Real happiness is realizing that having fun is the only thing that will keep you going in life.
Pursuing status will never bring true happiness
161–164 of 164 posts
Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness
#162I think rejecting status wholesale is also a huge mistake. Here’s the harsh reality. Many people judge and make decisions based on status. You can purport be above it and bootstrap and work as hard as you want but that one guy with status will get the raise he needed and now you don’t have. You can then try to lie to yourself that that is just superficial status. But it’s not. That guy can now use those resources to…
I've had high status and low status experiences. In my 30's I was worth a couple million as a software developer. In my 50's I was broke, homeless and rejected by everyone. I'd say there are pros and cons of both experiences, but I don't think it's worth going into them because I think both experiences are different for everyone. Now that I'm recovered, I should mention status seeking is also a well known problem in…
Come on there are very few pros to being broke and homeless.
Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness
#163> when our status is challenged, our body reacts like it's in physical danger While it's not 100% certain, the fact that there appears to be a biological adaptation that makes us seek status and avoid losing status strongly suggests that the author is underestimating the importance of status in human society. For example: "we find that status is significantly associated with men’s reproductive success, consistent wit…
That adaptation may not be appropriate for the modern environment. When exposed to modern/ internet-scale communities, it could be that there are so many false-positive threats to one’s status that the advice to (generally) not worry too much about it is good advice. Our innate desire for sweets comes to mind.
Sure, key word being may.
However, the author just assumes that is maladaptive, and that's a big and largely unwarranted assumption to make, particularly considering the presence of a biological adaptation. (I also didn't see internet communities as the main focus of the article, it seemed about status in general and in all contexts)
Also, just because something is maladaptive in some ways or some parts of the environment does not mean it is maladaptive overall. Nature makes compromises in her creature all the time, she has to! For an extreme example, look up female Hyenas...
https://africageographic.com/stories/good-bad-gory-birth-hye...
Re: Pursuing status will never bring true happiness
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