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How to Be Happy

lesswrong.com

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101–110 of 222 posts

Re: How to Be Happy

#101

Post by angersock »

maaku wrote: post #49
id wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So annoying 3^^^3 people "for a fraction of a second, barely enough to make them notice" is worse than horribly torturing a single person for 50 years? Keep in mind that the 3^^^3 dust specks are spread across 3^^^3 people and their annoyance can't be simply added together.

> and their annoyance can't be simply added together Why not? EDIT: Serious question. If I save two lives that is twice as good as saving one, right? Why is this situation different?

To quote Heinlen: "Men are not potatoes."

Re: How to Be Happy

#102

Post by davidrusu »

jqm wrote: post #77

My dog is probably one of the happiest creatures I know. But he can't get his own dinner and I have to take him out to poop. If everyone was happy all the time we would probably still live in caves because there wouldn't have been the struggle that brings us to where we are. This in my opinion may be why religion correlates with happiness. For the very same reason lobotomized people might be happy. Do you want to be…

Cynicism is not the driving force of innovation, optimism is.

It is possible to be happy and rational.

Re: How to Be Happy

#103

Post by onetimeusename »

davidtanner wrote: post #40

I was a lot happier when I stopped reading LessWrong. I'm not even trying to be (overly) snarky - I really did used to read LW and I'm very glad I stopped as it was one of the many small things dragging down my well being.

Would you care to elaborate on this? I have my own criticisms of LW and without mentioning what they are, I want to see if other people's match up with mine.

Re: How to Be Happy

#104

Post by eludwig »

awakened wrote: post #73

"The only correct view is the absence of all views." - thich nhat hanh We are unhappy when we assign reasons to people's actions or words. When we think that others say or do things because they are "out to get me". That is a view and that is an incorrect view that will lead to all sorts of unhappiness and discontent in your life. Get rid of all of your views. Some things just happen. There is no grand plan. "Do you…

>>"The only correct view is the absence of all views." - thich nhat hanh

That is a pretty strong view! ;D

>>live only in the present and you'll forever be happy

Live only in the present and you will be happy, sad, angry, in love, sleepy, hungry etc, etc. Happiness is just a thing that happens, like all things. All things happen in the present. Can you experience a "past event" in the present?

Re: How to Be Happy

#105

Post by nerfhammer »

NoahTheDuke wrote: post #84

I actually found the Be Happier [0] article to be a better source of actionable and researched-backed advice. I put a bunch of the In A Nutshell sentences into my general Anki [1] deck, and it's had a measurable effect on my overall happiness. [0]: http://lesswrong.com/lw/bq0/be_happier/ [1]: http://ankisrs.net/

Re: the anki deck, what you do put on the front of the card vs. the back of the card?

Re: How to Be Happy

#106

Post by walterbell »

maaku wrote: post #55
id wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier for two people to cope with one bad experience each than for one guy to cope with two bad experiences.

Assumed independence. You are talking about a strictly different setup. Assume that these individuals don't know each other.

Talk to an urban planner or someone working in disaster relief.

Empathic "strangers" help others, in many contexts, often at personal risk.

That's what separates humans from singularitarian quantum computing devices.

Re: How to Be Happy

#107

Post by 3pt14159 »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #46

I've read many articles and books on this subject and not a single one of them had any effect on my life. It's usually just a list of things that - according to the author (and every author of course has different opinion) - will make you happy. It's bullshit, there is no "golden solution" for everyone. Reading such articles will make you even more unhappy, because now you've the whole list of things and you feel lik…

I'm not saying that the author is right or wrong, but your anecdotal evidence doesn't prove that reading about how to be happy will make you unhappy.

Science has consistently shown that good health and relationships correlate to happiness. It has even been shown that there is a causal effect (ie, if you start exercising you start feeling better).

Someone unaware of that fact may read a post like this and decide to exercise for 30 mins everyday.

Re: How to Be Happy

#108

Post by pkorzeniewski »

jasode wrote: post #93
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #46

I've read many articles and books on this subject and not a single one of them had any effect on my life. It's usually just a list of things that - according to the author (and every author of course has different opinion) - will make you happy. It's bullshit, there is no "golden solution" for everyone. Reading such articles will make you even more unhappy, because now you've the whole list of things and you feel lik…

Maybe the closest writing to fit your view is Daniel Gilbert[1]. Basically, humans have a biological "set point" for happiness and it's different for everyone. It is not affected by winning the lottery, or getting paralyzed from a car accident, or doing meta-analysis on what happiness is (such as reading self-help books about achieving happiness.) Those events may affect happiness in the short term but not in the lon…

I agree you can do things that affect your relative happiness, but the key here is that it's YOU who must know what the things are - everyone have different needs and you can't fit all in one model. Some prefer to have interesting, but lower paying job, some doesn't care as long as it pays for their hobbies - and both can be happy, but switch their lives and both will be miserable. So if one would give advice to the other on how to be happy, it wouldn't help a bit, because they've different perspective on life.

Re: How to Be Happy

#109

Post by davidrusu »

consz wrote: post #92
woodchuck64 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an argument to be made why artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence is not a problem for the human race?

null hypothesis.

We all ready have a well defined rigorous AGI[0] that would have god like intelligence. There are some approximations that played pacman [1] without knowing anything specific about pacman itself. i.e. it learned how to play by itself.

[0] http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/AIXI [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsMHtmGDKE

Re: How to Be Happy

#110

Post by n09n »

rquantz wrote: post #82
mansr wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also, as the author mentions, a correlation between religiosity and happiness. Still, "start going to church" is not on the list of things to do. I'll hazard a guess that the author is not religious and thus doesn't consider it relevant. While I don't personally believe this a worthy pursuit, it does show the arbitrariness of the selection. EDIT: Point 8 does touch on religion but does not (directly) endorse…

This is on Less Wrong, a website devoted to rationality. You'll notice several times in the article he is clearly addressing a rationality-focused audience. For instance: Without a magical deity to give you purpose, though, you'll have to find out for yourself what drives you. He's writing for atheists. Telling an atheist "in order to be happy you need to get religion" is like telling a recovering alcoholic "in order…

Or like telling a diabetic he needs an insulin pump.
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