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It would perhaps be wise to try to practice deriving happiness from something other than the seeking out of novelty. Like picking up an instrument and start pr
by olau 5y ago
It would perhaps be wise to try to practice deriving happiness from something other than the seeking out of novelty.
Like picking up an instrument and start practicing more advanced music than the pop song of the day. That's really a long-term game.
Programming can be another such activity. I mostly stopped reading programming books some years ago, but I find that deliberating over the meta-game of programming, i.e. not how do I specifically solve this problem, but more how do I structure my solution, how do I simplify it, how do I reduce the problem itself to its core, how do I write the actual text, variable names etc., in such a manner that it is self-evident what is happening. That is truly a long game too. There's even a skill to the deliberation itself - too much deliberation is counterproductive.
I read somewhere that the philosophy in the antiquity defined being good not as based on absolute moral values of say unselfishness, like giving food to starving children, but on simply being really good at what you do. Perhaps that's from a realization of what actually makes people happy? Like the old carpenter expertly fixing a troublesome door while softly whistling to himself, a human being in inner peace.
- FeepingCreature 5y ago> Perhaps that's from a realization of what actually makes people happy? I just want to comment on the irony of praising a philosophy that focuses more on abstract virtue rather than an absolute metric of goodness, by noting that this increases happiness.
- glouwbug 5y agoDo you have more on this philosophy of being good? I’m interested
- nonrandomstring 5y agoI think that's a reference to the Greek notion of Arete. To be a good person didn't mean moral good, or excellence in one area like art - it meant being a great as an "all round person who lived their life to the full and exercised all human powers". The art of being a great _person_. You didn't have to be amazing at any one thing but, for a Greek citizen one should able to: Farm, hunt and cook a good meal Master a sword or bow Sail a boat and run a race Tell a good story, write a poem Make love well Climb a mountain Do math or argue philosophy Care for the old and young Tell a convincing lie You get the idea. Today we are highly specialised creatures, pallid by comparison. We get others (services) to do most of our real living for us, so we can concentrate on specialised wage slavery and use the money to buy back vicarious living under the heading of "leisure". Notice my last example - which illustrates the this excellence is separate from any moral conceit of the "good person".
- mechanical_bear 5y agoThis is the Greek concept of a polymath. Also mentioned by Robert Heinlein in Time Enough For Love: A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
- nonrandomstring 5y agoIs that a direct Heinlein quote? It's amazing!
- brimble 5y agoHeinlein wrote it, his character Lazarus Long presents it. May or may not mean Heinlein thought it was true. It's oft-quoted but I think it's silly posturing. I guess everyone's just insects after all, since 99.99% of people will never do or even be prepared to do anywhere close to the whole list.
- mechanical_bear 5y ago.
- nonrandomstring 5y agoSo far I'm holding off on planning an invasion and dying gallantly. The rest I'm ticking off pretty well.
- nrclark 5y agoTBH that kind of sounds like a notion that would have been held by somebody with a lot of leisure time. I can't imagine that your average dairy farmer would have been particularly good at swords, math, or poetry.
- frogulis 5y agoUnfortunately I don't have a direct reference for you, but I'm pretty sure Aristotle talks a bit about this sort of idea in The Nichomachean Ethics. Something like "be a good human in the sense that a tree or a machine is good". To him, contributing to ones community and participating in (Athenian) politics is the highest good for the learned person.
- v-erne 5y agoIt has been rather long time since I studied philosophy but I remember somehow fuzzily that stoicism is what You are looking for. It has some good ideas about being good (or rather better because they did not believed in absolutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdzeSTCCdJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdzeSTCCdJo
- bmj 5y agoThis is a good point, and, interestingly, I think the author of the original post would agree. He clearly (in 2016) still enjoys his work, and seeks to be excellent at it. He's just come to the conclusion that he can both do that, and not have computers and operating systems and programming be the sole focus of his life.