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Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

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Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#151

Post by supernovae »

zcw100 wrote: post #58

Every time I read something like this I always think they have the causality backward which I think that anyone who has ever suffered from depression can attest to. The food doesn't make you happy, you're predisposed to finding happiness. You wouldn't say that bad food makes you unhappy would you? Disappointed maybe but under normal circumstances it wouldn't cause unhappiness. If you were depressed it might, and you…

I find this interesting because there really is no opposite of depression besides not being depressed.

I've experienced death of loved ones, loss of job, homelessness, mountains of debt, abuse and I've experienced a huge range of emotions through all of that - yet, I've never attributed it to depression.

Most people I know who express they suffer from depression actually suffer from anger.. (and for valid reasons)

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#152

Post by mahogany »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #147
mahogany wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The J-shaped curves that you mention might be due to flaws in study design. In particular, the category of alcohol-abstainers includes people who are abstaining for health-related reasons (for example, former heavy drinkers!), so you would expect this to inflate the rate of negative impacts for abstainers. When these biases are controlled for, the benefits of alcohol consumption -- in any quantity -- largely disappea…

Yeah, the 'sick quitter' problem is pretty tricky, but even if you look at studies that only consider cancer rates, yes, the rates rise with consumption, but things really only explode exponentially past a certain point that is way higher than anyone should be drinking. Personally, I typically limit myself to a 6 pack a week. I think even a 12 pack a week wouldn't do much harm, and if we're talking about happiness, h…

> and if we're talking about happiness, having a beer with friends certainly does add to that. I am perfectly willing to accept a small increased risk for that.

That I can definitely agree with. Over-optimizing your every action solely to lower your mortality chance by tiny fractions is no way to go through life.

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#153

Post by zephyr9 »

watwut wrote: post #119
zephyr9 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually a myth that agrarian lifestyle was all that difficult. We have the enduring image of the farmer up at dawn, but the reality was that people completed the day's work in a few hours and didn't do much for the rest of the day. Capitalism has changed that a bit now though. That 30-40 year lifespan is also a myth. High mortality brings down the average, but people's lifespan has been around 70 throughout his…

> the reality was that people completed the day's work in a few hours and didn't do much for the rest of the day. That is not plausible. And that is not what you find where we have written texts about farmers lifestyles. And, if you look in very recent history about lifestyles in behind-the-times villages, you don't find that much slack either. Also, pretty much all arguments about how little farmers worked I have se…

>> That 30-40 year lifespan is also a myth. High mortality brings down the average, but people's lifespan has been around 70 throughout history.

> Yeah, mortality tends to bring down the lifespan average. I don't see how you can meaningfully measure lifespan while removing people who died from the pool. Women dying in childbirths, which was not exceptional at all, should lower the estimated lifespan. People dying from accidents that could be saved today too.

Whoops, should be *child mortality. So yeah a lot of kids used to die, but we can't really blame them now can we. The way I've seen it measured is as life expectancy after a certain age, e.g. in preindustrial eras, once a person reached 30 they could expect to live to at least 60.

As for people measuring psychological stressors, yeah that's really only since the inception of the profession. Not too many 12th century psych majors...

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#154

Post by sankumsek »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #108
vgchh wrote: post #89

Few changes that have helped me greatly towards a happier life are: 1. Cutting out alcohol 2. 15 minute meditation before sleeping 3. Regular exercise - e.g from YouTube 4. Eating less…sort of intermittent fasting 5. Reminding myself to do actions/thoughts that my soul would approve of. Others can do what their soul approves of or not. This has been especially useful. For example I am no longer hurt if someone is bei…

I mean this list seems obvious but its incredible how few people do it. Intermittent fasting is the only way I have been able to control my weight as an adult. Exercising makes you feel better and live longer. Alcohol is a poison that offers short term fun for long term sadness and pain. Sleep makes an immediately and daily impact on your life. Meditation (I don't do it anymore) is like cleaning for your brain and sh…

Could I ask why you don't do meditation anymore?

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#155

Post by watwut »

zephyr9 wrote: post #153
watwut wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the reality was that people completed the day's work in a few hours and didn't do much for the rest of the day. That is not plausible. And that is not what you find where we have written texts about farmers lifestyles. And, if you look in very recent history about lifestyles in behind-the-times villages, you don't find that much slack either. Also, pretty much all arguments about how little farmers worked I have se…

>> That 30-40 year lifespan is also a myth. High mortality brings down the average, but people's lifespan has been around 70 throughout history. > Yeah, mortality tends to bring down the lifespan average. I don't see how you can meaningfully measure lifespan while removing people who died from the pool. Women dying in childbirths, which was not exceptional at all, should lower the estimated lifespan. People dying fro…

> once a person reached 30 they could expect to live to at least 60

First not true. Looking at wikipedia, "If we do not take into account child mortality in total mortality, then the average life expectancy in the 12–19 centuries was approximately 55 years. If a medieval person was able to survive childhood, then they had about a 50% chance of living up to 50–55 years."

Also, 30 is quite a lot. It means, you survived childbirth if you are woman. First one is the most dangerous. It means, you did not got injured in accident with animal or tool in your teens and twenties - when you are at your physical prime and do heavy work the most.

> As for people measuring psychological stressors

I think that child mortality is yet another stressors they faced. But also, if your relative is bipolar or has schizophrenia and whole family lives in one room cabin, I can only imagine things to become super stressful for everyone.

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#156

Post by pdimitar »

groby_b wrote: post #133
pdimitar wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cherry picking makes no argument any favours. :P I agree on WW2, sure, but after WW2? I've spoken with 30+ elders and they all unanimously agree that life in general was much, much better than today. Mostly in terms of upwards social mobility. An insane amount of very regular bank tellers could afford house, two apartments and 2-3 cars. And to put 3 kids in an university. Nowadays that's a very questionable endeavour…

I'd strongly suggest looking for supporting data. If you talk to people, you will inevitably hear that "the good old times" were better than what we have. In the 1950s, the average house was still ~3 years of average income. Cars were about 9 months of income. So the "regular bank teller" with a house, 2 apartments, and 3 cars... there's something missing in the story. Let's not even get into the fact that life was s…

> In the 1950s, the average house was still ~3 years of average income.

Today you'd be lucky if that's 10 years; most likely very well paid too. For most people with well-paid jobs it's 15, and for everybody else it's a lifetime endeavour (20-30).

Not sure how you're contradicting me exactly with this.

I guess we are both showing bias and filter bubble effects. I live in a poor country and even if I am not poor myself, how almost everybody around me lives is sadly too visible.

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#157

Post by pdimitar »

volkk wrote: post #143
vlunkr wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this attitude, which is becoming increasingly prevalent on the internet, is probably causing tons of unnecessary unhappiness. How many periods in history have there been where the average person was comfortable taking a pay cut? Even if there was such a period, it would have been true only for a privileged subset of the population.

also hindsight is always 20/20, but if you don't seek to be happier now and this looming economic depression that might happen doesn't happen for another 10-15 years, then you've just spent that much time being unhappy. but on the other hand, if you quit your job now and it happens a month from now then you'd be kicking yourself hard. so the only solution is to just make a damn decision, and have a plan for either sc…

You all somehow always make happiness about "just be happy, man". No offense to you or the other commenters, I simply can't take people like that seriously, hard as I try.

If the advice is more nuanced and has more details, then I absolutely can respect it and engage with it in an interesting discussion. But when it's framed as "live in the moment" then I can only roll my eyes.

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#158

Post by pdimitar »

lexapro wrote: post #141
pdimitar wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That skips way too many details. I am 41 and I was never able to save a money. Partially because I was stupid, absolutely, but I also came to realize how much we are sheep-herded into consumerism. And many times we don't have a choice. People's fridges, ovens, air conditioners, dish washers, vacuum cleaners, smartphones etc., nowadays seem to start breaking like clockwork literal weeks to months after the warranty ex…

Many programmers can save >50% of their net income. I realize that this is not possible in every part of the world or in every situation, but if anyone is stable financially, it's probably us.

Most, yes. I wasn't able to. With any luck, I'll be able to start saving in a few months, after I hit 42.

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#159

Post by pdimitar »

sg47 wrote: post #146
TimPC wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financially sure we face more pressure. But let’s be honest that modern society is practically a utopia compared to being drafted into WW2 and facing carnage and death.

With WW2, people had a clear goal to look forward to. Ending the war. Today, people are drifting aimlessly and just go through life which causes more dissatisfaction than being in the middle of a war.

A ton of people today would work towards very noble goals, if they weren't stuck on a survival hamster wheel.

Lack of clear goal? Talk for yourself.

Re: Steps Towards Happiness (2015)

#160

Post by volkk »

pdimitar wrote: post #157
volkk wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also hindsight is always 20/20, but if you don't seek to be happier now and this looming economic depression that might happen doesn't happen for another 10-15 years, then you've just spent that much time being unhappy. but on the other hand, if you quit your job now and it happens a month from now then you'd be kicking yourself hard. so the only solution is to just make a damn decision, and have a plan for either sc…

You all somehow always make happiness about "just be happy, man". No offense to you or the other commenters, I simply can't take people like that seriously, hard as I try. If the advice is more nuanced and has more details, then I absolutely can respect it and engage with it in an interesting discussion. But when it's framed as "live in the moment" then I can only roll my eyes.

i don't think i wrote anywhere "just go be happy?" are you responding to the right person?

i was just surmising based on extremely limited information that OP would be much less miserable if they weren't at their job, and then provided a scenario where if they try to time the market they might spend years more being miserable vs doing something sooner and dealing with the hopefully planned for consequences if the market were to crash. that's about it.

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