"It's like the universe was trying to understand itself, but in that process couldn't figure out what the hell was going on and that is why we are here." Statements like that are why I love philosophy and talking to people about the deep questions of life. This conversation was full of insights and discussions like that. Nicole was super interesting too because her background gave her so many unique perspectives. She grew up in Sint Maarten being raised with two different religions in her household, then moved to the US to study electrical engineering and now works in technology; but at the same time has deep philosophical thoughts and questions about life. 

We started with her value of growth and well being, with Nicole believing the most important (if not the only thing) we can truly value is trying to grow, learn, and improve as people. That is what life is about, trying to live our best lives and make the most of our time here. In exploring and probing that concept we talked a lot about the meaning of life, if God exists, if the universe meaningless, if the world zero sum, and lots of other philosophical questions. Nicole had some really unique and insightful takes on all of it and she loved digging in and debating it too, which to me always makes for the most interesting conversations. 

We ended with me sharing more of my skeptical/pessimistic view of the world; that because there are no clear answers and everything is subjective, there is very little chance we can ever come together and make the world a better place. Nicole fortunately had a more optimistic view, that if we follow the approach of science and constantly strive to learn more and be better each day (even if in small, incremental ways), there is hope that we can achieve much less human suffering. I hope she is right, but as we illustrated in this conversation, we may never know.