Finding Meaning

Two things came across my radar recently; cks talking about Job Vs Career, which is an old post, and apenwarr talking about Billionaire Math, which is not.  They’re very different, but they both give me the same “meaning of life” vibes, so let’s talk about that.

“Where am I going?” and “What do I do now that I have all this money?” are sort of the same question, just from different angles.  It’s a spiritual question, because the process of answering it has the shape of a spiritual journey.

What do you really, truly want?

It’s really hard to untangle from what everyone thinks we should want!  It’s a question that comes down to values and worth, and it takes time to uncover those values.  It takes thought, grit, commitment.  It takes looking inward to our own expectations, and deciding whether we need to hold onto those.

There’s No HealthScore™

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but there’s no single number that defines “healthy.”

Weight and BMI don’t work.  Total cholesterol, LDL, nor triglycerides cover it.  Blood glucose or A1c, as useful as they are for diabetes, do not have specific “Health” levels.  Exercise isn’t magic, either; there’s no step count or bike computer statistic that indicates perfection.

These are all data points in a larger picture, and should be regarded as a holistic output.  There is a complex, interlinked system regulating it all, and trying to directly change one of the outputs is not likely to be helpful or sustainable.  At least, not if I don’t have a disease that is specifically related to those markers.

It took all my willpower, but I finally quit dieting.

I don’t have anything else.  There’s no general advice I can give on diet, exercise, or health care that I can be confident I will be able to stand behind for even five years.  The science isn’t there to give anyone (me included) individualized advice.  Regardless, the limited hypothesis of “there is no silver bullet to health” should withstand the test of time.  I can hope.