endev42 - documenting the meaning of life

Okay, so this is just a quick quip and a non-political post. For years we've been writing to people around the world. But for the last couple of years, due to tariffs and other customs issues, we've essentially been forced to stop mailing outside of the US. Why? When mailing and hoping for a response, it is customary to include return postage. However, take Canada for example. Try to buy postage on their website (which we had done for years), and you get the following message

Eva Maria Saint died today at 102. She was one of the first people we ever wrote to back in 2017. We never received a response and tried again a few weeks ago. Too late. But we did hear back from another person we wrote in 2017 - Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the internet. It is interesting to see how answers to the question “What is the meaning of life?” are changing. More and more people are including AI in the response. Here is what Vint said. Posted at...

As with all reviews on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete overview of the book; rather, it is to examine how the book relates to the meaning of life. New York Yankees and the Meaning of Life by Derek Gentile was published in 2009. Similar to the book, Baseball and the Meaning of Life by Josh Leventhal, which was published in 2005, Gentile uses quotes about baseball to outline the history of the New York Yankees. There are very few reviews about the book onlin

As with all reviews on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete overview of the book; rather, it is to examine how the book relates to the meaning of life. The book Baseball And The Meaning Of Life by Josh Leventhal was published in 2005. The book uses quotes about baseball to show that although the sport may be a game, and not only is it one of America's favorite pastimes, but there are humorous lessons learned while playing, coaching, and watching. We couldn't fi

It is sad and humbling to see the mathematics community try and fight back against artificial intelligence now solving problems that have gone unsolved for decades, for centuries. Many people find meaning in work. But what happens when what you do for work becomes irrelevant because something else can do it so much better? We actually see this time and time again throughout history. However, this is really the first time we are truly coming to realize that it is not just cert

As with all reviews on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete overview of the book; rather, it is to examine how the book relates to the meaning of life. Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life was written by the philosopher (or anti-philosopher), John Gray, and was released in 2021. The book, well, the book is about philosophy and cats. If cats could philosophize about life, nature, the universe, and everything in between, they’d probably choose instead

Recently, three big names in entertainment have passed away: Vincent Pastore, Dory Funk Jr., and Jon Cypher. Two of the three wrote to us back in 2017 about the meaning of life. So, what did they say? Vincent Pastore - To leave a legacy for your family. “Life” is a fleeting moment. And it’s what you do in that moment is its life meaning. Jon Cypher - We ourselves provide any meaning life has. Around the corner from me there is a bumper sticker that says, “My religion is kin

AI on if humanity survives the singularity. Gives us a 60/40 chance. We actually envisioned this about 15 years ago when we started the endev42 project, with the mission to define what we find meaningful. Because, if we weren’t able to define what we found meaningful….

There are a lot of people out there that get the ideal of nihilism wrong. Many people think movies that are violent without reason are nihilistic in nature. In some cases, that may be true. But, nihilism does not have to be violent. Nihilism is about life not having any purpose or meaning. But, it is perhaps only through the nihilistic lens that we can truly understand the meaning of life. Below we compile our top list of the best nihilistic movies. What movies did we miss? C

The New Republic is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts. In this blog post, we examine the August 13, 2008 edition which advertised on the cover "TRAFFIC and the MEANING OF LIFE," by Edward L. Glaeser. Upon opening the magazine and scanning the table of contents, we quickly saw that there was no mention of the "meaning of life." So, going to the article by Glaeser, we found that the name of the piece was actually, "Auto-Emancipation,

Fiddler's Green Peculiar Parish Magazine is an independently run print based zine by Clint Marsh. In this article, we explore the article "On the Meaning of Life" by Chögyam Trungpa published in the Volume 1, Number 4 - June 2017 edition of the magazine. The article is transcribed from a talk Trungpa gave on July 25, 1972 at Goddard College. Trungpa was a controversial Tibetan Buddhist guru, writer, and teacher. He died at only the age 47 due to health complications involving

Free Inquiry is a bimonthly magazine published by the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry. In the February/March Vol. 31 No. 2 edition, the esteemed writer, Philip Appleman, wrote an article titled The Labyrinth: God, Darwin and the Meaning of Life. The essay is a diatribe against religion and the institutions that support religion. Those that are religious and not open to other ideas may find this piece offensive. Those that can get past this ma

As with all movies on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete synopsis of the film, but rather to document how the movie relates to the meaning of life. With that said, be forewarned, there are still spoilers ahead. Love is a controversial film that was released in 2015, directed by Gaspar Noé . The controversy surrounding the film mostly revolves around unsimulated sex scenes and the amount of sexually explicit content. As such, this movie is for mature audience

As with all movies on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete synopsis of the film, but rather to document how the movie relates to the meaning of life. With that said, be forewarned, there are still spoilers ahead. Ikiru is a Japanese drama film which was released in 1952, directed by Akira Kurosawa and staring Takashi Shimura . In the film, Takashi plays the character Kanji Watanabe who works at City Hall as the chief of the Citizens Section; a job he has work

As with all movies on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete synopsis of the film, but rather to document how the movie relates to the meaning of life. With that said, be forewarned, there are still spoilers ahead. Good Fortune is a comedy-drama film starring Seth Rogen , Aziz Ansari , Keanu Reeves , and Keke Palmer ; also written/directed by Aziz Ansari. Aziz plays Arj, a broke gig worker struggling just to survive, living day to day, sleeping in his car and no

Every year celebrities and philosophers from around the world write to endev42 telling us their thoughts on the meaning of life. For a complete list of celebrities that have written to endev42 over the years, check out our celebrities page . This year we received answers from the former CEO of Paramount Pictures, the drummer of Leonard Skynyrd, gold medal Olympians, best-selling authors, Pro-bowl and All-star professional sports players, and many more. Some responses are just

In the 2006 April/May edition of the now defunct magazine, Complex , there is an article which features Eminem and Obie Trice . The cover promises us "Rehab Gunshots and the Meaning of Life." In the article "Em" focuses on going through rehab for sleeping pills, his newest album, the endless grind of touring, traveling, and trying to be at home for family, and what it was like to be semi-retired. Obie talks about being shot in the head, surviving, and rapping. Though the art

In the September 1979 edition of Reader's Digest , the magazine presented an extract of Judith Viorst 's book Love & Guilt & the Meaning of Life. The book itself is 47 pages long. Below is a summary of the article according to ChatGPT. Viorst explores the meaning of life through a humorous and ironic lens, focusing on everyday emotional experiences such as love, guilt, friendship, and aging. Summary in Relation to the Meaning of Life: Judith Viorst suggests that the meaning

The American Scholar is the quarterly literary magazine of Phi Beta Kappa society, established in 1932. In the Spring 2019 edition, the...

The New Republic is a magazine that focuses on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. In the March...