“Our mutual value is for us the value of our mutual objects. Hence for us man himself is mutually of no value… In my production I would have objectified my individuality, its specific character, and therefore enjoyed not only an individual manifestation of my life during the activity, but also when looking at the object I would have the individual pleasure of knowing my personality to be objective, visible to the senses and hence a power beyond all doubt.”
(“Comments on James Mill” by Karl Marx, 1844)

Travis Bickle is an unfulfilled and lonely taxi driver. His job is valuable to society, but he lacks everything else that makes a life worth living…I have an unfinished post from January 2022 that talked about how most people today live a useless or purposeless life. What do the words “useful”, “purpose”, “fulfillment”, blah-blah-blah mean? With pseudo math, I will attempt to quantify “usefulness” and “purpose”. I don’t know how to actually do that, so I will leave it to the reader to fill and correct the gaps and mistakes in the attempt. Fulfillment = usefulness + purpose.

Usefulness

This is the least abstract concept of the fulfillment measurement variables. Someone’s usefulness to society can be defined by how much value they add to the economy (e.g., fraction of GDP), or how valuable their job is (replacability), or less so how much money they make from their career/job.

Purpose

Break down the purpose score into purpose objects that a person can have multiple of. A purpose object is something that a person feels is an extension of themselves, their personality, etc. Purpose objects include things like hobbies, interpersonal relationships, whatever else someone may think is tugging them deep inside the cockles of their heart. The value of a purpose object in one’s life depends on factors such as how much the person values the purpose object, how many times the purpose object is referenced by other people, and bonus points (more weight) to a purpose object if it is tied to the person’s career.

A Rough Formula

Usefulness = (Economic Value) / UsefulnessMax

Purpose = SumPurposeObjects[(ValueOfPurposeObject, References, CareerWeight)] / PurposeMax

Fulfillment = (Usefulness + Purpose) / (UsefulnessMax + PurposeMax)

You score between 0 and 1.

Levels of Fulfillment (w/ examples)

Maxed out - Taylor Swift; high economic value, purpObj (music) tied directly to career, purpObj referenced by hundreds of millions of people (listeners), other purpObjs like romantic relationships not hard to get

Very good - doctor who did 10 years of med school (purpObj linked to career), construction worker (high usefulness) who has a loving family to come home to

Danger zone but still good - minimum wage worker who has various hobbies/purpObjs (too complacenet can lead to “Sad”)

Sad - Travis Bickle; taxi job = ok value to society, no purpose objects to make up for

Too busy dying or can’t think about fulfillment - Either a good place to be in or bad; you can can’t meet all your needs/your needs are all dependent on others

Final Thoughts

We are all doing things to be loved a little more or to express love a little more. These can be from or through our purpose objects. If you’re above “too busy dying”, then you probably have a chance at living a fulfilling life.