Conversation

way i would say it: if you can hedonic treadmill on something then it wasn’t satisfying any of your actual needs. we get very confused in america by not distinguishing, at all, between happiness and *excitement*. excitement is the stuff that fades quickly on repetition

Quote Tweet

Simon Sarris

@simonsarris

· Jul 11

am I the only one who things the "hedonic treadmill" idea is... fake? It's covering for something else.

Show this thread

150

Nick

@nickcammarata

Jul 13

if needs and wants are different, why are some people super happy sitting alone in silence for years with just the bare minimum necessary for survival, while we consider vastly more things than that "needs"

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)

@QiaochuYuan

Replying to

@nickcammarata

“needs” was maybe a poorly chosen word, i also get very confused about whether the need / want distinction. i don’t have a better word for making the point i wanted to make though. maybe “…then it was fake in some way” which is vaguer but might be more accurate

2:22 PM · Jul 13, 2022Twitter for iPhone

Replying to

though maybe all the wants/needs/cravings/etc were fake in some way

language is so funny. i wrote an essay or something once that went something like “striving for happiness is a trap, navigate by excitement instead”, but i mean something very different by excitement than what QC is saying, which i think is like shallow novelty/thrillseeking

Show replies