I am thinking that purpose of life, not the metaphysycal question though, is to be creative and produce works for others. In other words, bringing value to as many people as you can. This does not prohibit one to become rich. Be a net positive to the society and you shall live a good life.
@DoubleD i think that question is not entirely correct. say you are a painter, i think that if you put your work out into the world, you are bringing in value. you are not keeping it for yourself. so in a way, you are giving value to people. though the impact is obviously smaller than if you are jeff bezos and you provide tremendous commercial value to the population. say you have a garden and you grow vegetables, if you consume it yourself, then you are not bringing any value, but to yourself.
@DoubleD say you are an electrician and you just do normal blue collar job. i think that kinda falls under no value, actually. yes, the company you work for brings value to its customers, but it's kinda 1:1. it's not like many people benefit from your work, only very few. it helps, obviously, but the impact is much smaller. i am not saying we do not need people to work in order for society to function but my point was more about way of thinking.like "i want to help better the society as a whole"
@DoubleD so doing a normal daily job is a bit selfish in that regard. you care about your survival and that is about it.
@DoubleD take small village. a blacksmith provides good value to the people in it. the impact is large. but if you scale to modern society, then the impact is abysmal.
@DoubleD i have not thought it through, just a sunday afternoon cigar kinda thoughts.
@DoubleD i guess, the problem stems from big corporations that prioritise profits above all. well being of the society does not matter. and these companies hijack peoples' potential by doing miniscule daily jobs that do not better the society too much. otoh you can be only an employee in a company that does something good for the world. in which case your participation might be small but in aggregate it results in positive impact? it's a though concept to think about, i guess. would need more ⏳
@Justicar I do highly recommend thinking about this more, yes. Consider that no one makes a transaction, whether employment, social, or mercantile, unless they believe it will benefit them more by taking the deal. The employer would not hire and pay someone unless they were getting more utility from doing so than by not doing so. Looking at value as something quantifiable is an error without a medium of expressing that value. It sounds like your concerned with what people feel is impactful most.
@Justicar Would you say that producing creative works is necessarily for others as a condition of it being the purpose to life, or could one create for the sake of creation?