How To Be An Optimistic Nihilist – Dealing With Existential Crisis
Pursuit of Wonder | February 6, 2026
Life is absurd, but we can still enjoy it.
As a side note, don’t be concerned about the new voice. We will be continuing with our traditional content style and voice, but we will also be developing some new content formats and will have some additional help in the process. Let us know in the comments any thoughts or suggestions moving forward!
CAN WE GUYS HAVE A PLATFORM WHERE WE CAN ALL GET CONNECTED AND TALK DEEPLY ABOUT THINNGS? CAN WE GET CONNECTED SOMEWHERE WE CAN ASK QUESTIONS THAT NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR IN OUR DAILY LIFE? IS IT POSSIBLE GUYS?PLEASE? I'M DYING ALONE,FEELING ISOLATED IN THIS WORLD. SOMETIMES EVEN THINKING ABOUT PUTTING MYSELF TO SLEEP FOR FOREVER
Thanks (: It's so effin hard to be positive and optimistic and this is the only mindset I have come across that factors the idea that we know near to nothing in with optimism rather than dread. Optimistic Nihilism is the way to go and my year or so of thinking that way was the best time of my life.
The biggest problem with creating your own meaning and route of life is that when you follow someone's path there are more certainty of happiness and success but when you try to make your own route, there are always chances for you to lead to nowhere and suffer more.
after all this training and education where we have been taught to find reason in happening. and suddenly one day we realize the life itself is absurd, there is no logic, there is no reason. or maybe the truth is just beyond human comprehension. And the tragedy is even being so important topic to discuss about life not a lot of people have that courage
As Jordan Peterson said, not his words but, most nilihistic people are dumb af, they use nilihism as an excuse for not doing anything meaningful with their lives
Hah. Yes, life is all this and that. We can count each second and be happy to exist when each day passes. But here I raise the question, what happens when those days are over. When a moment passes, where does it go? Does it come out of the void only to return to oblivion? If this is so, then can we say the same thing about life in general. Yes, everything passes very quickly. You take a look around, and you're young and a kid living in your parents' home. You have loving grandparents, an adorable dog, and wonderful friends. Then you blink. You blink, you look around you and your hands are thin and frail. You're on a machine that's barely keeping you alive, your grandparents and your wonderful dog have all left you long ago, and you can hardly remember what they looked like, the warmth of your dogs fur, the echo of your grandparents laughter. Oh how you used to sit around and listen to your grandfather's wild stories of when he was young and in the military, the crazy shenanigans his brother and him got up to. But you can't remember that house, or their names. You're friends are getting old too and most of them has passed. You sit talking with them one day and you're reminded of his or death, and you realize, that's right he/she passed. Then you wonder when was that, and wonder what moments you spent together, if you spent any at all, which you did in fact.
It's all really depressing. Life moves to swift and I can't get over the fact that I'll lose everything I care about. One might think suicide is the smart choice here, leave before you're too hurt. I used to think that way, and then came another consideration. We've discussed what has been, but what comes after. This spurs into a whole other dimension of worry, as if Pandora's box was opened in you're cursed mind. What comes after death? This question shakes you to you're core and begins to envelope and rule your life. You begin to wonder if you'll see those you care about and rejoice in banquet. What happens after that? What is eternity? Now I'll refrain from going further into eternity for the sake of anyone reading. However, you begin to ask the question and spiral down that rabbit hole until, there's nothing. You can't escape. Anything you find that takes effort to do, is taken up in fear and terror of the time you'll lose doing this. I digress, you can hurl yourself into insanity there.
Now here's the truly troubling part. As before when I said imagine what comes after, what if nothing comes after. Sight, touch, taste, feel, smell, all gone. Darkness and light, night and day, the stars shining in the sky, the soft blades of grass on the ground, the cry of a small helpless child, the groan of an old man, the long warm summer days filled with laughter with friends, and cold winters filled with comfort surrounded by family, all this and even more, gone, as if it never happened. Anything you can imagine, imagination in of itself, gone forever. I've gone to deep into this though, and I live in constant despair. Truly a loathsome being I've become.
Maybe it's because of my tendencies, maybe it's because I'm a daydream addict, maybe I care too much, or too little. The fact still remains that I have ruined my life due to existentialism. Take me as an example of how not to live, ignorance truly is bliss. Existence is cruel and painful specifically because it is filled with the balance of joy and sorrow.
To that one person reading and found themselves thinking, "what the hell am I reading", firstly, I share that thought. Secondly, anything that you do, do it because you want to, because you'll never be able to do it again. Any experience is a learning experience, and that makes any experience worth experiencing. Just don't drown yourself, kay?
Trauma undermines the ability to choose freely. You may need to be kind to yourself and work on (often unsuspected) traumas first, before expecting all those lovely choices to flow freely. The first choice is the real.
I'm to god damn tired of being depressed of being depressed to do stuff in this dogshit reality where some guy was like we gotta do stuff. Than that guy told another guy doing nothing to do stuff. Than they got a rally of more guys doing nothing to do stuff. A few guys didn't want to do stuff, so the guys doing stuff got mad and than fought. Some guys that didn't want to do stuff accepted todo stuff. The remaining of the guys that didn't want to do stuff went crazy and did stuff that the other guys didn't like. So, they fought again. EXISTENCE, I gotta do stuff to stay in-line. EXISTENCE
"the meaning of life is whatever that is preventing you from killing yourself" – Albert Camus
First of all I think your story videos are really great, very touching. As for this one and the others in the nihilism series ( trying to find meaning in an – apparently – meaningless world) this is a nice try – but this tendency to answer the problem of nihilism with things like "Life is absurd, but we can still enjoy it." and "The absence of meaning allows us to create our own" is a cliche that you fall back on, across more than a few of your otherwise excellent videos, and it doesn't hold up philosophically. Of course it originated with Nietzsche and Camus but no-one, including them, could really achieve this end of ushering meaning out of nothing. The expression survived and degenerated into platitudes over the years – usually backed up with footage of people mountain climbing or working out. But how can you create your own meaning or values? Can you give me an example that is bigger than merely liking something a lot? It's possible those who say "The absence of meaning allows us to create our own" have never truly experienced the life threatening depression that comes from the destruction of the ground you are standing – the horror that arises from grasping meaninglessness in it totality. Can you remake this set of videos of yours again with endings that actually offer something more than "Life is meaningless, make your own meaning". It's a shallow kind of cross over between the Ubermensch (returned from the dead) and pop-self-help. I think you're smarter than that and maybe you don't even buy this easy-formula yourself. Care to comment or make a video to address this question. If so that would be great.
Every word, sentence we built and purpose we determine to taste our life is just literature, just using a pompous language. If there is no meaning, There is no valuable thing. Sometimes I determine purpose, big dreams for my life. But then I lose my excitement and am bored. I am nihilist but I am not upset. I lost my feelings , because they are meaningless as well. When I consider on something, it disappears and then I have to search again and again to do something in this life.
I see a few comments here saying along the lines of "No meaning to life is good..it's freeing etc etc"…"We get to make our own meaning". Well I call B.S. Nobody likes the meaninglessness or wants it that way. All you're doing is dealing with it as best you can. Period.
@teddyehon
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
CAN WE GUYS HAVE A PLATFORM WHERE WE CAN ALL GET CONNECTED AND TALK DEEPLY ABOUT THINNGS? CAN WE GET CONNECTED SOMEWHERE WE CAN ASK QUESTIONS THAT NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR IN OUR DAILY LIFE? IS IT POSSIBLE GUYS?PLEASE? I'M DYING ALONE,FEELING ISOLATED IN THIS WORLD. SOMETIMES EVEN THINKING ABOUT PUTTING MYSELF TO SLEEP FOR FOREVER
@brantleydavis1560
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Thanks (: It's so effin hard to be positive and optimistic and this is the only mindset I have come across that factors the idea that we know near to nothing in with optimism rather than dread. Optimistic Nihilism is the way to go and my year or so of thinking that way was the best time of my life.
@rano12321
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
The biggest problem with creating your own meaning and route of life is that when you follow someone's path there are more certainty of happiness and success but when you try to make your own route, there are always chances for you to lead to nowhere and suffer more.
@themeaningoflifeexpert
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I know the meaning of life
@beatleme2
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
''Nothing is nothing anymore''. Comes to mind
@chai.ji.main.ta.lucky_aan
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
being john malchovich
@veeralyashupal
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
ok
@shubhamshejaval8526
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
after all this training and education where we have been taught to find reason in happening. and suddenly one day we realize the life itself is absurd, there is no logic, there is no reason.
or maybe the truth is just beyond human comprehension.
And the tragedy is even being so important topic to discuss about life not a lot of people have that courage
@waynedombrowski7568
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Yes,the same life can look utterly different depending on frame of mind,but..when ya git hit,ya holler.
@andyc9902
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
This is the only Ideology I relate to.
Omg that back ground sound gave me anxiety…..
@CatOnMyBack
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
yeah but capitalism still exists so i will continue to suffer regardless
@adsfornothing3146
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Ah yes, my healing for the Kurzgesagt-Syndrome.
@Victor_de_Souza
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
First video with Robert Pantano
@ozzylepunknown551
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
i don't like how we cannot discuss about anything except crime being bad without sugarcoating in public nowadays
@elcatrinc1996
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I feel better already
@user-ke3hh4fv3k
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
"The day is not over" yea but no, in 10mins the day is over
@SmeagolTheBeagle
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
This really helped. Thanks.
@abel5779
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Thanks for nothing
@crowsinho5198
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
As Jordan Peterson said, not his words but, most nilihistic people are dumb af, they use nilihism as an excuse for not doing anything meaningful with their lives
@ichabod9462
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Hah. Yes, life is all this and that. We can count each second and be happy to exist when each day passes. But here I raise the question, what happens when those days are over. When a moment passes, where does it go? Does it come out of the void only to return to oblivion? If this is so, then can we say the same thing about life in general. Yes, everything passes very quickly. You take a look around, and you're young and a kid living in your parents' home. You have loving grandparents, an adorable dog, and wonderful friends. Then you blink. You blink, you look around you and your hands are thin and frail. You're on a machine that's barely keeping you alive, your grandparents and your wonderful dog have all left you long ago, and you can hardly remember what they looked like, the warmth of your dogs fur, the echo of your grandparents laughter. Oh how you used to sit around and listen to your grandfather's wild stories of when he was young and in the military, the crazy shenanigans his brother and him got up to. But you can't remember that house, or their names. You're friends are getting old too and most of them has passed. You sit talking with them one day and you're reminded of his or death, and you realize, that's right he/she passed. Then you wonder when was that, and wonder what moments you spent together, if you spent any at all, which you did in fact.
It's all really depressing. Life moves to swift and I can't get over the fact that I'll lose everything I care about. One might think suicide is the smart choice here, leave before you're too hurt. I used to think that way, and then came another consideration. We've discussed what has been, but what comes after. This spurs into a whole other dimension of worry, as if Pandora's box was opened in you're cursed mind. What comes after death? This question shakes you to you're core and begins to envelope and rule your life. You begin to wonder if you'll see those you care about and rejoice in banquet. What happens after that? What is eternity? Now I'll refrain from going further into eternity for the sake of anyone reading. However, you begin to ask the question and spiral down that rabbit hole until, there's nothing. You can't escape. Anything you find that takes effort to do, is taken up in fear and terror of the time you'll lose doing this. I digress, you can hurl yourself into insanity there.
Now here's the truly troubling part. As before when I said imagine what comes after, what if nothing comes after. Sight, touch, taste, feel, smell, all gone. Darkness and light, night and day, the stars shining in the sky, the soft blades of grass on the ground, the cry of a small helpless child, the groan of an old man, the long warm summer days filled with laughter with friends, and cold winters filled with comfort surrounded by family, all this and even more, gone, as if it never happened. Anything you can imagine, imagination in of itself, gone forever. I've gone to deep into this though, and I live in constant despair. Truly a loathsome being I've become.
Maybe it's because of my tendencies, maybe it's because I'm a daydream addict, maybe I care too much, or too little. The fact still remains that I have ruined my life due to existentialism. Take me as an example of how not to live, ignorance truly is bliss. Existence is cruel and painful specifically because it is filled with the balance of joy and sorrow.
To that one person reading and found themselves thinking, "what the hell am I reading", firstly, I share that thought. Secondly, anything that you do, do it because you want to, because you'll never be able to do it again. Any experience is a learning experience, and that makes any experience worth experiencing. Just don't drown yourself, kay?
@noviting6976
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Can we really choose to be optimistic? Is freewill real?
@pritikangude9781
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Life is meaningless
@divinenatureonline
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
“Optimistic Nihilism” is an oxymoron. As humans, we are creators but truth is that one thing we can never create for ourselves.
@DaddyToji0
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Be ignorant and you would live in bliss.
@siriusng239
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
i wish this dude narrated my life
@ezza88ster
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Trauma undermines the ability to choose freely. You may need to be kind to yourself and work on (often unsuspected) traumas first, before expecting all those lovely choices to flow freely. The first choice is the real.
@sabeshbala1933
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
We are all bunch of species stuck on this planet for a short period of time and then we become part of nothingness again.
@muraveqt
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
THANK YOU.
@kiwiflare
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I wish they'd kill the echoing on the audio
@KissOfEnvy
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Good video for the morning!
@USOJ
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
why does anything HAVE to mean anything tho. yall needa quit tryina add meaning to everything and satisfy ur "meaningless" emotions. its all u have.
@areedahmed4484
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
life doesn't mean anything it's depressing
@smartcow360
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
“Absurdity is long, but love saves us from it” -Camus
@loisgriffin9130
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
The feeling life is futile really gets me
@IllIlllIlllI-d9e
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
7 billion players with no fuckin rules… who came up this shitty ass game
@allycake8740
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
2:33 "today is not over"
aw man, 11.59pm just passed
@joshuamoser7603
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I couldn’t for the life of me remember his YouTube channels name after watching a lot of his videos. I finally found it again this time subscribing.
@akshitkaushik6308
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
optimism doesn't matter
-said a nihilist
@theguypat4337
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I'm to god damn tired of being depressed of being depressed to do stuff in this dogshit reality where some guy was like we gotta do stuff. Than that guy told another guy doing nothing to do stuff. Than they got a rally of more guys doing nothing to do stuff. A few guys didn't want to do stuff, so the guys doing stuff got mad and than fought. Some guys that didn't want to do stuff accepted todo stuff. The remaining of the guys that didn't want to do stuff went crazy and did stuff that the other guys didn't like. So, they fought again. EXISTENCE, I gotta do stuff to stay in-line. EXISTENCE
"the meaning of life is whatever that is preventing you from killing yourself" – Albert Camus
@leerowe8651
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Meaning is found in knowing that life is meaningless.
@iamhere5540
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
😊
@eibymev9012
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I liked how he didn’t answer the question of the title
@theotormon
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
The most upsetting thing about these questions is facing them alone. Very few people in real life want to have deep conversations it seems.
@mrewanmorrison
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
First of all I think your story videos are really great, very touching. As for this one and the others in the nihilism series ( trying to find meaning in an – apparently – meaningless world) this is a nice try – but this tendency to answer the problem of nihilism with things like "Life is absurd, but we can still enjoy it." and "The absence of meaning allows us to create our own" is a cliche that you fall back on, across more than a few of your otherwise excellent videos, and it doesn't hold up philosophically. Of course it originated with Nietzsche and Camus but no-one, including them, could really achieve this end of ushering meaning out of nothing. The expression survived and degenerated into platitudes over the years – usually backed up with footage of people mountain climbing or working out. But how can you create your own meaning or values? Can you give me an example that is bigger than merely liking something a lot? It's possible those who say "The absence of meaning allows us to create our own" have never truly experienced the life threatening depression that comes from the destruction of the ground you are standing – the horror that arises from grasping meaninglessness in it totality. Can you remake this set of videos of yours again with endings that actually offer something more than "Life is meaningless, make your own meaning". It's a shallow kind of cross over between the Ubermensch (returned from the dead) and pop-self-help. I think you're smarter than that and maybe you don't even buy this easy-formula yourself. Care to comment or make a video to address this question. If so that would be great.
@pointless6781
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
Every word, sentence we built and purpose we determine to taste our life is just literature, just using a pompous language. If there is no meaning, There is no valuable thing. Sometimes I determine purpose, big dreams for my life. But then I lose my excitement and am bored. I am nihilist but I am not upset. I lost my feelings , because they are meaningless as well. When I consider on something, it disappears and then I have to search again and again to do something in this life.
@legendaryzet8450
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I wish I found earlier. Now I already am on the positive side😄
@rezza6
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I see a few comments here saying along the lines of "No meaning to life is good..it's freeing etc etc"…"We get to make our own meaning".
Well I call B.S. Nobody likes the meaninglessness or wants it that way. All you're doing is dealing with it as best you can. Period.
@jesuschavez8417
February 6, 2026 at 9:21 am
I always appreciate the little things in life.
Comments are closed.