The Short Version

Nobody knows what we're supposed to be doing. Not your parents, not philosophers, not religious leaders, not scientists. Everyone's working from the same uncertainty.

That leaves two possibilities. Either there's a right way to live and we haven't found it yet. Or there isn't one at all.

If there's no right thing to do, nothing matters. Any choice is as good as any other. That's logically consistent, but it's a dead end. You can't build a life on it.

But if there is a right thing to do and we don't know what it is, then the only move that makes sense is to try to figure it out.

The purpose of life is to discover the purpose of life.

That's not a tautology. It's the one conclusion that survives the uncertainty. We don't know what we should be doing — so the most defensible thing we can do is search for the answer.

And you can't lose. If the answer exists and we find it — extraordinary. If it doesn't exist, we're no worse off than if we'd never looked. Hope isn't naive here. It's the only position with any upside.

This changes how you make decisions. Every choice that opens doors is better than one that closes them. Meet your base needs so you can focus on the search. Build resources — not as an end, but as a platform. Work together, because this problem is bigger than any one person or lifetime. And share the framework, because explaining it multiplies the effort.

That's the whole idea. If you want the full argument — the nuances, the objections, the practical implications — read the essay.

What should we be doing? Let's find out.