i wanna live an npc life – signalundefied

01 Sep, 2026

the general consensus around being an npc is that you’re giving up your autonomy—essentially becoming a side character in someone else’s story or watching life pass you by while doomscrolling on your phone.

but here’s my take: the npc lifestyle is actually a very viable way to live.

as an npc, you aren’t actually watching other people’s lives. even in a game, if you’re an npc, you are doing your own thing regardless of how anyone else behaves in the world. you are entirely unfazed by everything happening around you. it might sound a bit extreme, but at some level, it’s the ultimate “i don’t give a fuck” state of mind.

take an npc blacksmith in skyrim, for example. do they care whether or not you slay dragons? no. do they care if you come in and steal all their shit because you pickpocketed them? no way. what do they do? they just keep living their life as a blacksmith—and they’re good at it to whatever level they’re supposed to be, whether they’re a master craftsman or the shitty apprentice in the starting town. they do their thing regardless of what you do in the world.

maybe the secret to living—or maybe this is just a retelling of stoicism and endless levels of historical philosophy—is that the goal is to just do your own thing.

be an npc. drive a boring car—who gives a fuck? have a boring job. do nothing after work. why do you have to do something after work? do something because you feel like doing it, not because you feel like you have to.

when you stop caring about being the main character, you finally get to just live your life.

#long