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I think the title is a bit misplaced. The point is not that positive thinking is bad, but that you will likely be happier focusing on your relationship with oth

I think the title is a bit misplaced. The point is not that positive thinking is bad, but that you will likely be happier focusing on your relationship with others and accepting yourself as you are, as opposed to trying to make yourself "better". The title is linkbait that only vaguely references the material in the article. Still, I thought the article pretty good. A key insight was a quote by Dr. Neel Burton: "In traditional cultures, people lived in very close knit communities. They knew each other, and they didn’t really focus on themselves so much. The focus on life was on the survival community and not on their own individuality. Modern society is very different from that. There’s a huge emphasis on me; my goals, my life, my death. That puts a lot of pressure on people, and it’s not the kind of pressure that we’re evolved to cope with. That’s the source of many of our problems."

thomaspaine 16y ago
I'd love to see some evidence for that quote. This assertion paints individualism as a social rather than biological construct, and it's not obvious to me that this is true.
- BrandonM 16y ago
  The quote is part of a larger work (The Art of Failure: An Anti Self-Help Guide); I'd bet that it's addressed with more depth there. Even still, there are many pieces of evidence that seem to suggest social rather than individualist roots. We (meaning normal, functional human beings) all have the ability from a young age to sympathize with others. We have a strong desire to be part of a group. We feel guilt when we do something socially wrong. Intimate relationships release endorphins that give us pleasure. Language itself is only necessary in a strongly social species. Honestly, I can't fathom human society as it is today beginning from small, isolated groups of people who are strong individualists. Only a select few of us can survive happily by ourselves, and I suspect that's been true for millennia. Our ability to cooperate and evolve socially, as opposed to biologically, is what has allowed us to become the most dominant species on Earth.
  - Retric 16y ago
    Looking at primitive society's that survived into the modern day paints a vary different picture. Cooperation won in the end, but primitive society where extremely violent. For example the earliest traders slid between bandits and merchants largely based on how strong you where. Or consider traditional views on corporal punishment. Violently beating ones family members was considered normal and proper let alone what society at large would do to people.

thomaspaine 16y ago

I'd love to see some evidence for that quote. This assertion paints individualism as a social rather than biological construct, and it's not obvious to me that this is true.

BrandonM 16y ago
The quote is part of a larger work (The Art of Failure: An Anti Self-Help Guide); I'd bet that it's addressed with more depth there. Even still, there are many pieces of evidence that seem to suggest social rather than individualist roots. We (meaning normal, functional human beings) all have the ability from a young age to sympathize with others. We have a strong desire to be part of a group. We feel guilt when we do something socially wrong. Intimate relationships release endorphins that give us pleasure. Language itself is only necessary in a strongly social species. Honestly, I can't fathom human society as it is today beginning from small, isolated groups of people who are strong individualists. Only a select few of us can survive happily by ourselves, and I suspect that's been true for millennia. Our ability to cooperate and evolve socially, as opposed to biologically, is what has allowed us to become the most dominant species on Earth.
- Retric 16y ago
  Looking at primitive society's that survived into the modern day paints a vary different picture. Cooperation won in the end, but primitive society where extremely violent. For example the earliest traders slid between bandits and merchants largely based on how strong you where. Or consider traditional views on corporal punishment. Violently beating ones family members was considered normal and proper let alone what society at large would do to people.