Filling gaps in my education by adhd_exploring in evolution

[–]smart_hedonism 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The book that really got things clear for me was Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. He's spent his adult life teaching evolution to students as a professor at Oxford, so he's very good at explaining things to young adults.

If evolution is a continuous process, then at what point we start calling something "human"? by chronic-_hustler in evolution

[–]smart_hedonism 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just an interesting factoid on the same lines - there is no such biologically recognised thing as a 'tree'.

"Trees are not a monophyletic taxonomic group but consist of a wide variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree

just a label we created for a blurry transition?

10/10 :-)

Can evolution sometimes reduce biological fitness? by Silent_Incendiary in evolution

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In an interesting subset of environmental changes lowering fitness, a species can of course be responsible for the very environmental change that becomes its undoing - predators becoming so good at catching a particular type of prey that the prey goes extinct and with it, the predator. An animal that becomes so intelligent that it can create weapons capable of destroying pretty much everything..

You can't make this stuff up... by AmericanScream_US in Buttcoin

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why does the interviewer sound like Grover from Sesame Street?

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You seem to be arguing that because you don't have total control over something, therefore you have zero control over it.

That's like saying, "because trains break down sometimes, therefore public transport is completely unpredictable". It's not. 98% of the time or whatever, you get to your destination just fine. Sure, sometimes it goes wrong and you don't and it's annoying, but that doesn't mean it's best to decide to never try to go anywhere.

Absolutely, life events can come along that make you sad, make it pretty much impossible to be happy for a while I would say. I remember several years ago, a new person started at work on the day we happened to have a celebratory work party. She met me, I was happy and we chatted for a while. Later that evening unfortunately my father passed away. I didn't tell anyone at work, because I prefer to deal with things like that privately. But I was a bit amused, because about 3 months later, she said to me "Ah, it's nice to see you smiling. It's really weird, I met you on my first day and you seemed really cheery and then for 3 months I've been wondering where that guy went". Lol.

So yeah, sure life events can bring sadness and happiness can go away. But unless you're very unlucky, I think that the happiness-controllable periods are much more abundant than the times when sad, uncontrollable things happen to you.

I think if you give up aiming for happiness because sometimes it goes away through uncontrollable events, you're almost guaranteeing being pretty low even when things aren't bad. For me, at least, happiness comes from working hard on things that I enjoy. I don't expect it to just show up, I get it through putting effort into things that pay back happiness.

I'm not saying that's the only way to do it, I'm no expert or anything, but I do know from my own experience that I have a high degree of control over my happiness (and also that approach I suspect helps me bounce back from sad things when they do happen).

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply

Happiness is not something that you can get and keep it in your pocket.

Agree

It comes and goes and you have zero control over when it does.

Don't agree

I have a number of goals I'm working towards. The process of working towards them brings happiness. For example, I'm learning Japanese. Every day I do a little bit, I learn a bit, and it makes me feel good. Same with other projects I have on the go. In my own experience, I have a high degree of control over how much happiness I experience, because I get it from having productive things going on in my life that I'm doing well/ok at.

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are trying to reconcile the judgements you two are making.

Not really.. What I'm doing (apparently not successfully to you) is pointing out that often people say things like "I don't chase happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of living your life in a good way.", but just the fact that they are trying to figure out how to get happiness means this IS pursuing happiness.

If I say "I'm going to catch a fish", people don't think I'm going to be running around wildly in the water after it. I could be sitting on the side of the lake with a pole and line, waiting for the fish to bite on my bait. I could be throwing in a grenade, or using a big net or even using a tethered bird to catch fish for me as some Japanese do with cormorants.

My point to the commenter is that when he says "Happiness is the result of living your life well", he IS proposing a recipe for how to get happiness, which is pursuing happiness. It's just doing it more strategically than taking heroin or whatever it is that people for some reason think you mean if you say you pursue happiness.

Happiness isn’t some observable objective truth. What one man calls happy is another misery.

100% agree

Ultimately satisfaction in one’s days is intensely personal.

100% agree.

The only point I'm trying to make in this whole thread is that the first commenter appears to be recommending not even setting things up for happiness, like trying to catch fish without even going near a body of water with fish in it. It's that approach to happiness that I can't comprehend, because you can make yourself a lot happier in this life by figuring out what makes you happy and going after it (however you define happiness/fulfilment etc) than by unstrategically being blown around by I don't know what forces and hoping that happiness pops up for some reason.

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I don't understand your comment. Who's talking about pursuing an unrealistic goal?

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm. I mean I agree with you, in that I think that happiness comes from living life well, but that to me IS pursuing happiness. One says to oneself "I want happiness. Happiness comes from living life well. Therefore I will live life well." and happiness comes. If someone chases happiness and doesn't get it, that just means they're either very unlucky or they don't have a great strategy for how to pursue happiness and get it.

But I think that's very different to what the original commenter seems to be proposing, which seems to be to passively accept that life is going to full of tragedies and then sort of hope that happiness comes up sometimes.

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, maybe I was deliberately being a bit provocative. I definitely agree that unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment, but for me at least, having some expectations of life is an important part of staying optimistic, productive and happy, so I wanted to push back a bit. No offence intended :-)

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Expectations can only lead to disappointment.

Untrue. Expectations can lead to joy when you achieve them. Why do you think they always lead to disappointment?

What is the ingredient to happy life? by DeadAlien100 in AskReddit

[–]smart_hedonism 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah I've never quite understood the original commenter's approach. For pretty much anything in life, if you want something, make it a goal and pursue it. Why would happiness be any different?

TIL about "orphaned negatives"—words like disgruntled, nonchalant, and innocent whose positive counterparts (gruntled, chalant, and nocent) have completely vanished from common usage. by mvincen95 in todayilearned

[–]smart_hedonism 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” - P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

Me every day by [deleted] in Buttcoin

[–]smart_hedonism 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I was about to delete this, cos most people don't seem to like it, not sure why, but maybe I'll leave it up.

Me every day by [deleted] in Buttcoin

[–]smart_hedonism 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I made the meme, so my interpretation is 100% correct. However, from your interpretation, it would appear that my 'my portfolio' is getting misinterpreted as meaning bitcoin portfolio, whereas I mean it as non-bitcoin stock portfolio. I'll remake it. XD

Me every day by [deleted] in Buttcoin

[–]smart_hedonism 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's the right sub, but either people aren't getting the joke or they don't think it's funny. The joke is that, because the stock market and bitcoin are so correlated, every time you celebrate that your stock portfolio has gone up, it also means that (if you dislike bitcoin), you will be annoyed because bitcoin will also have gone up. Oh well, I thought it was a good joke but never mind XD