alt Hacker News> Getting caught up in wording styles that other's don't have any trouble with, is not what I would call a skill.
My opinion is that telling people "your goal in life should be..." is an aggressive form of advice-giving. I believe that the plain text wording of the statement speaks for itself. You're free to disagree.
I don't know why you feel the need to try to put me down for my opinion and go so far as to speak for everyone else by suggesting this is a "wording style that other's [sic] don't have any trouble with." How do you know what everyone else who reads this thinks?
I do find your approach to this conversation ironic given your repeated comments about the value of engaging with differing viewpoints.
> I don't know why you feel the need to try to put me down for my opinion
I have not criticized any of your substantive views.
Only your unfair and unreasoned criticism of the essay writer's motives. Apparently due to unfamiliarity with normal language use.
They were not trying to dictate anything.
I also made the positive (non-critiquing) point that viewpoints are valuable, even when they don't match our situations at any given moment. They are rarely "right" or "wrong", in the way facts are.
A great deal of wisdom is accumulating many views that let us "see" different things in different ways.