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I think that the feelings are probably almost the same, but they are caused by different stimuli. I would describe a feeling when you read and understand beaut

by hawski 10y ago

I think that the feelings are probably almost the same, but they are caused by different stimuli. I would describe a feeling when you read and understand beautiful mathematical proofs as bliss or relief (when it was hard before everything unfolds). Dopamine kick? It is just that most people don't get satisfaction from such things.

wolfgke 10y ago
It might be nitpicking (and I'm not a native English speaker so in English the words might have some connotations that I'm not aware of), but here is my view why the suggested words in my opinion don't fit the feeling. > bliss It's not about happiness - the world is still bad - but about deep understanding. >awe It's not that I'm intimidated by it - it's just the feeling of having understood something really deep > epiphany it comes near, but epiphany is (as far as I understand it) the feeling of the sudden realization (which is different), but I talk the feeling that you have afterwards. While in panel 2 of > https://xkcd.com/230/ https://xkcd.com/230/ the feeling is clearly "epiphany" the later panels transport a different feeling (a much less "striking" one) - the latter is the feeling I mean. > It is just that most people don't get satisfaction from such things. But they might get the same feeling from other stimuli. The "elegant math proof" feeling was just the description of a feeling that at leas some HN readers seem to be able to empathize with - I also had much stranger feelings under meditation (that I never had in "ordinary" life) that are even much harder to describe (and I only had them one or two times - so my descriptions might even not be very accurate).
- wccrawford 10y ago
  I had never considered it, but it's true. I don't have a word for that. I agree that those words aren't adequate, either. Instead, I'd just say that I love it, and wouldn't even attempt to express my actual feeling. I would only have used "epiphany" to express the feeling of figuring something out on my own, suddenly, but never the feeling of figuring out something that was clearly designed to explain something to me. Still, it's the closest word in this list, in my opinion. But not adequate.

by hawski 10y ago

wolfgke 10y ago

It might be nitpicking (and I'm not a native English speaker so in English the words might have some connotations that I'm not aware of), but here is my view why the suggested words in my opinion don't fit the feeling. > bliss It's not about happiness - the world is still bad - but about deep understanding. >awe It's not that I'm intimidated by it - it's just the feeling of having understood something really deep > epiphany it comes near, but epiphany is (as far as I understand it) the feeling of the sudden realization (which is different), but I talk the feeling that you have afterwards. While in panel 2 of > https://xkcd.com/230/ https://xkcd.com/230/ the feeling is clearly "epiphany" the later panels transport a different feeling (a much less "striking" one) - the latter is the feeling I mean. > It is just that most people don't get satisfaction from such things. But they might get the same feeling from other stimuli. The "elegant math proof" feeling was just the description of a feeling that at leas some HN readers seem to be able to empathize with - I also had much stranger feelings under meditation (that I never had in "ordinary" life) that are even much harder to describe (and I only had them one or two times - so my descriptions might even not be very accurate).

wccrawford 10y ago
I had never considered it, but it's true. I don't have a word for that. I agree that those words aren't adequate, either. Instead, I'd just say that I love it, and wouldn't even attempt to express my actual feeling. I would only have used "epiphany" to express the feeling of figuring something out on my own, suddenly, but never the feeling of figuring out something that was clearly designed to explain something to me. Still, it's the closest word in this list, in my opinion. But not adequate.