Sorry for giving you this starter\u2019s kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meaning of being significant<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The term comes from the Latin: signum + facere = making a sign or mark. The wish for significance is about putting one\u2019s mark on something, thus being important, influential, meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The meaning of being significant is the meaning of being deeply meaningful. Such a self-referencing concept (OKAY, while shoveling depth inside) shows this can be challenging \u2015 as indeed, it is to many, if not all, people. This looks like an inherent challenge of being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main problem is that the yearning for significance (deep meaningfulness) is symbolic. Therefore, it risks acting like a big black hole demanding ever more stuff to swallow. It\u2019s never enough \u2015 as in the case of a Roman emperor ordering giant statues or, more recently, Putin<\/a> wanting to \u2018remake the glory of Russia\u2019 (or anything grand enough in his present mindset).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is also about me<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, everyone includes me. That makes me keenly aware of the poignancy of the starter\u2019s kick, rest for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As all people, and as you, I also try to be significant. Looking at the AURELIS project, I\u2019m giving it my best shot. Even so, I have moments of doubt just like anyone else who doesn\u2019t spend a life in hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where does this come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For such matters, we should look at the origin of life \u2015 the shift from pure matter to living matter. This is also the shift from an evolution-toward-sheer-chaos (entropy) to a bubble in which chaos-as-goal has been replaced by the opposite. Life exists within this bubble, not outside of it. This means that meaningfulness (opposite to chaos) also only exists within this bubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking into the universe with an even stronger telescope will not show us meaningfulness within pure matter. That is because the concept itself is a bubble concept. Moreover, unfortunately, the hypothesis that \u2018the whole universe is alive\u2019 doesn\u2019t fit any sensible definition of life. We are meaningfully stuck in the bubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Why does anyone want to be \u2018liked\u2019 on any platform? In view of the above, you may already have a hunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media gives everyone a personal chance to make a mark, even if it is but in a moment of significance. Of course, there is then also the dream of becoming influential, a social media \u2018influencer.\u2019 This is the modern social median dream of many, consciously or not. Even so, like many dreams, it\u2019s fleeting. It\u2019s also symbolic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From insignificance to burnout<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Does burnout come from working too hard for too long?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or does working this way come from the feeling that this is necessary for being significant? If this doesn\u2019t deliver on its promise after much self-neglecting hard work, one can get into a crisis of significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does burnout come from the underlying feeling of insignificance that hits hard when seeming bottomless also after working hard and long? This may show the same association but with a different causation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t give people work just like that. Give them meaningful work \u2015 or even better, any meaningful occupation, anything that makes one feel needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give Putin something else to do, as long as he finds it deeply meaningful \u2015 writing a philosophical memoire perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other side of the symbolic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Above, I portrayed the symbolic as a black hole. One can reverse the image, making its infinite surroundings symbolic too. Having done so, one can see that in order to satisfyingly fill a symbol, one \u2018only\u2019 needs another symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concretely, that can be much or very little, as long as it \u2018means so much to me personally.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The all-too-human problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We can consciously think about things that were never meant to be consciously thought about. For instance, unlike any animal, we can think about immortality while remaining mortal for life. This way, death becomes frightening<\/a> \u2015 symbolically, remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our thinking doesn\u2019t fit with our being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two final rescues<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One is even more challenging than the other:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As said, none of both is straightforward. Nevertheless, we can revisit the answer to the title\u2019s question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are significant.<\/p>\n