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Happiness is a false idol. The key to happiness is to lower your standards for what you expect out of life. This leads to an uncreative state of being - because
by mjfl 3y ago
Happiness is a false idol. The key to happiness is to lower your standards for what you expect out of life. This leads to an uncreative state of being - because why would you create anything, the world is good as it is. And creating is just too hard. But this uncreative "last man" is someone that I certainly would not hold in esteem. Give me a tortured artist instead.
- escapedmoose 3y agoThe “tortured artist” trope is overplayed in media vs. the reality. I don’t have the sources on hand, but you might enjoy looking into it: truly prolific and influential artists tend to be those who had stable/comfortable/long enough lives to sustain an art practice. One good book related to this is Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. I also highly recommend the book Six Myths About the Good Life by Joel Kupperman, which has an accessible explanation of some of the philosophy behind the pursuit of “happiness” vs deeper long-term joy. It’s a book I find myself revisiting every few years because it really makes you think. Edit: Kupperman’s book specifically analyzes the common assumption you mentioned that “the key is to lower your standards.” …”Better Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied” is a common related saying
- oh_sigh 3y agoI don't think you have any evidence that happy people don't create anything.
- swatcoder 3y agoThought experiments can lead wherever you want them to. You can just as well think of happiness as a skill that one can hone and learn to practice in increasingly varied circumstances. Voila, it’s no longer part of some calculus of motivation at all. It’s just its own thing that one may or may not partake in. And likewise, you can just as well think of creating as a casually chosen option among countless ways to spend time. You do it if you want to do it, when you want to do it, because you may as well do something. Voila, it’s no longer reliant on the state of things around you or you’re mood. It’s just its own thing that one may or may not partake in. You can play the little thought experiment parlor trick to get you wherever you want to go. If you want to believe that artists only do what they do to escape suffering, that’s fine, but some of us opt for different thought experiments with different conclusions. In this case, it turns out that if you want to believe it, one can be happy and make stuff with no contradiction at all. Many of us here know that from first hand experience.
- stavros 3y agoI think both the happy, uncreative man and the tortured artist would disagree.