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Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

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Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#71

Post by WalterBright »

syndacks wrote: post #65
WalterBright wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoy my work quite a bit. Vacations, not so much. I like the challenge, I like being in the game. I have no plans to ever retire.

What do you do for work? Have you always done that? Have you always liked the challenge?

I work for making D the best programming language in the world. I've always been doing things like that since my first job. I've always liked the challenge, especially when people tell me I can't do that.

I selected a college specifically to prepare for the kind of things I wanted to do as a career, and selected classes in the service of that. I once told my dad that I was never bored for a moment in college.

Vacations dull pretty quickly.

Lying around doing nothing is my notion of hell.

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#72

Post by WalterBright »

KSteffensen wrote: post #66
WalterBright wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The wise don't build castles We would still be trying to kill food by throwing rocks if we were wise.

I kind of like not freezing in winter. And having a toilet. And antibiotics. And other stuff...

I sure love my first cuppa coffee in the morning. The miracle of global trade!

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#73

Post by VonBlue »

yeswecatan wrote: post #62
x87678r wrote: post #53

I think a lot of people in the US are taught from a young age to work hard and be the best you can be. Get into the best college, work hard to get the best job. Get promoted. Get promoted. Start your own firm. Work hard work hard, make money. Often they never learn you are allowed to back off.

Absolutely. One of my favorite teachers in high school used to always say "the harder you work now, the easier it will be later." There is always a later, though.

Until there isn’t

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#74

Post by notacoward »

dbtc wrote: post #51

One extreme: calm, content, happy, don't care about much, don't do much. Other extreme: stressed, unsatisfied, unhappy, always working, getting lots done. Maybe there is a middle way. A more nuanced definition of success.

Great observation. Thank you. I think there is a middle way, but it's not so much about definitions as about balance. There's a time to sow (work) and a time to reap (rest and enjoy). Of course you have to sow before you can reap, but if all you do is sow then your final yield is zero. You have to alternate, maximizing the product of the two instead of either alone.

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#75

Post by DeRock »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #28

It could be Asian thing (I'm Asian), but there's a saying, "Money can't buy happiness, but it sure hell better crying inside my BMW than crying outside by the street."

"Money can't buy happiness, but you can distract yourself with consuming luxury goods" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

These types of quotes tire me (and ones like it, "have you ever seen anyone sad on a Jet ski?"). They ignore the very real human condition of yearning for meaning from existence. Pretending like this can be solved with symbols of status and consumption is misguided.

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#76

Post by CPLX »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #28

It could be Asian thing (I'm Asian), but there's a saying, "Money can't buy happiness, but it sure hell better crying inside my BMW than crying outside by the street."

Money can't buy happiness. But not having money will surely prevent it.

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#77

Post by DoreenMichele »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #28

It could be Asian thing (I'm Asian), but there's a saying, "Money can't buy happiness, but it sure hell better crying inside my BMW than crying outside by the street."

Studies show that, up to a point, money actually can buy happiness. But more money doesn't automatically equate to more happiness.

People who are middle class are more happy than people who are dirt poor. Rich people aren't necessarily any happier than middle class people, but both are, in the aggregate, happier than poor people struggling to survive.

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#78

Post by dang »

WalterBright wrote: post #56
jonnymiller wrote: post #8

This resonates with my own experience: "Although most people look forward to vacations and days off, most successful people I know dread them."—working more hours was a socially acceptable route to not dealing with my own sh*t.

I enjoy my work quite a bit. Vacations, not so much. I like the challenge, I like being in the game. I have no plans to ever retire.

You and Fred Brooks and Ivan Sutherland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR9pAaQlVRc#t=2m30

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#79

Post by Arainach »

DeRock wrote: post #75
wiradikusuma wrote: post #28

It could be Asian thing (I'm Asian), but there's a saying, "Money can't buy happiness, but it sure hell better crying inside my BMW than crying outside by the street."

"Money can't buy happiness, but you can distract yourself with consuming luxury goods" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. These types of quotes tire me (and ones like it, "have you ever seen anyone sad on a Jet ski?"). They ignore the very real human condition of yearning for meaning from existence. Pretending like this can be solved with symbols of status and consumption is misguided.

I think you're taking the example too far. Money can't guarantee happiness, but it's much easier to be happy when you don't have to constantly worry about how you're going to pay your next bill or if you'll lose your home if you get sick.

Re: Things the most successful people I know struggle with to be happy

#80

Post by dsubburam »

_7fvc wrote: post #68
hdfhu wrote: post #32

"Successful people" are those that come to the ocean shore, build a sand castle (indeed, what else is this sand for?), develop depression protecting it from wind, water and sun, and even force other tourists to build the castle for them. And they die wondering why the ocean shore is such a cruel and pointless place. Their lives aren't worthless,though: at least they develop some will. The wise don't build castles, th…

LOL. :) Sometimes I wonder what happens if humans go extinct. There may be a new civilization by ants, spiders, or insect descendants. Or there could be another reptilian domination. I think the most "successful" people are the people I would not hear about. Likely, some mid-level executives, engineers, professionals. They have enough. They don't need to "move up". They're happy. They don't need to tell people about…

> Sometimes I wonder what happens if humans go extinct. There may be a new civilization by ants, spiders, or insect descendants.

Well, in that case, we didn't really go extinct. The distinguishing feature of our kind is our rational faculty, allowing for discourse with others to explain our past actions and future intentions, that grows our self-consciousness (self requires an other[1]) and births civil society. Not our genetic makeup. If some insect species develops self-consciousness and civilization, I'd argue that we ought to recognize it as of our kind. Moreso than, say, apes who are closer to "us" genetically.

[1] Hegel. Phenomenology of Spirit, 1807. "self-consciousness achieves its satisfaction only in another self-consciousness… A self-consciousness exists for a self-consciousness. Only so is it in fact self-consciousness, for only in this way does the unity of itself in its otherness becomes explicit for it."

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