Admittedly I don't have much life wisdom, but my strong intuition is happiness is a measure, not a target, and you shouldn't optimize for it. All this "science of happiness" talk feels, I don't know, spiritually offputting.
I cant' believe it's almost 10 years since he died. My favorite quote of his is "Who needs a bucket list when you have love?”<p>I wish more people would take his ideas seriously, especially his "Collective Code Construction Contract".
The one thing I'd put in context is "don't waste time on commuting".<p>In Europe for sure and possibly many parts of Asia like Japan or bigger metropolises in China etc. most people will commute by public transport.<p>You can read. Whenever I had a job where I commuted at least an hour a day, the number of books I read, per month, went from 2–3 to 10 or more.
In the Paris area, if you commute during rush hour, you'll probably been stuck between 100 people per square meter. At best, you can listen to some podcasts or audiobooks.<p>When I still had to work from the office, I was fortunate enough to be able to move my hours earlier so I could avoid morning rush hour and could, indeed, read in the morning. Afternoons I couldn't, more often than not.<p>It was just wasted time. I can also read on my couch before I start working from home. I've read many more books since I was able to WFH on most days.
I agree with you as long as it's passive commuting (NOT driving). I had a few jobs / cities with long (45+ minute) commutes and I also got a ton of reading done that I wouldn't I wouldn't normally<p>My experience is that for people with kids, this benefit basically disappears and they want every spare second they can get
Public transport makes commuting less wasteful, but I am not sure it makes a long commute free
Definitely not; I'm looking at a possible new job, but public transit to get there is an hour and a half. Even though they only ask you to be in the office two days a week, that's 6 hours a week I won't get back.<p>I mean I still want to apply to the job to see if they offer me a significant step up in terms of wages (doubtful), but I'd rather have something closer to home.
It's great if you can do that -- some people (I, for one) get such heavy nausea from reading in any kind of transport that the only thing I can do is listen to the music and look at the clouds.
Came in not expecting much, but those are all good points, expressed concisely.
None of the ideas are completely new, but putting them together this clearly makes them harder to dismiss and easier to remember
This guy wrote zeromq message passing library.. He has also passed from this world. Dude had some great ideas
The one part I struggle with is -accept everything-. Acceptance helps with what cannot be changed, but I have also become happier by refusing to accept certain jobs, habits, relationships...
I upped the font size on my Pixel recently and this is one of those sites where (in Firefox) the sidebar takes up more than 50% of the width of the screen and retains tiny text while the article itself wraps on a couple words per line.
You're right.
I've used reader mode(the paper in the url bar in Firefox) to solve this.
1. Invest in your senses<p>I see you noticing a thing, with your senses. Sincerely:<p>A (used) folding phone offers 66% body content, 33% sidebar. Is a noticeable improvement.
Maybe things have changed since I was an Android dev in 2013, but I buy Pixel devices because I don't expect something to work well on most Android devices if it doesn't work well on a Pixel.<p>I'm willing to switch between Chrome and Firefox. On Chrome I get 66% body content I can't read. It's one of the reasons I stopped using Chrome.
I just use the reader mode built into my browser. 100% content.<p>I don't want large phone though. I'd prefer to have a less appealling small phone that encourages me to spend more time off it.
"Accept everything"
Related, earlier today:<p><i>The Price of Happiness (62 points, 32 comments)</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996364">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996364</a>
Shortly before he passed during his AMA he offered some advice I try to follow.<p>Me<p><i>This doesn't really relate to psychopaths but I just wanted to say I've been a follower of yours for years since I discovered your state machine language, multi-threaded kernel and web server back in the 90's. The AMQP / ZMQ work you've done is inspiring. How do you do it?</i><p>Pieterh<p><i>Well, thank you! :)</i><p><i>I don't know how my brain works, but it likes to take huge, complex situations, learn them inside and out, and then and find simple paths through them. I've always done this since I was young. In software, that means writing simple things that solve large problems, well. In writing, this means explaining mind-boggling things in simple words.</i><p><i>It does take time.</i>
I was just reminiscing about an old Pieter Hintjens post with my kids yesterday. They still hold up. RIP<p>(Needs a 2016 in the title)
wozniak simple formula i quite like : H = S − F: your Happiness on any given day is your count of Smiles minus your count of Frowns
I have been trying to square such suggestions for happiness with G.B. Shaw's quote:<p>> "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."<p>The steps towards happiness basically require accepting the world as is and appreciating it as is. Does that mean happy people are reasonable? And if they are, does that mean that happy people do not drive progress? Are there happy AND unreasonable people?
You can appreciate the world and still do Hard Work to make it better - definitely not mutually exclusive. Be unreasonable. Be Progressive.<p>Temper it all with Desiderata[0], since we’re being philosophical.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html</a>
I'm not religious nor a recovering alcoholic, but I've always liked the serenity prayer: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer</a>.<p>Obviously it is unreasonable to continue walking with a stone in your boot because you want to adapt to it; equally obviously it is unreasonable to expect your boots to last forever without repair.
That quote is from a play, and was written by a character who is a revolutionary and an anarchist.<p>In a meta-sense, I don't think G.B. Shaw intended this quote to be taken as an absolute truth by the audience.<p>And, even taking the quote itself at face value (pretending the fictional character who wrote it was a real person), I think it's referring mostly to political progress. Indeed, most times that political institutions have been upended, it was by people who were not happy with the status quo. But I think that's a different sort of unhappiness from the unhappiness of not being satisfied with your life.
It's not a binary choice, but a spectrum. It depends on the scope and your own abilities - you can't turn a river around with a stick, but you can clean up your part of the lawn. Keep control over what you can control, and don't get too upset about what you can't - so with a little effort you change (or progress) a little part of the world.<p>Funnily enough I also know some happy people who adhere to none of these points.
One can be content or happy without being complacent. Also finding peace with what you have can open motivation to make change. The discontent of one’s current situation can be debilitating and demotivating so removing the mood or feeling can actually enable action.<p>But then what you put effort in will resonate with you and not be the same as what you would do when trying to chase something to impress someone outside.<p>There is this strange paradox of accepting a situation enables changing it. I hope others who read this who understand it better will share their more lucid insights.
Yes, yes, and no.
I mean you have to ask what does unreasonable mean in this context?<p>Because in a literal meaning, that basically puts both John Carmack and Adolf Hitler in the same "unreasonable men" bucket. Both had ideas for the "world" and adapted it to themselves.<p>But I don't think we should read it that way. Also you should never take one philosopher's idea and only follow it in isolation. Every great thinker has massive blind spots and it's always better to think for yourself and read opinions that may counter each other.<p>Also I don't think its as simple as to be happy you must accept the world and be a passive host and make no changes. In fact, many would argue you get real happiness when you pursue something bigger than yourself and in those pursuits, we usually make progress.<p>More so, do you think Hitler was unhappy? Are you saying every unreasonable person that makes progress is unhappy? That clearly cannot be true.<p>In fact, your question should be answered by what is happiness rather than how to be happy. And the answer can be complciated. No 10 list guide can truly help you unravel the actual human pysche and what makes you you but it can act as markers and make you think if done properly.
> More so, do you think Hitler was unhappy?<p>Yes, he killed himself in the end. If the question is whether he was always unhappy, well, I'm sure there were happy points in his life.
Negative happiness. For Hitler, being captured alive and utterly humiliated in front of the world's jury as it were, must have been a prospect too horrible to contemplate. Happiness with a coefficient of -10 as against maybe -5 immediately prior to death by poison + gunshot. His and probably everybody else's choice and as in his case, something for dictators to ponder.
>Don't take it all too seriously, we all die.<p>Wise wisdoms overall, to have this particular advise from someone who has passed away just hit a different notes.<p>There's an old Chinese proverbs on being happy:<p>"If you want to be happy for an hour, take a nap. If you want to be happy for a day, go fishing. If you want to be happy for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, help someone else".
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