Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Of lying flat and the meaning of life

I came across 2 videos on Youtube recently that made me ponder a bit about life. 

The first is of SM Lee with his infinite wisdom giving advice to young people: 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AFJz1pG92sY

I quote:

Question:

How should young Singaporeans define success in today's society and what mindset should we adopt for the future of Singapore?

Answer by SM Lee:

I think it's for the young Singaporeans to define what they would like success to mean.

If you are born with all the advantages which your parents' generation didn’t have — I mean, if you are 35 years old, 35 years ago the internet existed but social media didn’t. AI certainly had not made the breakthroughs yet. It was a completely different world. The cadence was different.

In 35 years, our standard of living in Singapore has probably gone up by 50 to 70%, at least 50%. Your opportunities for education have gone up — from maybe 30% of people going to university, to now nearly half the cohort going to university.

They come out, there are jobs available for them, and the world’s their oyster.

You have a Singapore degree from AU(autonomous university). You can go anywhere in the world and find work. We are in Silicon Valley. We’re all over China. You go to the deepest parts of Africa — you’ll find Singaporeans there. In Rwanda, there’s one young lady who’s running an advanced chicken farm, doing very well.

So, what do you want to make of your life — for yourself, for your family, for your country, for your fellow human beings?

There are so many things you can do. Don’t lie flat.

It is such a waste. That your parents will be disappointed in you is neither here nor there. If you lie flat, after a while, I hope you’re ashamed of yourself.

We did all this for you. Make use of it and show us that actually, you’re better than us.


Wise words. 

The second video I will like to share is the below:

 


In the video, this monk asked what is the meaning of life? His answer:

The meaning of life is to go beyond onself. To go beyond self-interest, so that we can contribute to a larger community. 

These thoughts are very much related to an earlier post I wrote about what we seek in life from George Yeo:

https://financeopti.blogspot.com/2023/08/what-do-you-seek-in-life.html

 So to summarize my thoughts so far:

In the grand scheme of things, FIRE is only part of the journey. By itself, it is not enough. We need to seek meaning in our lives, and the only way to seek meaning is to go beyond oneself. Don't lie flat. 

Or to put it even more plainly:

FIRE is not the FINAL BOSS.

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