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Habits of Highly Miserable People

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Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#2
This reminds me of the great book "The Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious" [0] by the Austrian-American psychologist Paul Watzlawick. Excellent use of reverse psychology, let's you realize how many of those approaches you tend to use in your daily life.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Situation-Hopeless-Serious-Pursuit-Un...

Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#3
>Be afraid, be very afraid, of economic loss.

I've always made a mental connection between permabears/zerohedge readers as likely miserable and unhappy people. The wild conspiracy theories and general hatred of certain groups in comment sections doesn't help, but noticed online and in person that people who are always predicting/worrying about the next catastrophe (financial or otherwise) generally lead unhappy lives.

Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#4
> 12. Glorify or vilify the past.

Do not do this. Do not live in the past. Do not think about what might, what could, what should have happened. Learn from it and move onwards. Nothing good comes from constantly dwelling on things that can't be changed.

Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#5

This reminds me of the great book "The Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious" [0] by the Austrian-American psychologist Paul Watzlawick. Excellent use of reverse psychology, let's you realize how many of those approaches you tend to use in your daily life. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Situation-Hopeless-Serious-Pursuit-Un...

I liked How to Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use. Which also helped with showing underrated strategies for upping happiness.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Miserable-Strategies-Already/d...

Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#6
>Exercise: Sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and, for 15 minutes, meditate on all the things you could lose: your job, your house, your savings, and so forth. Then brood about living in a homeless shelter.

really roughly this is what stoics do, yet somehow they come to the conclusion "actually, what was i fearing? Proceed with adventure"...

Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#8
post #4

> 12. Glorify or vilify the past. Do not do this. Do not live in the past. Do not think about what might, what could, what should have happened. Learn from it and move onwards. Nothing good comes from constantly dwelling on things that can't be changed.

That's the whole point of the article... don't do any of these things!

Re: Habits of Highly Miserable People

#9
post #3

>Be afraid, be very afraid, of economic loss. I've always made a mental connection between permabears/zerohedge readers as likely miserable and unhappy people. The wild conspiracy theories and general hatred of certain groups in comment sections doesn't help, but noticed online and in person that people who are always predicting/worrying about the next catastrophe (financial or otherwise) generally lead unhappy lives…

Historically, the market has been great across the board for as long as most people have been alive (do you know anyone who was alive during the Great Depression and is alive today?). But doom-and-gloom negativity about the economy is a great marketing approach. It hits some button people have, gets them to buy gold or whatever other paranoid nonsense will save them from the Coming Economic Collapse.
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