29 ms·
How to Want Less
- pabo 5y agoThis is a great piece, revolving around finding satisfaction through scaling down desires, instead of accumulating more of wealth/success. The claim is that good feeling attached to success is almost always ephemeral. The text draws a rich context by providing many scientific, cultural/historical and religious references. The author also provides some kind-of-practical advice, distilled from their own life: 1. Go from prince to sage 2. Make a reverse bucket list 3. Get smaller
- derbOac 5y agoI understand the rationale behind this and admit some of the most contented times of my life were associated with wanting less in some sense. But when I've struggled the most too, this advice has always came across as rationalizing failure or sour grapes of "I never wanted that anyway", which has never been never helpful to me. I also sort of wonder if the phenomenon is about being satisfied rather than wanting less per se. That is, if you're successful in obtaining what you want, it might seem as if you're wanting less but it's really just that you don't feel the need for more. I guess I just think this all is unhelpful at some level, because awhile it's true that "not wanting" in the sense of "not having lack of fulfillment" is good, its unclear how that always applies. There's also the issue of looking back and feeling pain of regret from lost opportunities, which it seems would be of increased risk from this approach to life.
- haspoken 5y agohttps://archive.is/ycri7 https://archive.is/ycri7