Conversation

i continue to think that you are completely wrong about happiness fwiw

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

wrong in goal (we shouldn’t aim to be happy), mechanism (not trying to be happy is the key to being happy), or both?

)

@QiaochuYuan

i think people very visibly and very obviously want things other than happiness and that fixating on happiness is a philosophical mistake, but admittedly it depends a lot on the precise referent of “happiness” i think a thing people def want is to *not be chronically unhappy*

Yeah I’m referring to a huge cluster of feelings. But I think if people can get to spending 95% of their time in that cluster they would be psyched, and I think it’s possible today and certainly in theory. I don’t mean a single blissed-out feeling

It reminds me of core transformation actually. I’ll be like what do I want oh I want a pizza, oh but what’s the deeper want under that, etc recursively. When I’m at the deeper want (and really feel the felt-sense) my desire for pizza goes to zero in like 5 seconds

for those who haven’t done CT, the deeper want may be blissful joy, or to go on a walk to pizza place and feel free, or to socialize and pizza is an excuse. It’s usually just one, and when I click to that one the pizza becomes a hollow shell. At least IME

Not feeling into the “I want a pizza” because you “philosophically know the wanting of pizzas is wrong” is a failure mode too. It keeps us from knowing what we already know. Even if those intermediate knowings are a bit wrong, they are also a bit true.

There was a sense in which “I wanted a pizza.” There was a sense in which it didn’t turn to be really, but feeling into the intermediate step did non-trivial work for me.

Are you saying the middle step is useful in that it gives you a path or hint to the deeper issues / wants / schemas / part? If so, 💯 agree

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

also, I’ll just say that being 40 threads deep with the boys talking about hedonism is a great way to spend a Tuesday night

Replying to

also i think calling the thing “hedonism” is even more confusing than “happiness” lol although it might be in some sense a savvy marketing move

8:17 AM · Feb 2, 2021Twitter for iPad

Replying to

But I'm gonna coin a term called Heroic Hedonism. It's where you indulge in all the fleshly desires that you possibly can, while simultaneously living an authentic purposeful life and facing your shadow in service of the world around you.

Compare that phrasing with “live authentic purposeful life in service of others whole indulging in fleshly desires.” Hits different.

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