Why Envy Might Be Good for Us

Post by adityapurwa » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #38

adityapurwa wrote: post #12

I was taught that it is okay to be envious, what isnt okay was to wish that someone will lose the things we envied about. When I see someone bought a new car, I will pray “I hope his car is useful and he can benefit from it, I hope that someday I will have a car like his or even better”. While it might be hard in practice, so far it helped me stay positive to everyone.

In the german language there are the two words Neid and Missgunst . Both could be translated as enviousness but have a slightly different meanings. While Missgunst is definitely negative and maybe even destructive, Neid does not need to be negative and can have the meaning like in the example you gave.

Post by wruza » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #77

Yes, I believe all of our emotions probably serve some evolutionary purpose. Does that mean they're useful in modern society? Not necessarily. Being anxious might have helped my ancestors prepare for unexpected famines. Being aggressive might have helped them lock down the resources they needed to survive. Do those emotions help me as an adult software engineer in Houston? Heck no. Anxiety and aggression just get in…

Post by marviel » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 4:26 PM UTC

adnzzzzZ wrote: post #82

asdfman123 wrote: post #77

Yes, I believe all of our emotions probably serve some evolutionary purpose. Does that mean they're useful in modern society? Not necessarily. Being anxious might have helped my ancestors prepare for unexpected famines. Being aggressive might have helped them lock down the resources they needed to survive. Do those emotions help me as an adult software engineer in Houston? Heck no. Anxiety and aggression just get in…

That's a very misguided view of things. Aggression will help you fight for higher wages for yourself more often than if you weren't as aggressive. Anxiety will drive you towards actions that will decrease your anxiety, and those actions will generally be useful for you and sometimes the people employing you. I think you're not really in touch and being honest with yourself if you don't think both aggression and anxie…

Post by ikeyany » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

TangoTrotFox wrote: post #10

The author's final conclusions take, as a matter of fact, that inequality is what drove revolutions of the past. It seems that the more precise cause of these revolutions throughout time has not been the lack of equality, but the lack of fairness. And these are two very different things. If we take 1000 people and give rewards in proportion to performance at some task, it will be extremely unequal - yet fair. If we t…

Post by ndiscussion » Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 5:02 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #84

adnzzzzZ wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very misguided view of things. Aggression will help you fight for higher wages for yourself more often than if you weren't as aggressive. Anxiety will drive you towards actions that will decrease your anxiety, and those actions will generally be useful for you and sometimes the people employing you. I think you're not really in touch and being honest with yourself if you don't think both aggression and anxie…

You can seek out your best interests without powerful emotions that cripple your sense of well being. For instance, rather than worry constantly about impending doom you can just calmly go about preparing for worst case circumstances. Same result -- perhaps a better result -- and far less suffering. We should all seek to calmly and rationally seek the best interests of ourselves and people around us, without having t…