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That article views life almost the opposite as I do. 1. I have long been inspired by Gandhi's having cleaned toilets in his ashram and he seems to have accompl

• _ao789 9y ago
  Fantastic take at addressing things. I would tend to agree with you on literally every point you raised.
• capex 9y ago
  Gandhi had a particular fascination with toileting. I read in a biography that the first question he'd ask anyone in the morning was 'Have you had your bowel movements yet?"
  • jmcgough 9y ago
    That seems to be pretty common among yogi - one I had a few years ago was always telling us that we should have regular bowel movements etc, which I found a little weird.
    • QAPereo 9y ago
      It's just common among quacks of all varieties, from yogis to Kellogs. To paraphrase a doctor who's name I forget, "I think it's the transgressive nature of the act [enemas in this case] which appeals to the quack. They can't give you injections or perform surgery, but they can do all sorts of things to your bottom."
      • ZeroFries 9y ago
        Nah. It's from personal experience. Try meditating when you're all blocked up, or having diarrhoea.
        • solotronics 9y ago
          I only meditate when I have diahrrhea.
  • mikekchar 9y ago
    Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I would say "Want to Be Happy? Have regular bowel movements." Of course anyone with long term health issues will know that it's easy to let them run your life. Based on conversations I've had (especially with older people), having the toilet run your life is pretty common and debilitating, though. For me, it was complications from surgery (which have mostly sorted themselves out, it seems). Quick piece of anecdotal advice: 25 grams of dark (>= 72% cacao) chocolate a day works absolute wonders.
    • cropsieboss 9y ago
      I eat about 500g of black beans (raw) and 200g of rice (around 2000kcal) and the poops are miraculous.
      • nandemo 9y ago
        > black beans (raw) What sort of black beans are those? The ones I know aren't edible when raw.
        • emeraldd 9y ago
          I would hazard a guess that these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_turtle_bean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_turtle_bean are the beans in question. They work quite well as an alternative to refried beans in Tex-Mex style food.
          • mirimir 9y ago
            Yes, black beans. And no, eating them uncooked would take quite a while, and be hard on the teeth. I suspect that "raw" referred to the weight basis. But anyway, the are great fiber. Much more comfortable than grain fiber. But one must rinse them carefully after cooking, to reduce gassiness.
        • copperx 9y ago
          PSA: Raw beans are dangerous, especially kidney beans. Beans contain toxic lectins when uncooked.
• rayiner 9y ago
  I mean clearly the article doesn't miss that point, because they measured it. People that outsourced stuff were happier. It's like driving. Sure some people love the feel of the road or whatever. But I Uber everywhere and it's fantastic.
  • beambot 9y ago
    And the happiness level of all the Uber drivers who shuttle you around...? Remember: not everyone has such luxuries and your average HNer likely has much better QoL than the general populace.
    • chc 9y ago
      What does that have to do with anything? This seems like reading an article about how exercise is good for you and replying, "But some people don't have time to exercise!" It's not wrong, but it doesn't add much insight either.
      • backtoyoujim 9y ago
        There is this thing where many humans mix up being happy and being nice.
    • tptacek 9y ago
      ... is happier than those drivers would be if you weren't asking them to drive you around, because your desire for an Uber ride increases demand and thus their wages.
      • andrepd 9y ago
        Yeah. People who plant cocoa and get paid one half of one tenth of a cent for the material for each 2$ chocolate bar should thank you and their corporate overlords as well, because at least they're getting their $0.0005, right?
        • 9y ago
• vbuwivbiu 9y ago
  I use cleaning and tidying as a procrastination to organize my mind before work and it makes me feel happier. Even the best takeout food is low quality. You can't trust the ingredients.
• chjohasbrouck 9y ago
  Maybe there are people who would be happier washing their clothes by hand, but I'm sure they're the exception rather than the rule. Most people just don't like doing the shopping, cooking, and cleaning involved with daily meal preparation. Most people also don't like cleaning in general, and hate their commutes. Thinking of these as therapeutic tasks is as much a luxury of white collar life as unlimited access to maids and food delivery services is. And the idea that you'd save time or money with proper knowledge of how to source and prep your own fruits and vegetables, or that time spent cleaning disappears because you consider it exercise, all seems like magical thinking to me. As soon as you place a realistic dollar figure on the value of your time, for most of us, all of those calculations break down dramatically in favor of outsourcing most tasks related to food, cleaning, and transportation, not only as a matter of comfort, but also as a matter of economics. It makes sense that it would work out this way, too. A single Uber driver with a single car can satisfy the transportation needs of a dozen people. An Instacart shopper can gather everything 3 families need in a single pass through the store. The driver can get those groceries to 3 homes in a single round trip instead of 3 separate round trips. Outsourcing can seem wasteful and opulent, but in doing so you're often participating in a sharing economy or benefiting from economies of scale and division of labor that actually serve to reduce waste and inefficiency.
  • Retric 9y ago
    You are assuming the value of time spent on these activities is inherently negative therefore having someone else do them is a net gain. I disagree, you can enjoy them in poverty or as a billionaire. While say playing video games seems more enjoyable than taking out the trash that's a subjective assessment. And you can alter your subjective perceptions.
    • Deregibus 9y ago
      You are assuming the value of time spent on these activities is inherently positive. If you like cooking or cleaning or taking out the trash then by all means you should do those things. But, if you don't like doing those things then the threshold for when it makes sense to pay someone else to do them is lower than most would think.
• tzs 9y ago
  > Actually, the amount of garbage takeout creates is unconscionable to me. I couldn't live with myself filling landfills at that rate. Does it really create more overall? At first it would seem obvious that it would, because there is now packaging for transporting the prepared food from the restaurant to my home. If I prepared the same meal at home that packaging would not be needed. But, on the other hand, the restaurant does much more volume than I do. They will buy ingredients in bulk, whereas I'll buy them in much smaller packages. For a given total amount of an ingredient the restaurant will probably generate less garbage per serving than I do at home. So the question then is does the savings in garbage per serving from the restaurant operating at high volume outweigh the garbage from packaging individual meals for take out? My guess is that it might depend on what kind of food is being taken out. Food that is taken out in styrofoam containers probably has more impact than food taken out in paper bags.
  • munin 9y ago
    > They will buy ingredients in bulk, whereas I'll buy them in much smaller packages Buy your produce in re-usable or recyclable containers, or grow it yourself? We pick up produce from a local farm, they bring it to the pick up site in re-usable plastic bins, we pick it up using re-usable cloth bags. Eggs are in recyclable containers.
    • freehunter 9y ago
      It's really hard to grow your own pasta, and it comes from the store already in a package. It's hard to grow your own hot dogs, or vinegar, or ketchup. It's hard to grown your own pineapple in Minnesota, it's hard to find a farmers market with unpackaged soy sauce. My local produce stand won't let me buy a pocket full of rice. I don't know where you can buy Franks Red Hot in a re-usable package, but when you find out you'll let me know, right?
      • twothamendment 9y ago
        Push a comment to the extreme and of course it fails. The point that takeout makes more waste than cooking at home is very real. I don't do anything crazy, have a landfill I'm my yard, etc. My neighbors had a family the same size as mine. Each week their trash cans (2 of them) would be overflowing and my single can was 3/4 full, sometimes​only 1/2. The only real difference - they ate tons of takeout, ready made it frozen and we eat out once a month and cook our own meals. Yes my pasta comes wrapped in plastic and my vinegar in a plastic bottle like everyone else - but it doesn't compare to the waste of takeout and frozen dinners. Can you buy a pocket full of rice? No, but why would you? Buy a huge bag at Costco and see how long that lasts. That is how you reduce waste per meal.
• primitivesuave 9y ago
  This is my sentiment exactly, that happiness is internal and requires awareness. When you shop for yourself, you can look at your shopping cart and be aware of what your needs are in life. When you cook your own food, you exercise control and awareness over what is going into your body. Cleaning requires you to be aware of your environment, and in the state of improved blood flow your mind has the freedom to clean itself of anxieties, bad memories, etc.
• corey_moncure 9y ago
  Earnest question: how many young children do you take care of in the home?
• abrbhat 9y ago
  I think the feeling that you are mentioning could be more appropriately called being at peace, purposefulness, meaningfulness, mindfulness etc. It is quite different from the western concept of happiness. I don't think Gandhi or his disciples were singing and dancing when cleaning the toilets. They approached this duty solemnly. This approach to life is indicated in the Gita where it says that you need do things because they are your Karma without any expectation of reward(read happiness) in return. In this view of life, happiness and sadness are both transient and therefore it is useless to pursue happiness or run away from sadness. This perspective is thus tangential to the western pursuit of happiness. In fact, I think it can be argued that the pursuit of happiness is the real cause of sadness. Apart from Karma-based approach in Gita, you can also look towards the Service-based approach in Sikhism or the Non-Detachment in Buddhism. In Sikhism, service is an integral part of religion and every Sikh is expected to give at least some time to do voluntary service in Gurudwaras(Sikh Temples). This is mostly in the form of chores like cooking food, washing utensils, polishing the shoes of visitors etc. In India, you can find some of the richest Sikhs doing these chores in Gurudwaras. Similarly in Buddhism, detachment of the self is an important aspect of living a life which involves restraining oneself, cultivating discipline and practicing mindfulness and meditation. None of them have any details about pursuing happiness specifically.
  • dakom 9y ago
    "I think it can be argued that the pursuit of happiness is the real cause of sadness." - that's a very interesting idea to meditate on. I think it is true- but specifically when we limit happiness to very low forms of it (cheesecake, casual sex, meaningless gratifications, etc.) That's not a small point - it's very true when we're talking about that, and I believe it is the type of happiness that is pursued with the most energy, most of the time. However - if we re-frame happiness to some other definition, say the happiness one finds in keeping a home sanitary, or helping a friend, or building something useful, then I think it has the opposite effect. e.g. the happiness that comes from learning something new that improves the lives of you and those around you, is not the same as that which comes from getting drunk. Pursuing the first will not lead to sadness, but pursuing the latter will.
• simplegeek 9y ago
  Thanks. How did you learn source fruits and vegetables? I'm also keen to learn this.
  • spodek 9y ago
    Two practices forced me to learn: 1. I joined a CSA with a rule for myself not to let anything go to waste. That forced me to figure out how to prepare local, in-season fresh vegetables and fruit. The first year I did it, I had to steam a lot of vegetables and eat them with salt and pepper since I didn't know what I was doing. So, healthy but not delicious. The next year I knew what I was doing and learned to make things delicious. Now I can go to farmers markets and get local, in-season produce, which is cheapest, healthiest, and most flavorful. I barely ever go to markets any more. 2. I gave myself a rule to buy no packaged food for a week (no bags, boxes, bottles, rubber bands, stickers, etc). The challenge seemed hard at first, but I made it 2.5 weeks and by the end of it, my views on food changed. Packaged food became far less appetizing and more weird in a way I can't explain but you have to experience. Anyway, it forced me to buy almost exclusively fruits and vegetables. Oh, third: I found a store near me that sells bulk foods, so legumes, nuts, oats, and a few other things I get there. The short answer: force yourself to buy only fresh vegetables and fruits and you'll figure it out! You're not going to die. You'll only face a challenging transition.
• zitterbewegung 9y ago
  You know why? Its designed to. The clickbait title is designed to appeal to a set of people that are frustrated with life at this time. Either they have the money and are able to do these things or they don't and see it as something to strive for even though their toil might be for nothing . The title has the opposite effect for people who don't believe that these actions will help them. I am not sure if this is intentional or not but it helps it to go viral. The article is so polarizing that people would want to repost it on their Facebook / Twitter or whatever and criticize it. Of course this has the side effect of spreading it to more people and thats the point.
• flyGuyOnTheSly 9y ago
  >Monks garden and clean things in part to increase self-awareness and inner tranquility. I feel somewhat masochistic even uttering this, but I really enjoy pulling weeds by hand. Please, let me explain why! I just bought my first house this past year with a lawn that the previous owners left in considerable disrepair. Weeds... weeds... creeping clovers of all types... and more weeds. But there was a good 75% grass cover, so it felt wrong to rip it all up and replace it with sod. We have a dog, and our previous one passed of bladder cancer, so roundup or any other herbicides were completely out of the question. So I sat on a milk crate, and started digging at the dandelions at first with a garden tool. That worked well enough. But I was ripping up a lot of the grass with each punch of the garden tool, so I tried to start ripping them out by hand... and by George by worked! I was weeding my lawn twice as fast now because I was just grabbing and ripping with my bare hands instead of an awkward tool. Smiling every time I got the root, and grimacing every time I did not! I was losing less grass. But my back hurt. Sitting on that milk crate and hunching over really did not sit well with my back. So I tried bending over. And my back felt great! A few days later, I noticed a strange pain in my hamstrings. Lactic acid was building. But I hadn't been running or cycling or doing any kind of workout recently... or had I? Bending over and placing your hands to the ground is actually a great stretch that I always considered myself somewhat incapable of doing. And I never did it regularly. Yet there I was, stretching for an hour a day, out in the open sun and breeze. Hanging out with my dog. Admiring my progress as the pile of weeds I picked grew, and the ground I stood foot on looked more like a real lawn... I was in heaven. I now find myself weeding my lawn first thing every morning, before even eating breakfast sometimes. I'm absolutely loving it. And I hated doing "yardwork" when I was younger.
• brass9 9y ago
  > 4. My home cooked food ... costs less Not really, if you consider the time and effort needed to prepare a meal at home. Starting from shopping at a kitchen market, transporting the goods to home, cutting, prepping, the cooking and finally cleaning up afterwards... Unless you have several hours of free time each day, preparing ones own meal is not something everyone looks forward to...
  • mollusk 9y ago
    I'm sorry, but it does cost less, like I can shop and make both the dinner and next days lunch in an hour. Sometimes I make 3-4 portions so I can eat for two days. My hourly rate is less than the difference of home cooked meal and eating out. I don't cook that often, because while I enjoy doing it, I don't always have the time or motivation, but even counting temporal expense, I save money considerably. Several hours each day is either a ridiculous overexaggeration or you're just very inefficient.
    • randomdata 9y ago
      > I'm sorry, but it does cost less That leaves us wondering why economies of scale haven't beaten out your costs? A place like McDonalds should be able to buy food considerably cheaper than you can, hire people at a fraction of the cost of your time to prep for yourself, etc. While I understand why you may not want to eat McDonalds food constantly, from a price perspective you shouldn't be able to compete. Have you forgotten some of your costs? It's easy to ignore the opportunity cost of owning the means of production, for instance, despite being a substantial cost, especially in high-cost cities. I have calculated in the past that simply having land allocated for the averaged-sized kitchen in SF costs about the same as a meal out at a nice restaurant 365 days a year, every year. That's even before getting into the cost of building the kitchen structure, furnishing it will the tools needed to prepare food, etc. If you still believe that your methods are cheaper than a restaurant, what prevents it from working at scale to allow restaurants to offer food just as cheaply? > I don't always have the time This is an interesting statement. "I don't have time" means that you value doing one activity over another. If cooking isn't your top choice when faced with options, then perhaps you have undervalued your time spent in the kitchen when calculating your costs?
• brass9 9y ago
  I don't really understand the fascination of westerner's about a weirdo through and through... In a world that epitomizes heinous men like Columbus or Alexander, it comes as no surprise that a racist, kinky pervert like MK Gandhi is hailed as peacemaker... His `ahimsa` nonsense benefited the British raaj more than the Indian subcontinent. Because of his stubborn refusal to support forceful eviction of the imperial forces, independence had been delayed by a decade. Thousands of young men had been killed. Their blood is on Gandhis hands. Not to mention, during WW2 he sent Indian forces to reinforce the ailing British army. During the 1899 2nd Anglo-Boer war, Gandhi volunteered for the British army. He preached independence, except for Black people. He expressed his disdain for Black Africans, by frequently referring to them as "Kafirs". In 1930, he raised Rs 1.32 Crores - a humongous sum in those days (even in present day India that's a substantial amount of money) for the Dalits of India. No records yet exist that a single penny of that fortune had been spent for the betterment of the people. Not very surprising for a failed lawyer, who tried his luck abroad and decided to work as legal counsel for a wealthy Muslim smuggler in South Africa charging hefty fees. People extol his vow to celibacy... and forget to mention, that he would separate married women from their husbands, and lie with them naked. He'd advise the husbands to take a cold shower whenever they felt aroused, while he was lying naked with their nude wives in the same room. He'd even lie naked with nude teen/pre-teen girls. When in Bengal, used the Bengali Muslims as an excuse to sleep naked with his 18 yr old grand-niece. He was 77 then, arguing that muslims may kill them, they should remain in the state of purity in case death comes. So he forced his grand-niece to sleep naked with him. Though there's no account of Gandhi ever having sexual relationship with any of these women. Lying naked with nude women was his way to demonstrate his resolve... the "vow of celibacy"... Of course, it should be easy to refrain from heterosexual romp with all the nude girls and ladies lying with him in the same room... someone who was decades later found to be a closet homosexual... Imagine if Mahatma Gandhi was alive today, and indulged in the weird activities that he did...
• FeepingCreature 9y ago
  I've been happier since I stopped trying to prepare my own food and switched largely to Joylent.
• lukaszkups 9y ago
  yeah, that's why every person is different. For example, I really relax when I fill or empty the dishwasher - but I hate cleaning my flat - it's like wasted time for me - really thinking now about hiring a maid to clean it once a week.
• culturalzero 9y ago
  There is no single path to happiness.
• torrent-of-ions 9y ago
  To be fair, ordering takeaway was just an example used in the article. I actually enjoy cooking, so it really wouldn't make me happier to order. I also like polishing my shoes and some things like that. But I hate ironing my shirts and cleaning the toilet. I used to incorporate cleaning into my home workout routine as well. I knew I couldn't be the only one! A "rest" for me was sweeping the floor. Now I go to the gym because bodyweight isn't enough any more but I haven't found a good way to keep my floors clean because I hate doing that too.