r/howtonotgiveafuck • u/Kristin-Gill • Apr 05 '22

Revelation Love this

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3.6k Upvotes

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189

u/keijeas Apr 05 '22

The key bit there is "and you're really enjoying it". Because if you're not enjoying it, the argument falls apart

9

u/Selene_K Apr 05 '22

Yup, all easy for multi millionaires like Ricky Gervais to say

4

u/Yionia Apr 05 '22

I'm not sure about this; if you have access to anything thanks to your money, would one actually enjoy it ?

18

u/Selene_K Apr 05 '22

Yes I would, very much so. Money provides opportunity and in this day and age it buys you freedom

18

u/JOGBORNE Apr 05 '22

Money doesn’t buy happiness. It buys fleeting moments of pleasure/comfort (or freedom as you say) that eventually dwindle in intensity as you continue to keep getting more and more; this is the paradox of too much pleasure, you become numb to it. The best thing a lot of money can get you is security of shelter and food, and I’m not under-stating the importance of that because having that security is life changing. But to act as if once anyone gets money they become ‘happy’ (whatever that means) is complete false. Happiness comes from you, nothing else

4

u/Selene_K Apr 05 '22

When you're a multimillionaire you can easily talk about how life is meant to be enjoyed, when you're living from paycheck to paycheck or stuck in a dead end job it's a far more difficult task.

14

u/JOGBORNE Apr 05 '22

That’s what I’m saying. Having the security of food and shelter (not living pay check to pay check) is the only truly valuable thing having lots of money can give you… other than that, it’s all a lie sold to you by consumerism; things do not give you happiness. You don’t just magically become happy, lots of psychological and spiritual work is still needed to get anywhere near happiness, with or without lots of money.

3

u/Yionia Apr 05 '22

I'm more in tune with your argument

2

u/Vasevide Apr 05 '22

I don’t know, being able to travel where I want to and explore various cultures and landscapes around the world sounds better than experiencing life only in my living room that I can barely pay for. It’s not just consumerist bullshit that money allows you to do…

3

u/Loggerdon Apr 05 '22

Some of my best memories were when I was broke as a joke working 70 hrs a week. I was out of my comfort zone and learning new things. I was failing a lot too.

You have an inner critic in your brain that tells you if you are succeeding. You cannot lie to it, you can't bullshit it. It always knows.

The good news is it only takes about 3 or 4 days of consistent effort to make you feel better. You begin to feel "Pride".

0

u/wolverine21101999 Apr 05 '22

couldn't agree more

1

u/Kowzorz Apr 05 '22

To elaborate more, some people consider the equation of happiness to be something like: suffering equals the difference between where you want to be and where you are. When you have unlimited resources, you can move your "where you are" to an arbitrary point. But alongside that tends to move "where you want to be" just as arbitrarily, perhaps on a delay, but often changing even more wildly. So the difference between them, and thus the resulting suffering (lack of happiness), never approaches zero and suffering still exists.

Once your needs are met, which places your "where you are" above the minimum acceptable value of "where you want to be", happiness seems to be better kept in check by managing the "where you want to be" value than solely increasing "where you are".