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Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#221

Post by otowzh »

srvmshr wrote: post #111
hbarka wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love to hear more. This sounds good to me. How did you end up in Japan?

> How did you end up in Japan? Quite simple. US became a nightmare towards the end. As an immigrant grad student without much means, I couldn't support myself long. After my advisor cut off funding, I tried finding a job. I didn't have money to pay the bills soon after & US job process was getting long & convoluted with internal referrals, pointless rounds of interviews, HR meetings. I needed money to feed myself - I…

I'm reading your post with tears. I'm deeply touched by your last paragraph, actually I could feel your words. I'm an international student studying for a graduate CS degree in the bay area. The covid pandemic has made it really difficult financially for my family recently. Skipping meals has been my daily routine. I'm 6 feet but weigh around 130 pounds. Despite all these, I really enjoy coding. Like one of the other comment mentioned, I feel like being in the zone when I'm coding. Reading your post tells me I'm not alone. I wish I could go to Japan one day to meet you.

Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#222

Post by deltaonefour »

getoj wrote: post #218
deltaonefour wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably is pushy. Don't worry about it. You can just not answer. Up to you. Either way, Thanks for the answer but your words would not convince me to have a kid if the result of everything you said meant that I would be significantly unhappier. This is really what I'm driving at: What is it can you actually say to convince someone who's not a parent to become one despite the fact that it will make you significantly…

>If you erased your memory of being a parent with time travel, you actually CAN not be a parent. We're talking about memory erasure plus accurate knowledge of the future. The combination is different from memory erasure by itself. Not knowing what parenthood is like, I would choose to become a parent - I know this because that's what actually happened. Accurate knowledge of the future would not change that decision,…

Your metaphor has not convinced me because I would choose no. I'd rather be happy then smart. But I get what your saying.

But here's the thing. I cannot be happy knowing that I made that choice. I have to be completely unaware that I chose to be stupid. Total ignorance is bliss.

Anyway. What you chose not to type out is literally what I'm trying to understand. It's fine though, I think it's likely hard for you to pinpoint what it is in words. We can leave it at that unless you think up another way to say it. Thank you again for the metaphor.

Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#223

Post by haihaibye »

deltaonefour wrote: post #209
haihaibye wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are multiple types of happiness, eg present short term mood vs overall life satisfaction. In your study parentd give a lower 1-10 ranking when asked how they feel in a particular moment, on random timers. When cleaning up shit of someone you love, sure it sucks at that particular moment but your life's full of meaning.

The parents were asked about long term overall life satisfaction of course. This is obvious. Humans can rate their overall happiness even when their current situation is temporarily not that great.

> parents were asked about long term overall life satisfaction of course

Not in most of the studies I've seen. Here's one that does:

https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/10.1080/17439760.2013.830764

> for parents, the more time they spent taking care of children, the more meaningful their lives were. (Time spent taking care of children had no relation to happiness and if anything trended toward reducing happiness.)

> These findings illuminate the so-called ‘parenthood paradox,’ which is that most people want to be happy and want to become parents, but those two goals are in conflict insofar as becoming a parent often reduces happiness (e.g. Twenge, Campbell, & Foster, 2003; cf. Nelson et al., in press). Baumeister (1991) proposed that the parenthood paradox can be resolved by proposing that people seek not just happiness but also meaning, and so, they become parents because the gains in meaningfulness offset any losses in happiness. The present findings are consistent with that conclusion

Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#224

Post by Inu »

Your greatest enjoyment in life... So the most upvoted post chose the flow state in order to momentarily forget the existence of suffering that is life and the second most upvoted post chose Netflix and aimlessly driving around in the car. I wonder if this indicates something about the state of modern society.

Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#227

Post by user_named »

nicolas_ wrote: post #70

Right now: - BBQing. My partner is vegetarian so I drastically reduced the amount of meat I'm eating. A few weeks ago, I finally made the jump and bought an electric BBQ. Eating a good piece of meat from the butcher on my balcony is amazing - Tinkering with a Raspberry Pi after years of not doing anything technical In general: - Dancing at a concert/music festival - Listening to music and find new favorites that I'll…

I have an infrared grill. It's really good and I use it more than my frying pan.

Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#228

Post by unop »

uwagar wrote: post #197
efrecon wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why would running not be a sport?

no opponent. not interesting to watch.

Typically, this is the glib superficial answer a non-runner would have.

To a runner, you are your own opponent, your feet and the terrain the challenges and the elation and endorphin rush afterwards the goal/reward.

And watching running, well, watching capable elite runners glide effortlessly or outdoing themselves with a surge from deep within - it's kinda exhilarating just willing them on. And if that's not sport.. Not sure what qualifies :)

Re: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

#230

Post by agent008t »

anoy8888 wrote: post #181
dusted wrote: post #156

Being in the zone, whatever form it might take. To me, the zone is any situation that makes the baseline pain of being alive go away (there's too much to unpack here, so I won't). Things that can bring me in the zone: * Riding my Honda CB750F, especially without a destination, just moving through the world in this raw, old-fashioned way liberates my mind and puts me at such ease. * Coding something I like.. Again it'…

I am surprised sex is not in the list . You can certainly be in the zone while having sex

Sex is very different to the activities he listed. His activities are all about feelings of calm focus, flow, almost meditative joy. You feel pleasantly recharged at the end of it.

Sex is usually very different and all about dopamine-like immediate intense pleasure, excitement, adrenaline. You can build dopamine tolerance and start needing more for the same 'kick'. Afterwards you can end up feeling more low than before due to a dopamine 'valley'. Then there is also the 'Coolidge effect'.

I suspect very different neurotransmitters are involved.

In other words, to exaggerate: the feeling of being in the zone you get from 'repairing stuff' is as similar to the feeling from sex, as the enjoyment of practicing calligraphy or meditation or tai chi is similar to taking heroin.

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