A life spent searching for (or claiming to have found) some inherent or transcendent meaning is a waste of time. However, creating meaning isn’t. In addition, I would argue there are qualitative differences between the meanings we create. Regardless, meaning is a proximate problem, not an ultimate one. Philosophically it’s the view that meaning has an ultimate source (i.e., god or the laws of nature) and an absolute quality that I think causes all the cognitive dissonance. Meaning is a bottom up emergent property of our existence, not something imposed from on high. Regardless, if even one life form in the universe gives their life meaning, life has meaning — even if only just a little. I think nihilism in any form is therefore unsupportable.