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Ten Steps Towards Happiness (2015)
- two_handfuls 2mo agoCame in not expecting much, but those are all good points, expressed concisely.
- jrjrhrhrh 2mo agoThis guy wrote zeromq message passing library.. He has also passed from this world. Dude had some great ideas
- HexPhantom 2mo agoNone of the ideas are completely new, but putting them together this clearly makes them harder to dismiss and easier to remember
- ldayley 2mo agoI was just reminiscing about an old Pieter Hintjens post with my kids yesterday. They still hold up. RIP (Needs a 2016 in the title)
- herri 2mo ago[dead]
- MithrilTuxedo 2mo agoI 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.
- ncr100 2mo ago1. Invest in your senses I see you noticing a thing, with your senses. Sincerely: A (used) folding phone offers 66% body content, 33% sidebar. Is a noticeable improvement.
- NathanielK 2mo agoI just use the reader mode built into my browser. 100% content. 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.
- MithrilTuxedo 2mo agoMaybe 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. 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.
- petra 2mo agoYou're right. I've used reader mode(the paper in the url bar in Firefox) to solve this.
- augustk 2mo ago"Accept everything"
- Cthulhu_ 2mo agoIn the sprit of the article, "grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Mentioning these things in a comment is neither accepting of how it is nor changing it. You can't change the site - the author died. You can change your browser or reading mode or whatever. Or you can just accept it is the way it is.
- gib444 2mo agoReader mode works. Just tested on Firefox on a pixel...
- warkdarrior 2mo agoI have been trying to square such suggestions for happiness with G.B. Shaw's quote: > "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." 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?
- spaqin 2mo agoIt'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. Funnily enough I also know some happy people who adhere to none of these points.
- bch 2mo ago> you can't turn a river around with a stick Somebody forgot to tell this[0] guy. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashrath_Manjhi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashrath_Manjhi
- _carbyau_ 2mo agoThat's a lot of rock. It is a thing with humans. We : 1. overestimate how much we can do in a short amount of time. 2. underestimate how much we can do incrementally over a long amount of time.
- baud9600 2mo agoSomeone should put this somewhere. In a book or a poster. On a LinkedIn post for managers
- bch 2mo ago
- jader201 2mo agoRelated, earlier today: The Price of Happiness (62 points, 32 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996364 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996364
- Pieter_U_Da_Man 2mo agoShortly before he passed during his AMA he offered some advice I try to follow. Me 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? Pieterh Well, thank you! :) 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. It does take time.
- HexPhantom 2mo agoLearn the whole system, then remove everything unnecessary
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- virtualritz 2mo agoThe one thing I'd put in context is "don't waste time on commuting". 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. 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.
- _kblcuk_ 2mo agoIt'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.
- imhoguy 2mo agoor being on ADHD spectrum, forget reading with distactions.
- HexPhantom 2mo agoPublic transport makes commuting less wasteful, but I am not sure it makes a long commute free
- Cthulhu_ 2mo agoDefinitely 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. 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.
- 121789 2mo agoI 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 My experience is that for people with kids, this benefit basically disappears and they want every spare second they can get
- pdamoc 2mo agoI 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?” I wish more people would take his ideas seriously, especially his "Collective Code Construction Contract".
- VividVisions 2mo agoThat's such a great quote. Unexpected and fitting.
- lightandlight 2mo agoI learned about 0mq a few years back, found myself wondering why it had such an air of quality. Then I found Hitnjens' writing, only to learn that he had been gone for a while. I was surprised by my sense of loss.
- skrebbel 2mo agoFwiw, not that it mattes a lot, I think most of that sense of quality in ZeroMQ is due to the very tasteful efforts of its main author, Martin Sustrik (https://www.250bpm.com/ https://www.250bpm.com/). Pieter Hintjens sortof stewarded the project but, I believe, didn't code all that much on it. I did use the Xitami webserver in anger or years back in the early 2000s though, and that very much was Pieter's work! It was amazing!
- CoderLim 2mo ago[dead]
- eric_khun 2mo agowozniak simple formula i quite like : H = S − F: your Happiness on any given day is your count of Smiles minus your count of Frowns
- yard2010 2mo agoSteve Wozniak is a present that helps me keep this equation on the positive side every time I stumble upon something he said or done. This included. In an alternate universe the society values these kinds of people and not the bullies.
- empiricus 2mo agoSo code review is a sure recipe for unhappiness?
- teleforce 2mo ago>Don't take it all too seriously, we all die. Wise wisdoms overall, to have this particular advise from someone who has passed away just hit a different notes. There's an old Chinese proverbs on being happy: "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".
- HexPhantom 2mo agoHe was not writing abstractly about mortality; he knew exactly what it meant
- bspammer 2mo agoI don't think he had his diagnosis when he wrote this.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- HexPhantom 2mo agoThe 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...
- lobofta 2mo agoEverything that is present can not be changed in the current moment. It already is. Therefore accept everything that already is. That is deeply compatible with using your energy to create a better world for yourself and others.
- HumblyTossed 2mo agoThis is what he meant I believe. Sure, you can work towards change, but today, right now, it is what it is and don’t let that get in the way of your being happy.
- neuroticnews25 2mo agoAdmittedly 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.
- zaik 2mo agoWhy exactly should someone acknowledge their unhappiness but then do nothing about it?
- xenocratus 2mo agoBecause we have a limited amount of time and energy and other things might be more valuable to us. tbh, even this list kind of leans toward improving other measures as a means of increasing happiness. You could just write the article as "things to improve in your life", and then at the end go "oh yeah, and you'll probably be a bit happier too".
- balfirevic 2mo ago> even this list kind of leans toward improving other measures as a means of increasing happiness Since we don't have direct access to happiness dial, every advice for increasing happiness is going to be like that.
- sinuhe69 2mo agoI believe that living a happy life is a long term survival strategy. Producing offsprings is the other way. If we feel miserable, we want to cut our life short or it will be due to many problems, bad health included. Long term happiness is a very good measure of how good your life is going. So while we might not agree on whether we should optimize our lives for happiness, it's certainly an objective we should always consider. However, we should not confuse happiness with pleasure. One is meant for the long term, while the other is ephemeral.
- 21asdffdsa12 2mo ago
- circlefavshape 2mo ago"explore the world without desire" I don't know how I feel about this. I know when I can manage to accept things I feel better overall, but there is real joy in getting what you wanted - in doing something you enjoy, and realising that you're enjoying it while you're doing it, and rejoicing in that Detachment is all very well, but attachment brings higher highs as well as lower lows
- imhoguy 2mo agoFrom my own experience, it is about lowering expectations, not detachement. World is full of things and processes I can't control, experiencing them without expectations gives me peace and joy, and I attach to them then in such blissful state.
- bansalvip 2mo agoI appreciate how this article centers on 'you,' encouraging me to look within myself. I realize that many people seek to correct their lives through external influences. I wrote something a while back on the topic of happiness - https://vipulbansal.substack.com/p/the-key-pillars-of-human-behaviour https://vipulbansal.substack.com/p/the-key-pillars-of-human-...
- grvdrm 2mo ago> 7. Ground Your Emotions Yup. But also - no shame and guilt for experiencing them. And, your expectations of happiness. Something I’m recently internalizing more than I did in the past: happiness is not a constant state. There are happy moments and unhappy moments in life. I think the search for a constant happiness is what drives feeling unhappy. It’s this blob-like goal. For me, working on recognizing and being ok with the ups and downs has produced the happiest state of my life.
- __rito__ 2mo ago> 4. Be part of bigger things > Being part of bigger things makes us feel valued. Find communities and projects to be part of. Start your own. It could be online or in the real world. Make sure the groups don't get politically active one way or the other. Today's social landscape is made significantly worse by political polarization dragged to the extreme - fuelled by short form content silos and bubbles. (Tiktok, Instagram, etc.) Ban politics strictly in the spaces you create, and don't be part of the ones that lean one way or the other - unless you are actively looking to take part in politics. This was not the case even ten years ago. But now, is.
- sethammons 2mo agoI think this is wildly wrongheaded. The socially polite "no politics" is a critical insulator allowing normally non-socially acceptable behavior to grow. I am convinced it is those in power not wanting an informed populace. We are not in uninteresting times. People need to be engaging in world around them, not ignoring it. A: "My neighbors are scared" B: "Don't talk about that, we might get testy because I think your neighbors should be scared."
- tonyedgecombe 2mo agoI had to tell my parents to stop talking about politics because it was making me dislike them. They weren’t informed citizens, they were just regurgitating whatever they happened to read in their newspaper that day. If you pushed them on anything they said they didn’t really have any understanding beneath the headlines they had read. It would be better for them if they could disengage from it but they don’t seem to want to. There is nothing good coming out from their engagement.
- sethammons 2mo agoSo no discussion happened and they were left uninformed? I talk through things with my family and share different takes and sources. Some are unhinged and called out. But usually there is lots of common ground. And sometimes changed options. No single raindrop believes it to be blamed for the flood.
- black_13 2mo ago[dead]
- jebarker 2mo ago> Do things you are bad at I think this should be coupled with: know when to quit. I've persisted with some things I'm bad at out of stubbornness but have never improved and it's just burned me out.
- devonsolomon 2mo ago1. Desire is a contract to be unhappy until you get what you want. 2. Happiness is only ever available now. 3. You were never broken; that was a thought. 4. Your gut is a lifetime of data arriving before the argument. 5. Say no to almost everything; freedom lives in the unscheduled hour. 6. If your peace requires the world’s cooperation, you don’t have peace. 7. Alone time is where the self returns to itself. 8. The news is a slot machine for outrage. Unplug it. 9. Compare yourself to no one; envy is drinking poison and waiting. 10. Money won’t make you happy, but it retires the problems that made you miserable. Also… 1. A man with no wants is already dead. He just hasn’t noticed. 2. Everything valuable in life compounds; the present is just where you make deposits. 3. Settling for yourself is the most polite form of giving up. 4. Feelings are evolution’s suggestions, not commands. 5. You can’t meditate your way out of a life that needs fixing. 6. Say yes until you’re interesting. No one regrets the adventures. 7. A brilliant life with no witnesses is a rough draft no one reads. 8. Ignorance isn’t peace, it’s just peace on credit. 9. Rivals are free personal trainers for the soul. 10. Every hour sold for money is bought from a life you don’t get back.
- chrisjj 2mo ago> Your body and mind need a good diet. Make your own food Stopped reading here. I know plenty of people who would not be made happy by that. They'd be made ill.
- pioneerjeff 2mo agoI think it missed one important point of achieving happiness, which is lowering your overall threshold. Let yourself say goodbye to luxury enjoyment and be more sensitive to daily unexpected incidents. You will find that happiness is just close at hand.