Part one of an eight-part series on the meaning of life
“Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small.” - Virginia Woolf, 1925
Virginia Woolf
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15 months ago, while I was still at Meta, I tried to figure out whether I wanted to be famous, wealthy, attractive, etc. (In hindsight they were all pretty mundane questions.)
Each time I attempted an answer, I ended up with more questions than I started. And if I kept asking questions, eventually I would end up at chemistry. Meaning, if I kept asking “why” enough times, eventually I would reach a question about chemistry that I couldn’t answer.
So I left Facebook, and I moved to Indonesia for 2 months to isolate myself and read.
I watched the entire chemistry library on KhanAcademy. Then I did astronomy, then physics, then biology, then nutrition & exercise, then medicine, then economics. Sometimes, I was stuck on a topic for weeks (nuclear physics, electron orbitals). Other times I moved on within a day or two (organic chemistry, Newtonian physics). I consumed almost 80 books at a speed I haven’t seen since elementary school: everything from molecular biology to Hindu poetry. 2 months turned into 7 months.