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I find this specially true in "passion-drive" jobs like research. I am doing a PhD and this is so true in so many levels.

vouaobrasil 2y ago
I got a PhD myself. And I think it's definitely at least partially true: I was told flat-out that I should stick to big-business style research (i.e. research areas with large, complex and directed research plans) and forget following my own curiosity. Of course, once you get tenure in places where it exists or you make it, you can deviate from that. It's even worse in industry, where I worked after academia. I felt like I was using 5% of my brain to do things I was bored to death with. This isn't just me either: many of the people I've worked with feel the same, including virtually all my fellow PhD students. I feel like the only thing keeping it going is the novelty of working in new places, meeting new people, and getting new projects. It's almost as if we have a basal attraction to novelty because it's a survival instinct, but we have distilled life so that novelty is the only thing left, stripped of substance long ago when we traded thought for automation. Of course, it's even harder to see it because we have "propagandists" (i.e. then 1% of people who have carved out a protective bubble for themselves due to a combination of luck, ingenuity, and gaming the system) that say that amazing things are happening.
- FredPret 2y ago
  If you think: - only 1% of people are happy - they are happy because they are lucky - every happy person is a propagandist You need immediate recalibration of your worldview. You only live once, and you ought to be happy. People managed to be happy throughout human history because it’s a skill. EDIT: I wanted to add that I meant the above in good faith and not as an attack. I used to be unhappy too. But I learnt: - every moment doesn't need to be hedonic bliss - life doesn't have to be easy - one's work doesn't need to meet all of one's needs ... and you can still be happy. Human beings are extremely tough and adaptable, but that is a capability that has to be exercised.
  - RHSman2 2y ago
    What we struggle with is emotions and removing them from who we are. It is very, very subtle but oh so simple (but not easy)
  - barrenko 2y ago
    this was so me.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - pjc50 2y ago
    "One must imagine Sisyphus happy". There is a bit of a problem with the Internet tending to amplify negative views, giving you the impression that everyone is unhappy - no, it's just that all the unhappy people are on the Internet all the time.
    - coldtea 2y ago
      Well, there are also the polls and official stats putting depression, unhappiness, and loneliness, at record levels... Here's major depression - and that's as diagnosed and treated: "An estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 8.3% of all U.S. adults"
      - FredPret 2y ago
        Maybe people are depressed because of the ideas that: - happiness comes from outside yourself - the world is fucked (people who think this tend to blame the economy, the environment, the threat of nuclear war) - humans are weak and ineffectual, so we can't change the environment or ourselves Why do these ideas exist? Because people trying to sell us on voting this way or that (illegal immigrants are ruining the country! big bad corporates are ruining the environment!) or spending our money a certain way first have to convince us that the status quo is unacceptable and that they alone can effect change. Get rid of these ideas and watch your well-being skyrocket.

vouaobrasil 2y ago

I got a PhD myself. And I think it's definitely at least partially true: I was told flat-out that I should stick to big-business style research (i.e. research areas with large, complex and directed research plans) and forget following my own curiosity. Of course, once you get tenure in places where it exists or you make it, you can deviate from that. It's even worse in industry, where I worked after academia. I felt like I was using 5% of my brain to do things I was bored to death with. This isn't just me either: many of the people I've worked with feel the same, including virtually all my fellow PhD students. I feel like the only thing keeping it going is the novelty of working in new places, meeting new people, and getting new projects. It's almost as if we have a basal attraction to novelty because it's a survival instinct, but we have distilled life so that novelty is the only thing left, stripped of substance long ago when we traded thought for automation. Of course, it's even harder to see it because we have "propagandists" (i.e. then 1% of people who have carved out a protective bubble for themselves due to a combination of luck, ingenuity, and gaming the system) that say that amazing things are happening.

FredPret 2y ago
If you think: - only 1% of people are happy - they are happy because they are lucky - every happy person is a propagandist You need immediate recalibration of your worldview. You only live once, and you ought to be happy. People managed to be happy throughout human history because it’s a skill. EDIT: I wanted to add that I meant the above in good faith and not as an attack. I used to be unhappy too. But I learnt: - every moment doesn't need to be hedonic bliss - life doesn't have to be easy - one's work doesn't need to meet all of one's needs ... and you can still be happy. Human beings are extremely tough and adaptable, but that is a capability that has to be exercised.
- RHSman2 2y ago
  What we struggle with is emotions and removing them from who we are. It is very, very subtle but oh so simple (but not easy)
- barrenko 2y ago
  this was so me.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- pjc50 2y ago
  "One must imagine Sisyphus happy". There is a bit of a problem with the Internet tending to amplify negative views, giving you the impression that everyone is unhappy - no, it's just that all the unhappy people are on the Internet all the time.
  - coldtea 2y ago
    Well, there are also the polls and official stats putting depression, unhappiness, and loneliness, at record levels... Here's major depression - and that's as diagnosed and treated: "An estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 8.3% of all U.S. adults"
    - FredPret 2y ago
      Maybe people are depressed because of the ideas that: - happiness comes from outside yourself - the world is fucked (people who think this tend to blame the economy, the environment, the threat of nuclear war) - humans are weak and ineffectual, so we can't change the environment or ourselves Why do these ideas exist? Because people trying to sell us on voting this way or that (illegal immigrants are ruining the country! big bad corporates are ruining the environment!) or spending our money a certain way first have to convince us that the status quo is unacceptable and that they alone can effect change. Get rid of these ideas and watch your well-being skyrocket.