretly thinks their sweet idea will one day be turned into an awesome game or that book you've been working on for years will suddenly take off, but the world will never know you've existed.

Does this depress people, or make them feel like they should just focus on enjoying the world and not trying to change it? Do you think I'm totally wrong and YOU are the exception that will echo through the generations.

Personally, i don't like this idea; which is strange because I have no belief in the afterlife so my impact on the future will be completely unknown to me anyway.

Its a awsome idea do what ever you want it anit going to make a diffrents its freeing when you think about it go go hard till you drop! i say