What Matters?

The unexamined life is not worth living. - Socrates

This might make me the worst / most-SF person at every party, but my favorite question a few drinks in is to ask “what do you care about?”. The right time to ask is after two beers - first beer is to loosen everyone up, second is to get the honest answers. The first look I get is confused. People usually tilt their heads as if to say “Matt - we’re at a party that’s a stupid question”, god, family, football. But then I’ll press. Beyond your family and community and the obvious things that give life meaning, what matters to you, what do you believe? I think what shakes me is how few of us can put words to our beliefs or to things that we anchor to. In one way I get it - most people are entirely focused on the core things, because that’s how life falls. If you’re raising a kid, the kid is what matters - America’s competitiveness in rare earths matters too - but does it really? The thing I love about my friends is that to some degree everyone has sat down and come up with an answer - it may be a stupid and inane answer, it might just be a grift, but it’s an answer.