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Happiness is overrated. Having your own individual culture center around self-satisfaction limits your scope as a person. Being responsible, cultivating your ab

• _yb2s 4y ago
  This was exactly my attitude until I read the article…. I think it agrees with you, but goes a bit deeper, e.g. in the importance of being authentic and not suppressing negative emotions.
• bryanlarsen 4y ago
  This is an example of where English falls down. Your definition of happiness appears to be almost the complete opposite of the definition used in the article. This is also very well trod ground, Plato did a good job on it. Plato would have called your definition of happiness hedonism. He would have called the articles definition of happiness eudaimonism, and that lines up pretty good with what you said can make you miserable. Plato and happiness scientists generally agree that eudaimonism is the best route to long term happiness. Perhaps we should just stop using the word happiness and use the words pleasure and satisfaction instead.
  • kaon123 4y ago
    Yes! Often satisfaction and pleasure are in a conflicting relationship. When you ask a software developer that has worked for 3 years on a "successful" side project. He will probably tell you that it cost him lots of evenings he could have been seeing friends or sleeping. Yet that same person may feel very satisfied for having done so. Still. It is difficult territory. Dissatisfaction is often leads to action that can then lead to "societal success". Should you be dissatisfied then? The Tony Robbinses of the world might say yes!
  • circlefavshape 4y ago
    > Plato and happiness scientists generally agree that eudaimonism is the best route to long term happiness. I think you're misconstruing this a bit. Plato and some happiness scientists see eudaimonia as superior to "affect" (the actual emotional state of "happy"). One is not a route to the other. Daniel Kahneman is, as far as I can make out, a hedonist and so, fwiw, am I. To me eudaimonia is just smugness
  • boh 4y ago
    Happiness is similar to the word "freedom" , in that it can mean anything to anyone (with freedom used in equal measure by rebels, despots and used car salesmen). Words like these are more used for emotional aesthetics rather than a descriptive expression. These words are so persistent in our culture because they essentially have no meaning. It doesn't matter how the article or "happiness experts" define happiness because their definitions are circumstantial and irrelevant. The meaningless of the word "happiness" remains intact. It's closer to a secular faith than an actual phenomenon. Yes you might've felt happy but a persistent state of "happiness" is more a sign of a manic episode than an actual reality you can buy for yourself or hire someone (like the ridiculous people in the article) to achieve.
• oscarb92 4y ago
  You seem to be confusing happiness with hedonism.
• knowhy 4y ago
  Slavoj Žižek [1] sees happiness as a conformist category. He argues that: > We don't really want what we think we desire. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88jj6PSD7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88jj6PSD7w
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
• brodo 4y ago
  > nobody gets in the history books for being happy. “Getting in the history books” aka fame is per definition never going to happen for most people. An important part of growing up is recognizing that you are neither rich nor famous and properly won’t be. General life advice needs to take that into account.
• cortesoft 4y ago
  > but nobody gets in the history books for being happy. You state this like getting in history books is a universal desire, or a common goal for everyone. Why is getting in history books a desired thing?
• pcrh 4y ago
  >Happiness is overrated. I had fun once. It was awful.