[siavosh]

It’s interesting—playing devil’s advocate on the purse example, I’m not sure I’d actually call that meaningful. It’s certainly a kind and thoughtful gift, but meaningful?

What if meaning isn’t only about the relationship or the recipient’s satisfaction, but also about what the gift costs the giver in terms of personal value? In the yard-sale case, the purse may be rare to the mom, but it’s essentially cheap and disposable to the giver. Nothing important was surrendered.

By contrast, giving something you personally prize—or investing yourself in a way that reflects what you value—seems to carry a different kind of meaning. I’m not claiming effort alone creates meaning, but that the giver’s valuation of what’s given might be a missing dimension in this framework

[GMoromisato]

You're not wrong--there seems to be some connection between effort and meaning. But I don't think it's that simple. For example, imagine I go to Starbucks and buy my mom a branded mug. Meaningful? Probably not. Now imagine that I drive 8 hours across state lines to a Starbucks and buy my mom a branded mug. It's still not meaningful even though I made a huge effort.

The effort itself has the be meaningful! It can't be effort for effort's sake. The effort has to produce something that could not be obtained without effort. But that means it's not the effort that counts--it's getting something that could not be obtained otherwise.

[ares623]

I think the word you are looking for is "intent". Effort + intent = meaning.