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A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

jtaby.com

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Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#61

Post by hartzler »

splat wrote: post #43
PabloOsinaga wrote: post #26

I want to share something that really impacted me in a big way, related to this notions being discussed here. It was something I saw in a museum in New York state, about 1 hour north of New York City - I cant remember the name of the museum or the artist or the piece. It was, literally, a matrix, where every point was a day in your life. The shocking thing about it was that you could see it in its entirety pretty wel…

That sounds similar to this Abstruse Goose cartoon: http://abstrusegoose.com/51

After I saw that comic I made: http://936months.appspot.com

Really is amazing to see your life in dots.

Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#62

Post by phreanix »

MetaMan wrote: post #57
phreanix wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually free in the itunes bookstore.

can you provide a link. I found 2 books with the same title and neither is free. Thanks

Apparently the free one is the one for Entrepreneur/Small Biz Owner edition.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/think-and-grow-rich/id412247...

Same author tho.

Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#63

Post by yelsgib »

jtaby wrote: post #59
yelsgib wrote: post #50

I guess this comment is going to be pretty unpopular, given the comments that most have left before it, but I find this post creepy in the extreme. For one thing, it's naive. Any attempt to assert that "X is entirely my fault" is naive. How can you eliminate the impact of your circumstances? For instance, you're here in 2012, working in San Francisco - one of the most exciting times/places ever. For another, it's hap…

Thanks a lot for your comment, disagreement males you question your assumptions and strengthens your understanding of the issue. Is there a body of research that supports your counter-claims? I'd love to read anything you can point me to.

WTF are you talking about? A body of research? Are you out of your mind? This response actually sounds like a form response for when anyone disagrees with you.

To answer your question by deconstructing it: which one of my claims could possibly be supported by empirical research? The fact that I like gloom, nostalgia, and complex forms of pleasure? Or perhaps the idea that it's extremely hard to disambiguate the contribution of your circumstances to your happiness from your own contribution? Or maybe my own personal observations regarding the bay area?

Seriously, what type of research are you looking for?

"Scientists find that yelsgib likes gloomy feelings."

"Sociologists determine that the bay area concentrates on positive feelings to the exclusion of negative ones."

"Cosmologists determine that we are a very small part of the universe."

Are you actually this obtuse? My good god. I seriously cannot believe your response. It seriously blows my mind. I don't even know why I'm responding. It bothers me that I'm even responding. Are you trolling me?

The first line of your response is that "disagreement males (sic) you question your assumptions and strengthens your understanding of the issue." What assumptions did I make you question? How was your understanding of "the issue" strengthened by my response? Did you say these things because you meant them? Or do you just say whatever pops into your head without regard to whether it makes sense or you actually believe it? Did you even read what I wrote?

Holy christ on a cracker.

Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#64

Post by cookingrobot »

I like the sentiment and intention of this post, but I don't agree with it. Good for you for trying to look at the bigger patterns in your life and really be deliberate about approaching things the right way.

But I don't believe the answer is to disconnect the inner and outer world and be happy no matter what. The whole point of living is to be a part of things. The right approach is to improve or change your environment until you can live well inside it.

Since we're quoting books, I recently found a passage that says this well. From The Timeless Way of Building by Alexander:

This state cannot be reached merely by inner work.

There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need do only inner work, in order to be alive like this; that a man is entirely responsible for his own problems; and that to cure himself, he need only change himself. This teaching has some value, since it is so easy for a man to imagine that his problems are caused by "others". But it is a one-sided and mistaken view which also maintains the arrogance of the belief that the individual is self-sufficient, and not dependent in any essential way on his surroundings. The fact is, a person is so far formed by his surroundings, that his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings.

Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#66

Post by gradschool »

econnors wrote: post #53
ChuckMcM wrote: post #15

This is something I tried very hard to teach my kids, basically that everyone gets to choose how they are going to feel about something, and understanding what set of conditions lead up to the choice you made can help you understand yourself and the world around you. The typical kid complaint is that someone 'makes fun' of something that they are passionate about and that makes them feel 'bad' (ashamed, angry, annoye…

Ronald Reagan made similar remarks in the hospital after he was shot. It's always impressed me how he could retain control of his emotions at such a horrible time: "...when his wife arrived in the emergency room, Reagan remarked to her, 'Honey, I forgot to duck'... While intubated, he scribbled to a nurse, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_assassination_attempt

and according to a news article I read at the time, when speaking to the doctors who were to operate on him, he said, "I hope you guys are Republicans".

Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#68

Post by gjm11 »

gradschool wrote: post #66
econnors wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ronald Reagan made similar remarks in the hospital after he was shot. It's always impressed me how he could retain control of his emotions at such a horrible time: "...when his wife arrived in the emergency room, Reagan remarked to her, 'Honey, I forgot to duck'... While intubated, he scribbled to a nurse, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_assassination_attempt

and according to a news article I read at the time, when speaking to the doctors who were to operate on him, he said, "I hope you guys are Republicans".

While we're trading kinda-irrelevant things about the Reagan shooting ...

The secret service agent who took care of Reagan immediately after he was shot and probably saved his life was a chap called Jerry Parr. Parr was originally inspired to pursue a career in the secret service by watching a film called "The Code of the Secret Service". The secret agent who's the protagonist of that film was played by ... Ronald Reagan.

Re: A Moment of Clarity in the Pursuit of Happiness

#70

Post by danparsonson »

cookingrobot wrote: post #64

I like the sentiment and intention of this post, but I don't agree with it. Good for you for trying to look at the bigger patterns in your life and really be deliberate about approaching things the right way. But I don't believe the answer is to disconnect the inner and outer world and be happy no matter what. The whole point of living is to be a part of things. The right approach is to improve or change your environ…

>...his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings

That's how I read the parent article though - not that you should float around in a happy bubble, oblivious to the outer world, but rather that you should 'greet each new day with a smile'; that is, good and bad stuff will happen regardless of what you do, but your reaction to it is what determines how you feel about it. This is not to say that the individual is completely self-sufficient, but rather that one can strive to maintain ones mental balance regardless of what's going on.

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