3 ms·
My hypothesis: Happiness is a response your body gives you when you do something right. Because it's somewhat outdated, it rewards hunting, eating and mating
by daniel-cussen 19y ago
My hypothesis: Happiness is a response your body gives you when you do something right. Because it's somewhat outdated, it rewards hunting, eating and mating than studying or doing a desk job. It's basically a way your genes judge how well you're doing their bidding, and it is often way off. I see it as a byproduct of achieving other, more worthwhile goals, and not something worth pursuing for its own sake. Your nucleus accumbens is an outdated, selfish judge of success that has too much control over your brain. It's a bad judge.
I ignore it as much as I can. Obviously, I run the risk of being unhappy. It's probably a bad decision, and I might have to give in eventually. I'll see how it goes.
- trekker7 19y agoInteresting. But how do you define "worthwhile", when deciding what to pursue besides happiness?
- daniel-cussen 19y agoIf your brain and your genes are similar in that they both see continuing to exist as their ultimate goal (because if they didn't they'd stop existing and be replaced by things that are driven to keep existing), you could prioritize immortalizing your mind, if that's what you think "you" "are." That might mean trying to live as long as possible, uploading your mind to a computer, spreading memes as a way of spreading your mind piecemeal, or writing and art as a way to leave a footprint. Of course, it would be good to get your cake and eat it too; it might someday be possible to calibrate your brain's reward system so it rewards whey protein instead of trans fats, say. It might be possible to stop the negative feedback mechanism that regulates dopamine levels. If you could permanently increase dopamine levels, you could be happy ever after.
- Readmore 19y agoYou must be a hiring manager at IBM. ;)
- daniel-cussen 19y agoIt's true. I'm an HR rep with too much spare time. That will change when the recession hits, but until then, I try to make programmers accept the misery of working in cubicles in pursuit of a very slightly higher expected outcome. And I could have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for these pesky Hacker News commenters.