Various Happenstances of Seth

August 1, 2005

   In spite of having read the complete Hitchhiker's Trilogy numerous times, and having watched Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" repeatedly, I still don't know the meaning of life. It's something I consider occasionally, oft in more pragmatic forms like, "What should I be doing with my life?" or even "What would make my life better?"

   Aside from big obvious and largely unobtainable things like "Millions of dollars" and "A nationally syndicated humor column", the answer to betterment is interesting. Specifically, I've started to wonder if experiences might not be worth more than material goods. Normally, I presume if I'm going to spend X amount of money and time on something, much better to have something to show for it afterwards than not. Better to purchase a used DvD than see a movie in theatres, right? And for $1300, I could either buy a new computer that I'd use for years, or take one week to visit Germany. It would seem that I'd derive more utility out of the former.

   However, on Friday afternoon I was having a conversation with Tom* about experiences, and we discussed the possibility that experiences were really worth more in the long run than things. Hence, one way to increase the value of your life (from a gaming perspective, as my perspective often is) would be to have more and varied experiences. In most ways I don't do this; I'm largely influenced by inertia and rarely leave town. On the other hand, I do believe in trying things once. And I have a goal of eating as many different types of animals as possible before I die.

   Friday evening was a company party, and as I was chatting with one of my co-workers, he mentioned that he had made a list of 10 things he wanted to do before he died. And naturally, these things weren't "I want to acquire X", but more experiential. He wanted to release a record (which he'd done), publish a book (which I've done), climb Mount Kilimanjaro (which neither of us had done), etc. And even if I wouldn't enjoy climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, I could see the benefit of having had the experience, because there's an inherent benefit in having different types of experiences.

   I guess what I'm trying to say is this: After Friday night through Saturday morning, I can cross "Drinking a lot and then being up all night violently ill" off of my experience to-do list.

Piano Man -->

<--Litter Airily

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*Tom, sadly, has just moved out of my house as of yesterday.

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