Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Things I do to be consistently happy

joel.is

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–117 of 117 posts

Re: Things I do to be consistently happy

#111

Post by zerostar07 »

adriand wrote: post #50

I find it somewhat interesting how often people profess that their key to happiness essentially boils down to living the sort of "good life" that in many ways is the Christian ideal, regardless of whether or not they are personally religious. Although there are habits and rituals that can lead to a more positive outlook, such as exercising regularly, there are deeper aspects to this way of life. This includes helping…

Consider that all the wonderful Christian ethics that you mention are a distillation of the ancient world's wisdom (all of theese guidelines had been stated by earlier philosophers). Where i see disagreement is in the notion that it all there has to be a reward (afterlife) and that there needs a deity to communicate them. I think it kind of turned the whole movement to utilitarianism.

Re: Things I do to be consistently happy

#112

Post by larrys »

megablast wrote: post #98
kami8845 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're overestimating your involvement in the naming of this blogpost.

Hey, whatever keeps this guy happy.

A few things.

My comment doesn't exclude what happened having other causes.

But more importantly you've hit upon an important point which is it's not what people think of you but what you think people think of you.

The guy driving down the street who thinks he's hot shit in the fancy car, well, assuming it makes him happy the important thing is more what he thinks of himself driving that car than what anonymous people on the street really think.

I know a person who would revel and think they were sooo great for doing the smallest things (say getting an extra discount at the store or finding a good seat at a concert). It pumped them up and made them feel good. They had no self doubt and high self esteem. They just thought they were so smart.

What's wrong with that? As you say "hey whatever keeps this guy happy".

Of course there are always those (the parent you responded to) that will rain on a parade.

Re: Things I do to be consistently happy

#113

Post by chucknelson »

csallen wrote: post #3

I'm curious how many programmers find themselves most productive at specific times of the day. Personally, I'm by far the most productive late at night, in 1am - 4am territory. The primary reason is that there are fewer distractions. The news cycle has slowed, my FB news feed is all but dead, I'm not receiving any emails/calls/chats, my roommates are asleep, and it's too late to accomplish chores like shopping or doi…

I've found that the time of day doesn't matter as much as the current state of the problem I'm trying to solve.

If I've hit a groove and a path forward is in my head, productivity is through the roof. Otherwise I'm in thinking/experimental mode, and productivity (seems) like it has reached 0. True, I'm still learning and iterating, but...you know the feeling.

Also, once you have a family and/or a "normal" job, it gets much harder to pick what times you are productive. 1am - 4am would be a touch choice in most jobs - have to be in at ~8am or so, right?

Re: Things I do to be consistently happy

#114

Post by inthewoods »

overboard wrote: post #46

I have two issues with this advice. One is, it's incredibly robotic. The same routine every day, the same times doing the same things, the same route every evening. Basically he is creating boredom. I have no trouble believing that it makes the st of his life more interesting. Would I want to follow that? Hardly. Responding to my environment, doing unexpected things, improvisation, these are things that make me happy…

I had the exact same thought - made me want to do a parody where I talk about getting up at 6am to contemplate the day, but all I end up doing is getting Apple Jacks for my three kids and snarf down coffee attempting to jack into the day.

Re: Things I do to be consistently happy

#116

Post by thanos2014 »

stavrianos wrote: post #12
exch wrote: post #5

At the risk of going completely off topic and being all philosophical: Can someone explain to me what 'being happy' means? I have consistently failed to answer anyone who asked me if I was happy or not. All I can say is that I am content or not. Which, for me, means that I am satisfied with the situation I am in. I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it and do not have to be bothered by things that do not int…

Happiness is a fairly broad category of mental states, which encompasses contentment. Happiness is linked to both a set of internal subjective feelings (impossible to describe, as there's no reference point. See also: the color red), and to a particular set of external behaviours which are consistent across the majority of humans (smiling, laughing, etc). If I wanted to communicate the internal subjective experience…

kala ta pes dike mou.

Re: Things I do to be consistently happy

#117

Post by johnchristopher »

adriand wrote: post #50

I find it somewhat interesting how often people profess that their key to happiness essentially boils down to living the sort of "good life" that in many ways is the Christian ideal, regardless of whether or not they are personally religious. Although there are habits and rituals that can lead to a more positive outlook, such as exercising regularly, there are deeper aspects to this way of life. This includes helping…

Another likely explanation is that wether we like it or not, wether we are believer or not, christian values and expectations still permeate society to the point that it still influences our behaviour and reasonning.
Post reply on HN