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Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

woodfromeden.substack.com

61–70 of 89 posts

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#61
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a very bigoted way to define „philosopher“. Philosopher’s job is not to tell things that you want to hear. Philosopher’s job is to challenge you. Don’t get entrenched in your bubble, mate.

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The far bigger real world harm is new age snake oil peddlers telling people they are too fragile and weak to be happy so long as there are others out there thinking and saying mean things.

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#62
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a very bigoted way to define „philosopher“. Philosopher’s job is not to tell things that you want to hear. Philosopher’s job is to challenge you. Don’t get entrenched in your bubble, mate.

[flagged]

Suggesting to read challenging stuff is „gaslighting“? It's not. Just in case - reading does not mean agreeing with what you read.

I've no issues reading „harmful“ material. In fact, I specifically try to read stuff that is written either by people I don't approve or includes views I don't approve.

Please don't go into „real world harm“ territory. Unless you want to discuss at which point fetus/newborn killing brings „real world harm“. Coming from a very different background, you guys have some crazy views that seem to clash with modern science. But that's fine, such is the price for cultural diversity :|

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The far bigger real world harm is new age snake oil peddlers telling people they are too fragile and weak to be happy so long as there are others out there thinking and saying mean things.

Don't you dare read what contradicts the prophet! This line seems to be very common millennia after millennia. Human nature never changes :D

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#66

https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU “The surprising science of happiness”, from Dan Gilbert, is one of the best TED talks of all time (over 4M views). In his amazing & funny 20’ presentation, he explains how our brains are wired and how it relates to happiness. The article reminded me of this great content

I found that video incredibly unconvincing. It just feels like pseudoscience telling people what they want to hear, and the data was underwhelming (assuming it's not flawed to begin with). I think a more plausible explanation is that people just lie to themselves to believe whatever they want. These people are only "happier" until they're forced to confront a reality that contradicts their beliefs. In other words it'…

Thank you for raising skepticism about old studies!

The new one that you mention is slightly suspect as well though :) It is based on data gathered from trackyourhappiness.org. Why would someone install an app to track their happiness? I doubt that this is a representative group of people.

Another interesting paper about this is "Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved", Kahneman and Mellers, 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2208661120

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#67

> In Swedish... someone happy in the moment is called glad... Someone happy in the longer-term is called lycklig. And we are not just some millions of weirdos in the northernmost of Europe. The Germans are froh when they are happy in the short term and glücklich when they are happy in the long term... Just because you don't have a dedicated word for something, doesn't mean that it is a foreign concept. In Arabic and…

Actually, ״to be״ in Hebrew translates to להיות (l’hyot), depending on the context. “I want to be at home” “אני רוצה להיות בבית״

Sure, but in most cases its conjugations are just left out entirely, as in "קר לי"; literally "cold to me" (I am cold). "אני רעב" -> "I hungry" (leaving out the "am" English speakers would put it there), etc.

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#68

https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU “The surprising science of happiness”, from Dan Gilbert, is one of the best TED talks of all time (over 4M views). In his amazing & funny 20’ presentation, he explains how our brains are wired and how it relates to happiness. The article reminded me of this great content

I found that video incredibly unconvincing. It just feels like pseudoscience telling people what they want to hear, and the data was underwhelming (assuming it's not flawed to begin with). I think a more plausible explanation is that people just lie to themselves to believe whatever they want. These people are only "happier" until they're forced to confront a reality that contradicts their beliefs. In other words it'…

You may be interested in this newer paper, reconciling the work of Killingsworth and Kahneman & Deaton. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#69

> In Swedish... someone happy in the moment is called glad... Someone happy in the longer-term is called lycklig. And we are not just some millions of weirdos in the northernmost of Europe. The Germans are froh when they are happy in the short term and glücklich when they are happy in the long term... Just because you don't have a dedicated word for something, doesn't mean that it is a foreign concept. In Arabic and…

The Dutch use "blij" (short-term) and "gelukkig" (long-term).

Re: Happiness is a reward from our ancestors

#70
post #50

The title: > Happiness is a reward from our ancestors Followed by the subtitle: > Long-term happiness only comes to those who emulate their successful ancestors Did anyone else get a severe case of mental whiplash from that? I pretty strongly agree with the title in many ways (the now is built on the shoulders of the past), but holy cow I do not agree with that subtitle at all . The rest of this reads like a pile of…

> I started to get the impression that I'm disagreeing a bit with the blog's basic premises. I believe that the reason why so much bullshit can pass, is that essentially, there are things that are not bullshit. If almost everything actually was bullshit, making people believe in things would have been much more difficult.

Ah, yes, I'm somewhat of a philosopher, psychologist and social scientist too.

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