r/SeriousConversation

What do I do if I refuse to work for the rest of my life?

Long story short, I'm not mentally ill, I'm just a logical person, and I cant fathom the idea that I had a okay childhood (although loneliness), bad teenage years (loneliness mostly) and now I have nothing to look forward to like the rest of people.

I don't have any interest in most things in life, including the idea of working to live (anything im forced to do makes my brain already hate it) I've kind of been in low power mode for many years and have little motivation to do regular human things

I personally don't see a point in living in a life like this, but not in a suicidal way, Id just like to know if there's any of you who have actually thought about this (youd already be in the minority) and what you decided to do.

How does a 6-day work week affect productivity/performance compared to a 5 or 4-day work week in different jobs like programming, retail, etc? Does it increase because of task switching cost reduction and people not thinking about weekend plans?

I listen and watch music every day. Sometimes it’ll be a performance to an audience, but many times not.

Just watched “Llive Aid” at Wembley Stadium with Queen performing, and being cast to 1.4 billion people in 1985. Apparently, Freddie Mercury stole the show from the other many performers in the enormous event. His performance was exquisite and sparkling. The whole crowd was with him instant by instant.

So this struck me like a group meditation, the enormous packed crowd, completely moving together, at one with the moment, instant by instant.

And it seems “individual identities” subsided, leaving mostly a oneness of each with the crowd, and the sound, and the performance.
This must have left people with a lasting sense of connection with others who were there, and those moments - Undoubtedly recalled by many long after the event. Like a meditative fulfillment? - But what is the difference between the two? Very interesting to me!

Do rock concerts make the society more spiritual? It must, in some ways. What is the difference from meditation? Why don’t I see advice about rock concerts in spiritual writing? What is the difference?

But my fulfillment in meditation is not a crescendo of movement and momentum, that builds and becomes a completeness in my consciousness in the moment.

In meditation, it is a pause in movement, as the motion tapers down - A power of stillness and space, the cessation of momentum from past acts and thoughts, leaving no trace, in the moment, of past confusions. And that profound clarity of space sees no separate things or identities anywhere. - Open space all around, and within, all that is, a transcendent sacredness of what is - Being itself. Not mine in any way. Not part of my streams of identification all the way along. - An emptiness of me and of things, that is completely convincing, but is not authorized in any way.

And so, without any fixed boundaries around, we are so much bigger than we thought we were.

It’s like saying, “ For a long time, I thought I was my right arm. But it turns out, that was only part of me!”

So memories of music are full of content, whereas my fulfillment of meditation is absent any content that connects with the streams of my identifications that go all the way back.

(Over 50 years ago, after investigation, I sat to meditate, completely on my own, not trying to meet direction from any authority. I sat for two hours, and have pretty much for two hours most every day since, with additional retreats and meditation programs. But I have no authority about meditation from any tradition or organization.

And I have much less authority about music, by far…)

I went through a big physical change over the past several months and somewhere in the middle of it the effort just stopped feeling like effort. Things I was consciously forcing myself to do became automatic. And now I'm sitting with this question that feels bigger than the change itself. If a behavior becomes routine and you stop thinking about it, have you actually changed as a person? Or have you just found a more efficient groove? I notice people talk about 'becoming a different person' after going through something hard. But when I'm running on autopilot, I don't feel like a different person. I feel like the same person doing different things without really noticing. The identity shift people describe never fully landed for me. Maybe that's actually the point. Maybe real change is supposed to disappear into the background until it's just who you are. But it makes me wonder whether humans are genuinely capable of fundamental identity change, or whether we just shift our defaults and call it transformation. Curious if other people have felt this after going through something significant, whatever that looked like for them.

I’ve been thinking about how modern ideas around awareness, detachment, and self-improvement are affecting how we experience life.

It feels like instead of becoming more present, people are becoming more distant—almost like “living ghosts.”

We analyze everything, but rarely feel anything fully.

The Business of Confusion

We are not becoming wiser—

we are becoming distant from ourselves.

The modern world sells confusion as wisdom.

One voice with 100 contradictory theories is called “content.”

It doesn’t guide you—it numbs you.

You stop trusting what you feel.

We don’t meet anymore.

We evaluate.

We don’t arrive.

We perform.

This creates the Living Ghost—

present in form, absent in contact.

The Illusion of Knowing

The greatest deception:

we think we know everything.

Every question has an instant answer.

So curiosity dies.

Mystery disappears.

We have data—

but no realization.

The Digital Ego

The screen is now an altar.

The profile, a curated deity.

We don’t live authenticity—

we manage it.

We sacrifice the real

to preserve the image.

The user becomes god—

but only inside the simulation.

What we’re building isn’t a network.

It’s a mausoleum of the ego.

The Truth

Nothing feels fully wrong.

But nothing feels fully real.

Control becomes personality.

Distance becomes safety.

And instead of breaking the pattern—

we refine it.

The Rebellion

Not more knowledge.

Not more rules.

Feel again.

Risk being real.

Trust what is unfiltered.

Or stay connected to everything—

and present nowhere.

Are we becoming wiser—

or just turning into “living ghosts”?

Seems like a basic fucking thing to investigate the foster families before placing a child with them. There are lots of good people who can’t have children and are interested in adopting. Why put children in a home with someone with prior history of child abuse???? I don’t get it. I don’t understand why CPS is so fucking evil.

If so why, or why not? I mean it is mathemathically probable, if we could create conscious simulations, its inevitable that it will be done/ has been done before making odds go against us, so by pure odds we are likely one, but do most people also think so/not think so?

Looking for thoughtful, in-depth conversations. I want exploring the depths of our minds, cultural experiences, etc. I have no problem challenging worldviews, respectfully of course. I enjoy playing devil’s advocate just to have fun sometimes because things aren’t always as simple as black and white.

I’m not sure how to ask this, so I’ll just explain it here. Whenever you open up world news, you see familiar countries, US, China, UK, France, India, Japan, Brazil, Australia, (cant post some countries because it’s political). But you get my gist. I understand some are because of the ongoing situations, but is there any reason why there are like maybe 20 most mentioned names.

Is it the economy? Cuz while some are powerhouse, others not so much like Iraq.

Is it the government? Cuz there are various of kinds of government.

Is it the people? Is it the culture? Like is there particular reason why we keep hearing some names over and over?

I feel like with each day, getting a job is becoming harder and harder.

And it's not just ai either.

Some jobs are disappearing like data entry jobs. They are now turning into data analytics and require a 4 year degree.

Nobody is willing to train either. Even internships. For most internship jobs, you basically need to know your stuff already. No more is it about learning skills. It's mostly about staying there for a long time to go to a entry level job

And even minimum wage jobs is hard to get. As a cartoon I watched said "Bro, I feel like you have a better chance of starting a million dollar company... from scratch. Than getting a minimum wage job"

Remote jobs are extremely hard to get now. So if you are sick that prevents you from driving and looking for a job, good luck. Because now those jobs are now hybrid or they are off shoring to high hell.

And the thing is, I feel like it's going to get a lot worse

I see a ton of people using AI to write something. They post / submit it and then BOOM! A wave of "it's AI" "you used AI" "people are not authentic anymore" "em dash, gotcha!"

Oh wow...you caught them, Sherlock. Great job!!! What now?

Im not saying it is not affecting our skills and cognitive abilities long term. But people who do use it just so that they can express themselves? Why mock them? What did you achieve by saying it's AI, after all?

The whole point of being able to express, post something with assistance and knowing you needed the help to structure your thoughts, feelings and emotions before putting it out there still should be valued and respected.

I see so many people lowkey bully others just because their posts on LinkedIn, instagram or anywhere "sounds" like an AI. Good job pointing it out!! You achieved nothing but hurt someone's confidence and made them question their own opinion, idea and feelings. It doesn't matter if they used AI or not if they resonate with you. It doesn't matter if they used AI or not when they were able to make it make sense with any topic. It's still them who is behind it!!!

I do see the tone of posts are sounding alike i.e what hit me hard is....etc.. But so what? The whole point of the tool IS to help you out. But making fun of them solely cause they needed help?? Not okay!! It's alright if it's their friends, teachers, professionals or parents who helped them out but not AI 'cause...??

//Yeah I am aware of the agenda behind making AI tools free for so and so long and create dependency but that shouldn't make the one getting help a laughingstock

I feel everyday people are growing more and more lonely because of which there's a lot of negative thinking.

I think this might be because of our tremendous self-occupied behaviour and even if we have people around us, this sense of isolation still remains.

i would like to talk on this

I'm curious about the human side of this question. What is the thing that makes waking up worth it for you? Is it a feeling, a connection, a creation, or something else entirely?

My Family Said By My Mom That we haven't Paid The Water Bill and Fire Bill And To Able To Pay Our Rent of our Shop, my mom freind give enough money just to pay it. I don't know what to do, I'm scared and I don't know how to even like get help or anything, like I mean GoFundMe Works? But I'm Malaysian meaning I need like Malaysian dollars (ringgit) and in Sure all of you are American and only have dollars, not ringgit. I seriously don't know what to do, I'm just Scared I'm only just 12

And yes I did broke some rules like Rule 4 And Rule

I’ve been told it’s human to make mistakes, and that I have a disproportionate amount of guilt tied to mistakes I’ve made in the past. I’ve had friends, who while someone is venting about an acquaintance or a partner, will jump to “cut them off” or “break up.”

This makes me feel all sorts of conflicted, because I have been through rough patches before I was on antidepressants where I wasn’t a good friend or maybe even person, but I’m lucky to have people around me who stuck by me and are proud of the man I am now regardless of my past, even though I did have others who did cut me off.

Where is your “line”? What do you think of people who take most things as a red flag? Do you have personal experiences on the matter you’d like to share?

I know at some point the thinkers of the past, present or future have thought about this.

They didn't have books, phone or AI back then. They didn't even have words. It was unfiltered. They lived in 'the eternal now'. They reacted. They survived. It's fascinating.

Somehow they managed to continue. Because of them, we continue to exist and it's nothing short of a miracle.

But so did the other species on this planet, only we did something else.

Earlier, writing was a luxury. Eventually, it became the greatest weapon in our entire history because it allowed the ideas to be shared at large.

This allowed the methods to pass down.

But the fundamental question, that probably doesn't even matter now: Why something instead of nothing?

I’m a 19-year-old white male, and I sometimes use race as part of my humor. I don’t do it with any hateful intent, and I try to avoid saying anything that would directly disrespect someone. To me, it’s always just been humor.

Recently, my brother and I got into a debate about it. He believes that jokes involving race aren’t racist if there’s no bad intent behind them. His view is that if no one is being targeted and there’s no harm meant or done, then it doesn’t qualify as racism.

I took a different stance. I argued that even without intent or impact, using race as the foundation of a joke could still be considered racist. That led the conversation in an unexpected direction, where we started debating what it actually means to be “racist.”

At one point, I said that by my own definition, I would be considered racist—not because I have hate or prejudice toward others, but because I think everyone has some level of internal bias. My brother disagreed with that completely. He felt that I was using the term too loosely and that calling things “racist” without clear harmful intent makes the word lose its meaning.

We went back and forth on that idea for a while and never really landed on the same page. It mostly came down to how we each define racism—whether it’s based on intent, impact, or just the content itself.

I don’t really have a final answer, and I’m not trying to prove a point one way or the other. I’m more interested in how other people think about it. How do you define racism in situations like this, especially when there’s no harmful intent behind it?

Ok so something I’ve noticed recently is that a lot of people do not actually care about misinformation as a principle but whether it is helping their side.

A good example is the recent discussion around those online communities where men were sharing advice and content about manipulating, drugging, and assaulting women. The underlying story is real and serious. CNN’s investigation was about genuinely disgusting spaces and material connected to them. But once the story started spreading online, people began repeating a much sloppier version of it.

I keep seeing people talk as if there were “64 million men” in some single community which does not seem to be what was actually reported. The number being passed around was tied to site traffic or visits, not 64 million identified members of one organised group.

What bothers me is how quickly people stop caring about accuracy when the target is something they already hate. Normally people will talk endlessly about media literacy, dangerous misinformation, fact-checking, and not spreading falsehoods. Then a story appears about a group they find vile, and suddenly exaggeration is treated as fine because it feels emotionally true and I don’t think that standard works.

If something is genuinely evil, harmful, or dangerous, then it should be criticised accurately. You should not need to inflate numbers, blur details, or repeat false claims to make the point land. All that does is make the discussion worse. It gives people an easy way to dismiss legitimate reporting by pointing to the parts that were distorted which is the part people keep missing.

Correcting bad information is not the same as defending the people being talked about. Those are two different things. Saying “that number is wrong” is not the same as saying “this problem is fake.” But online, people constantly collapse those two things together because they are more interested in moral performance than basic honesty.

I think a lot of people only oppose misinformation when it benefits people they disagree with. When misinformation is aimed at a bad group, or a group they already resent, they suddenly become far more relaxed about it. At that point they are just defending a version of truth that flatters their existing bias I think that is a bad habit no matter who the target is...

One question I often think about is whether artificial intelligence will ever truly reach or exceed human-like consciousness (AGI). Personally, I don’t believe it will. I believe in the concept of ruh (the soul) as something divinely given to humans and I see consciousness as something much deeper than just brain processes or intelligence.

This makes me curious about how people from different faiths view the rise of AI. How do they respond to the idea of machines becoming human-like in intelligence or even consciousness?

I see a lot of “reasons” for the way some people think on this topic. With stating the reason for their beliefs are the higher crime rates and such. I asking this to see what are the reasons you are anti immigration, refuge or racist or pro white. What are the reason you hold these beliefs.

But I can’t understand why the reasons for the high crime rates isn’t accepted. The reasons for your reasons to be racist seem to be ignored or attributed to race or religion and not the real reasons.

Lmk Wy think.