John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist, professor, and YouTube educator. Humans are meaning making machines. Even when we believe our lives lack meaning, we instinctively follow something; an idea, a goal, or a routine. So, how can we intentionally create more meaning in our lives, and what’s the best way to discover it when it feels absent? Expect to learn why humans need meaning and why having meaning is very important to humans, what creates meaning for an individual, why the word purpose is not the same as meaning, the relationship between affluence and meaning, how to avoid self-deception, how to think about meaning without embracing something outside of reality and much more... Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get a 20% discount on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D, and more from AG1 at https://drinkag1.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours with any purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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given that we are biological creatures why do we need meaning why do humans need to do all this extra work in order to be satisfied with life well uh i have to tell you that um i've been going through a uh since the publication of the book i've been going through a serious reflection on this question again uh and going uh deeper into it um There's many levels of answering that question.
At one level, meaning has to do with sense-making. It has to do with how we properly pay attention to the right kind of information that can allow us to reliably solve a wide variety of problems in a wide variety of domains. And that's one aspect of meaning, that sort of agentic aspect.
But consonant with that is we need to be connected to other people because most of our problem solving is done in connection with other people. So there's an initial... Sense-making dimension, this is often talked about as sort of coherence in the meaning in life literature. It's your world. Is your sense-making making sense to you, is how I sometimes put it.
The sense-making is what you're doing sort of automatically, and when you reflect on it, you go, yeah, that makes sense. My world isn't absurd or things like that. And then, um, we need to feel connected to other people because most of our, um, problem solving, uh, is done via other people.
That's our great superpower individually, biologically, as you framed it, we're pretty pathetic animals, you know, a really angry dog can take us out. Um, and so our superpowers, we can coordinate together, um, and, uh, And train some of those dogs and sharpen some of those sticks and then kill anything on the planet. And so we need to be connected to other people.
And that brings with it its own special problem that my friend Greg Enriquez made sort of prevalent. We developed the superpower of connecting and coordinating called language. And language is something really, really powerful in helping us coordinate. But it also does something really novel. It makes the content of our minds accessible.
We're sort of exposed to each other in a way in which no other organism is exposed to its fellow creatures. And so we have to also develop this way of balancing between coordinating with other people but not being overexposed. So we have to develop relationships of trust and forgiveness and
and belonging, and we have to balance between being individuals and having an individual identity and a group identity. So that's all central to, uh, meaning. And then, uh, beyond that, uh, We fall prey in both of those domains to massive self-deception. I don't pay attention to the right things. I misframe you. I'm biased in my attitude towards you. And so we have to do a lot to correct that.
We have to try and ameliorate that. And what that means is we also have to be connected to standards by which we can – correct ourselves. Standards about what is most real, what is best, what is most beautiful. And that's a deeper kind of connectedness. That's kind of a connectedness to what we consider ultimacy. So I've tried to show you how all of these things are all important dimensions in
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