The Three Components of Meaning in Life | Peter Attia & Arthur Brooks

The gist

1. Brooks compares meaning to protein, the macronutrient of happiness you cannot go without, and defines it as coherence, purpose and significance.
2. His two-question test for a meaning crisis asks why you are alive and what you are willing to die for today.
3. Attia says accepting his own insignificance is how he finds some peace with mortality, and Brooks links this to the practice of transcendence and awe.
4. Brooks says his 23-year-old son, a Marine scout sniper, found real answers to both questions by going through something truly difficult.
5. Brooks describes the Hindu idea of four life stages, where around age 50 people shift toward transcendent pursuits like faith, meditation or creative work.