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What Is a Minimally Good Life?

psyche.co

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Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#81

Post by rayiner »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #33

What is needed minimally? - a loved and loving partner, a sane and fulfilling sexuality - enough income to not have any substantial worries about the future - absence of other justifiable existential worries and anxiety about the future such as cataclysms, threats, oppressive social, political and work environments, political instability, etc. - a decent amount of recognition in work or private life (one of them suff…

Using the definition of “minimal” you seem to be applying, I’d add children and family, and some sort of communal religion. Tons of people all over the world in places like Bangladesh who have few of the things on your list, but derive happiness and satisfaction from their family and their faith.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#84

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

globular-toast wrote: post #74
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These instincts do rule us, unfortunately. Although many like to think otherwise. Let me see if I have this straight: selection processes have favored those with the ability to provide for their offspring because it ensures the survival of their lineage. Consequently women tend to consider competitive men who have high wealth and status more attractive, therefore it is the fault of women that men are so competitive…

> fault This is where you begin to introduce your own ideas rather than talk about mine. I didn't use that word and certainly didn't imply that anybody is at fault here. Sometimes things are just true. It doesn't mean anybody is to blame or that anybody is "better" than anybody else.

> the people with the power to change the never-ending hamster wheel situation are primarly women

Why have they singled out women here if not to place blame? Women are a product of selection pressures just as much as men are. Moreover, it isn't like women are not on the same hamster wheel as everyone else.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#85

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

zozbot234 wrote: post #49
crumbshot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds suspiciously like incel ideology. Whatever cognitive path you're on that's led you to conclude this, I advise you to swiftly veer away from it. Blaming all the women isn't going to help with anything. People will just think, oh there's that weird sexist guy ranting on again. That's not going to get you anywhere useful.

It's just as common to blame "all the men" for women's never-ending insecurity about their own attractiveness. I'm not sure what incel ideology has to do with either.

Even if some women blame "all the men" for their problems, that doesn't mean that blaming all women for something in turn is any more justifiable.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#86

Post by smoyer »

I ate at the restaurant shown in the lead photo while in Trinidad Cuba in January 2020. It's amazing how long ago that seems now. Trinidad had an amazing ecosystem of shops that catered to the tourist industry and the proprietors of these shops could make a good living outside the government's more socialist system. One shop with amazing hand-made crocheted garments had four generations of the family creating goods. Talking with them reminded me of value of extended family which we've (at least to some degree) lost in the U.S. simply because of our ability to move long distances easily.

I learned a lot of lessons (even entrepreneurial lessons) while in Cuba and hope to publish a series of blog posts on them when the day job becomes less frenzied.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#87

Post by growlist »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #67
globular-toast wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do men who have a partner already feel obliged to continue capturing more and more resources? Two reasons. First, women are hypergamous and will always be looking for the best mate possible. When men become complacent, they lose their women. The battle isn't over when the first mate is attracted, it has only just begun. Second, men are polygamous. Men still want to be attractive to other women as well as their…

> These instincts do rule us, unfortunately. Although many like to think otherwise. Let me see if I have this straight: selection processes have favored those with the ability to provide for their offspring because it ensures the survival of their lineage. Consequently women tend to consider competitive men who have high wealth and status more attractive, therefore it is the fault of women that men are so competitive…

If men choose not to be competitive and women don't change, those men just exclude their genes from the gene pool.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#89

Post by ckosidows »

joelbluminator wrote: post #11
devguy01 wrote: post #5

I often contemplate what it is that leads to a "good life". I am very fortunate in so many ways, yet I allow myself to feel envy, call circumstances unfair because I didn't get what I want, or forget to be grateful. I see my kids growing up not knowing what struggling really feels like and realize that I don't have a true perspective of being without. I'm not saying that I would rather experience the feeling of hunge…

I've read several articles / books on this topic lately. In short: it's not only you that's contemplating on the "good life", plenty is being researched and written about. Our genes make it hard for us to be consistently content and happy. It seems like evolution may have given the slightly paranoid / always needing more genes an advantage for obvious reasons. One research even showed lottery prize winners aren't any…

I've read a lot about community, or the sense of being part of a community, as being the most important factor in human happiness. Winning the lottery doesn't automatically put you into any community and I would argue it actually has the potential of separating you from a lot of your current peers.

The book has some pretty controversial opinions, but _Sex at Dawn_ has a lot of good insight about how important community and sharing are to a social species such as humans and how we might have lost that strong sense of community with the advent of agriculture and consequent abundance.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#90

Post by growlist »

crumbshot wrote: post #20
growlist wrote: post #2

I know that personally I really don't need much for my own happiness - the basics of survival, a very modest house, and being away from people and in nature would do it for me. The problem comes when these simple things are denied to me, and I am put in a society in which one is treated badly when one doesn't strive to keep up with the Joneses. Controversial opinion: the people with the power to change the never-endi…

This sounds suspiciously like incel ideology. Whatever cognitive path you're on that's led you to conclude this, I advise you to swiftly veer away from it. Blaming all the women isn't going to help with anything. People will just think, oh there's that weird sexist guy ranting on again. That's not going to get you anywhere useful.

You're completely mistaking me. Of course it's a symbiotic relationship. But if men choose not to be competitive, those men will just exclude themselves from procreation. The power is in women's hands to change it by being less avaricious. For example plenty of women have been conned by De Beers into thinking they need a diamond engagement ring worth x times monthly salary, else the prospective spouse isn't worth it. And plenty of them couldn't care less about the horrible circumstances behind their diamond. Let's not put either sex on a pedestal here.

Oh and thanks for your concern, but I'm doing just fine with my current cognitive path thanks. Mortgage, marriage, kids etc. all in hand.

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