“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

One of the greatest problems modernity gave rise to is the eternal search for meaning. Humans are the only animals that despise boredom. All other animals, seek it. While, in a rather tragic and comedic taste, man needs to seek, define and rediscover his “meaning” to keep going. A meaning that is ever-so fleeting and makes no sense and at times, is only “meaningful” till it keeps someone alive.

We do not have an enemy to beat or any pre-defined purpose to achieve. We got too comfortable as our tools and systems took most of the complexities of life away from us.

It is funny because we need just the right amount of complexity. Too little complexity makes one bored and nothing seems to interest one in life. Too much of it makes everything seem out of control. For example, debt, passing away of a near and dear one, and contracting a life-threatening disease all at the same are just too many variables inter-twining in incomprehensible ways to give the perception of being too helpless to continue.

Overcoming complexity is naturally rewarding. Think of the first time you learned to walk, to ride a bicycle, to drive, the alphabet, to do addition, etc. It seemed daunting at first: how do other people even do it? And then you discovered the process piece by piece.

It is like exploring a dark room with a narrow torch of light. Every time you enter it, you see some known things and some unknown things, until there is very little left in the unknown. The first time had to be scary, you never know if there is something harmful within, quite possibly lethal too. As you grow acquainted with the surfaces, objects, walls, and their physical dynamics, you start to tame the complexity. Until, eventually, when you can navigate confidently, even without a torch in some cases. This very realization, this very feeling, is the feeling of having won, or to repeat, of having tamed the complexity.

The challenge in the 21st century then becomes to find these complexities which are just right or just a grasp out of one’s comfort zone. And I feel, that is the single complexity that one needs to solve. The meta meaning, of continuously finding meaningful meanings to pursue. And then taking them down, one after the other, or together, whichever suits one’s complexity needs.

The only caveat here is that one can fall prey to laziness while searching for these activities and projects, and be under-ambitious in their ambitions. But again, that’s another complexity to deal with. And it is but a subset of the single complexity, the search for meaningful meanings.