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There's a point in that where the word "choice" seems rather meaningless. A choice is supposed to be a simple thing, it's merely a decision, not an end goal tha

There's a point in that where the word "choice" seems rather meaningless. A choice is supposed to be a simple thing, it's merely a decision, not an end goal that takes an inordinate amount of energy. At that point, that's a goal, that's a direction, etc., but it's not exactly a choice since the level of difficulty necessarily implies that you are quite likely to fail, which also means most people will fail. If anything, your statement would imply that happiness is absolutely not a choice and something most people will never achieve, just like people can't simply "choose" to become an Olympic athlete or the President. The definition has been pulled too far from its original purpose.

djtriptych 10y ago
I think most practicing yogis, for instance, would argue that yoga is for everyone. In fact, it can be thought of as humanity's best-tested method for self-derived happiness, as filtered through generations of practice and refinement. While you can't choose to be able to do any particular posture or position, you _can_ choose to be happier than you are now...
FussyZeus 10y ago
Becoming an Olympian involves having talent for a given event that attracts the attention of an investor, the investor's resources in getting you trained, nearly the exclusion of all other activities for a good portion of your life and dedicating all time and energy to your event and maybe, you MIGHT get there. Being president requires membership of one of the two strong parties, having name recognition enough to be nominated, have vast resources either at your disposal or willing to be invested in by others, all that again for the actual election, and being able to win over one of the most fickle voting populations on the planet. Being happy...is just a change in how you think. It really is that simple, it requires commitment and self-policing to a great degree but in the end anyone can do it. I wouldn't say it's anything like those other two things.
- projektir 10y ago
  Note that I'm responding to a specific comment that implies being happy is extremely difficult. Those two things are in my book of "extremely difficult", and I'm bringing them up as examples of the fact that goals are not choices. You can choose to train, but you can't choose to become an Olympian. But I can't figure out if you agree or disagree with happiness being extremely difficult to achieve. > It really is that simple, it requires commitment and self-policing to a great degree but in the end anyone can do it. I don't think I can make sense of this statement... if something has many requirements, and something to a great degree, how can you say that it is merely a choice, and that anyone can do it? Again, a choice is a decision, not a goal. There's no difference between "I'll try really hard to be happy" or "I'll try really hard to be an Olympian", they're both goals with no guarantees that you can fail at. What is great? The average person, by definition, is not great. So why are you saying anyone can do it, in the end, that anyone can be great? Simplicity is not relevant here. Winning a race is simple - just run faster than everyone else. This seems to be along the lines of losing weight. It's simple, but so many people fail at it. If people, in large numbers, greater than average, fail at doing something universality perceived as good, I posit that that means it's not available to most people for whatever reason, because nobody in their right mind would choose a bad outcome for themselves. If your interest is in making a large proportion of people happy, rather than making a few chosen individuals happy, it's a more interesting question as to why so many people "choose" to not be happy or some other universally positive thing. I'd say the word "choice" is being horribly misused. People struggle and fail, that's what's happening. What made you decide that changing how you think is simple, easy, and readily available?
  - FussyZeus 10y ago
    > Note that I'm responding to a specific comment that implies being happy is extremely difficult. Those two things are in my book of "extremely difficult", and I'm bringing them up as examples of the fact that goals are not choices. You can choose to train, but you can't choose to become an Olympian. But I can't figure out if you agree or disagree with happiness being extremely difficult to achieve. I would say difficult, but not extremely difficult. Your examples require a lot of external resources and material goods to achieve, and the services of others. What we're talking about is possibly altering your food intake, maybe a supplement or two, and other than that it's just your own self discipline. > I don't think I can make sense of this statement... if something has many requirements, and something to a great degree, how can you say that it is merely a choice, and that anyone can do it? Because everyone has a brain and a will and those are in the vast majority of cases all you need to do it. > The average person, by definition, is not great. So why are you saying anyone can do it, in the end, that anyone can be great? Simplicity is not relevant here. Winning a race is simple - just run faster than everyone else. I would say the gateway to happiness is realizing that you are in fact not great, that you are not destined to be famous or wealthy, and to embrace just being the best you that you can be. Embrace average, buy better beer, enjoy the luxuries you can afford instead of pining for the ones you can't. > What made you decide that changing how you think is simple, easy, and readily available? Well again I said no such thing, I said in comparison to becoming an Olympian or being elected President that this was easy. There are a lot of other things that are easier than those two things. Altering the way you think just requires self discipline, self policing, and commitment. There's no magic solution or program or book, it's not self help tapes or a twelve step program. It's something you decide to do for you with the resources you were born with. I've made radical changes to how I think in the last few years and in so doing have greatly improved the quality of my life, and the first step on that journey was realizing that I was just a regular guy, I would never be a celebrity, never be very wealthy, never be famous and never be some massive achiever, and that there was nothing wrong with that. It hurts at first because our society tells us to a large degree that that is how you succeed in life, but after awhile, you learn to appreciate average. Since then I've never been happier.

djtriptych 10y ago

I think most practicing yogis, for instance, would argue that yoga is for everyone. In fact, it can be thought of as humanity's best-tested method for self-derived happiness, as filtered through generations of practice and refinement. While you can't choose to be able to do any particular posture or position, you _can_ choose to be happier than you are now...

FussyZeus 10y ago

Becoming an Olympian involves having talent for a given event that attracts the attention of an investor, the investor's resources in getting you trained, nearly the exclusion of all other activities for a good portion of your life and dedicating all time and energy to your event and maybe, you MIGHT get there. Being president requires membership of one of the two strong parties, having name recognition enough to be nominated, have vast resources either at your disposal or willing to be invested in by others, all that again for the actual election, and being able to win over one of the most fickle voting populations on the planet. Being happy...is just a change in how you think. It really is that simple, it requires commitment and self-policing to a great degree but in the end anyone can do it. I wouldn't say it's anything like those other two things.

projektir 10y ago
Note that I'm responding to a specific comment that implies being happy is extremely difficult. Those two things are in my book of "extremely difficult", and I'm bringing them up as examples of the fact that goals are not choices. You can choose to train, but you can't choose to become an Olympian. But I can't figure out if you agree or disagree with happiness being extremely difficult to achieve. > It really is that simple, it requires commitment and self-policing to a great degree but in the end anyone can do it. I don't think I can make sense of this statement... if something has many requirements, and something to a great degree, how can you say that it is merely a choice, and that anyone can do it? Again, a choice is a decision, not a goal. There's no difference between "I'll try really hard to be happy" or "I'll try really hard to be an Olympian", they're both goals with no guarantees that you can fail at. What is great? The average person, by definition, is not great. So why are you saying anyone can do it, in the end, that anyone can be great? Simplicity is not relevant here. Winning a race is simple - just run faster than everyone else. This seems to be along the lines of losing weight. It's simple, but so many people fail at it. If people, in large numbers, greater than average, fail at doing something universality perceived as good, I posit that that means it's not available to most people for whatever reason, because nobody in their right mind would choose a bad outcome for themselves. If your interest is in making a large proportion of people happy, rather than making a few chosen individuals happy, it's a more interesting question as to why so many people "choose" to not be happy or some other universally positive thing. I'd say the word "choice" is being horribly misused. People struggle and fail, that's what's happening. What made you decide that changing how you think is simple, easy, and readily available?
- FussyZeus 10y ago
  > Note that I'm responding to a specific comment that implies being happy is extremely difficult. Those two things are in my book of "extremely difficult", and I'm bringing them up as examples of the fact that goals are not choices. You can choose to train, but you can't choose to become an Olympian. But I can't figure out if you agree or disagree with happiness being extremely difficult to achieve. I would say difficult, but not extremely difficult. Your examples require a lot of external resources and material goods to achieve, and the services of others. What we're talking about is possibly altering your food intake, maybe a supplement or two, and other than that it's just your own self discipline. > I don't think I can make sense of this statement... if something has many requirements, and something to a great degree, how can you say that it is merely a choice, and that anyone can do it? Because everyone has a brain and a will and those are in the vast majority of cases all you need to do it. > The average person, by definition, is not great. So why are you saying anyone can do it, in the end, that anyone can be great? Simplicity is not relevant here. Winning a race is simple - just run faster than everyone else. I would say the gateway to happiness is realizing that you are in fact not great, that you are not destined to be famous or wealthy, and to embrace just being the best you that you can be. Embrace average, buy better beer, enjoy the luxuries you can afford instead of pining for the ones you can't. > What made you decide that changing how you think is simple, easy, and readily available? Well again I said no such thing, I said in comparison to becoming an Olympian or being elected President that this was easy. There are a lot of other things that are easier than those two things. Altering the way you think just requires self discipline, self policing, and commitment. There's no magic solution or program or book, it's not self help tapes or a twelve step program. It's something you decide to do for you with the resources you were born with. I've made radical changes to how I think in the last few years and in so doing have greatly improved the quality of my life, and the first step on that journey was realizing that I was just a regular guy, I would never be a celebrity, never be very wealthy, never be famous and never be some massive achiever, and that there was nothing wrong with that. It hurts at first because our society tells us to a large degree that that is how you succeed in life, but after awhile, you learn to appreciate average. Since then I've never been happier.