Optimistic Nihilism
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell5 HN recommenders · 2018–2022
18.9M views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2017-07-26
Kurzgesagt's short animated take on optimistic nihilism. It argues the universe has no inherent meaning, so we are free to create our own and enjoy life.
HN users recommend it as a comforting, clear introduction to nihilism for anxiety, mid-life doubts and feeling behind in life.
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6 comments from Hacker News
Thanks for that! I got carried away and sank an hour watching stuff. Totally off topic - My favourite was 'Optimistic Nihilism' - [VIDEO]
I like the notion of "Optimistic Nihilism", as explained by Kurzgesagt: [VIDEO] For me, it is about stoic/Zen acceptance of things we cannot change. Contrast it with "American optimism", which is for me close to gaslighting, or at best - a "flight" reaction from suffering.
There is a beautiful video by Kurzgesagt. It makes a similar point and I feel better every time I watch it. [VIDEO]
Absolutely. Thanks for this. It's telling to me how dismissive/judgemental are about nihilism, and that's been a good signal for me in other areas that it's getting a lot closer to a basic truth and people are threatened with it and want to push it away. Which is what we shouldn't be doing. Optimistic Nihilism ( [VIDEO] ) or Absurdism ( [LINK] ) are maybe more accessible takes if nihilism seems too "scary".
> The thought may be freeing to you, but many others become paralysed by it, obsessing about “the right choices” at every moment. I had been struggling with the same issue. The opposite (“our choices don’t matter”) is depressing. However, two things help me: The first is “Optimistic Nihilism” ( [VIDEO] ) - a view very close to Zen/stoicism. The second is that ALL choices matter, but their impact is finite and subject to randomness. I used to think that all of my choices were forever and set in stone. While technically correct, it misses that the future changes only a bit. We might be tempted to think that “the grass is greener”, or “I should have bought Bitcoins”, but it is like “I miss I didn’t join my friends when they went to a cassino”. Moreover, it is FAIR that a finite effort results in a finite result.
Your comment reminded me of the Optimistic Nihilism video by Kurzegesagt [1]. I highly recommend it, as they explain these concepts very well in a short 6min video. [1] [VIDEO]