I was really heavy around the time I finished the CFA exams. It’s pretty normal to gain weight when you’re studying and stressed, but I’d gotten really big by then - larger than I’d been in my entire life - and I was also depressed about a lot of stuff at that time (career, relationship, family, etc.).
I started running and being a lot more physically active about 9 months after passing L3. Although my body really needed it, I actually started more for the mental health effects than the physical effects, but the physical effects were a nice bonus too. My mental state improved a lot. No drugs.
Physically, I’ll never be one of those “ripped” guys (it’s just important enough to me to go through the required pain) but I’m much closer to a weight and body that I feel comfortable with, and enough attractive women come to flirt with me that I am happy.
My main point, though is that physical activity really does help if you’re feeling depressed, and I would prefer to try that before any meds (which I haven’t done).
True. I think in US culture particularly, it’s not common to admit to people around you (even friends) that something is wrong, or to simply show that you are in a sad/angry mood… It’s just socially not acceptable.
In Russia, on the other hand, you can (or could in the past at least) just go to a friend and vent about your crappy day over a cup of tea.
I am not saying it’s a path to happiness, but allowing yourself feel sad is useful in maintaining overall mental health imo…
I don’t think i have any problems in life, and i guess i am happy person always because of that.
I mean, from time to time i stress about having a pimple on my face… but other than that, i live a life relatively stress-free.
I am not bored, i am satisfied with what i have, and i always look forward to things coming up in the future. My life is routine for the most part, but i do learn new things, meet new people, go to new places often.
I think the biggest problem is, many people are too lazy to make new friends once they reach a certain age, and afraid to try new activities because they don’t want to fail or they perceive it as “i’m too old for this”.
Agree 100% with the second part. Mental health is important, but we’re not meant to be rainbows and puppy dogs 24/7, we aren’t built that way.
I don’t know if I agree with the first part. I don’t have a really well formed opinion there, but it seems like it is easier to survive now than ever before, so maybe we devolve as the gene pool is diluted? I’m not suggesting eugenics, but if the natural selection hurdle is at all time lows, perhaps we end up with idiocracy at some point? Why do you think it will accelerate?
Or maybe you’re not suggesting the acceleration will be in a positive direction, just that it will happen faster.
I don’t disagree with that. I jumped around on a few different topics, so maybe it got muddled up. I think personal responsibility is very important and you have to take control of your happiness or make changes. However, I don’t think it’s the monks place to judge either.
I look at my family – all immigrants, all from the same gene pool, all with similar or basically identical experiences. Half are successful, happy people. The other half are miserable, unsuccessful and addicted to a variety of substances, including a few who are now dead now from substance abuse.
Why is it that some people can get it together and some people can’t? I have never been able to answer that. It seems like personal choice is a big component.
But I do think the evolutionary underpinings are valid and are a large contributor to the way our species acts. The alternative argument usually boils down to, “Things are pretty random, and the universe is a big place, and we can’t really control what’s going on.” I don’t think that’s true. Things aren’t as random as some people want to believe. It always seems like a cop out to me. But that said, you can choose to react to your evolutionary / human condition traits in a productive, instead of a destructive, way. If that’s the main point of the original article, then I agree with that.
No, I think it will accelerate in a good way, making us “better” as defined by the attributes we value. Never before have people had the range of choices we have when selecting a mate. It used to be you just marry the girl at the next farm over, because she is the only girl you ever see. Now, we have an ability to really select certain traits in our mates and our offspring. Technology has made mating more efficient. Sure, there are people who get knocked up and have a bunch of kids, but there have always been those people. In fact, that was the norm.
Now, people don’t have eight kids because they figure half will die and they need a bunch of kids to work to help support the family (this was the case in the US only a little more than a century ago). More and more, they consciously nurture each child physically and mentally to achieve it’s fullest genetic potential. As economies develop this becomes the trend. Each of these children then has better faculties to select a mate and the cycle continues, thus acceleration. Evolution used to have a lot more randomness to it (most animals), but now it proceeds in a much more directed manner.
Besides genetics, people are also growing up in information rich environments today compared to any other time in the past. So, the average level of knowledge and culture in society can evolve, even if the gene pool is stagnant. Or take professional athletes for instance. They are getting better every year due to evolving training. If you treat these guys as a species, they are evolving and improving, even though they are not subjects of some eugenics program or something (or are they?).
All true but the murder rate is still 3x Canada or any western European country. Incareration is among the highest in the world. I’m not saying the US is getting worse, in fact, it’s getting better. But it’s certainly not even remotely as safe as other countries.
Yes, much of the crime is in certain pockets and most areas are actually quite safe. But the perception of safety is something that does weigh on peope’s happiness. Americans are far more fearful, justified or not, than many other countries (particularly those that outranked the US in the Forbes happiness list above). Just look at the discussion around concealed carry and firearm ownership. I realise this doesn’t represent all Americans (and other live in remote areas where such discussion is actually practical), but this fearfulness doesn’t exist among large swathes of the population elsewhere.
I don’t know if it is meaningful to argue about how relatively safe any of these countries are due to crime levels. The US homicide rate is like 0.00005%. If the rate decreases by 80% to 0.00001%, do I really care? Maybe it matters more if you happen to live in the gang land neighborhood in Detroit or somewhere like that. However, on an overall level, the US is very, very safe from crime.
It’s more meaningful to consider safety from accidents, like car collisions, or health problems like cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, lung cancer, etc. Any of these are much more meaningful to 99.99% of the population compared to crime.
A lot of fear in the US comes from exaggerated things - like the fear of terrorism or the President being Kenyan/Muslim. Other fear or arguments come from the US’s size and population diversity. If you divided the country into three countries: West Coast, Middle, East Coast, many of these political arguments will disappear as each little country can do their own thing. Imagine if you suddenly forced the whole EU to become one country and follow the same laws on abortion, guns, etc., and elect one President for the whole union.
Not really. That seems like something someone that doesn’t live in the US but has seen every episode of The Wire would say. Sure, there are neighborhoods you need to keep your head on a swivel, but I don’t know anyone that’s chronically unhappy because they’re afraid for their safety.
I do think people are more pessimistic and generally think the world is going to hell more so now than 10 or 20 years ago. That can certainly be depressing. But, again, that’s a product of too much Fox News and not enough actual facts.
One rather large caveat is school shootings. Those do tend to unnerve people…for a while anyway.
I find it interesting how adaptable our brains are. Even though I struggled taking neuroscience in college (it was a 4000 level biology and I was the only non pre-med in the room), I find it amazing how the brain works. Ohai mentioned the amount of knowledge, but the other key is the access to knowledge. I’ve seen research showing the brain is adapting to the fact it knows it doesn’t have to store info. That’s just so cool to me lol
Also interesting that you bring up events like school shootings. In the bigger picture, these are not big events, since the US is a big f*ing country. Shooting up some kids in Colorado is hardly relevant to people who live in the same country but 2000 miles away. Yet, there is still a psychological effect since everyone is still American. I doubt French people would care if some Austrian school got shot up, even if the two countries are actually very close together - like driving from San Francisco to LA.
Yes, brain adapters very very quickly to teh fact it doesnt have to store info, that you can google everything. Not sure how this will matter in the future, but it definitely already affects my retention rate
Ah no. I’m a single dude that looks at dating websites. Half it not more of the single women have kids. I’m not talking divorced with kids. I’m talking never married. Most of these kids I’d bet 9 in 10 will never have a father figure to live with or learn from. You learn to live your life based on what you experience as a child. These kids are not “better” in any way most of the time and this type of situation will multiply when these kids get older and knock up the next trashy no daddy attention having lady.
I think it’s really making the line between knowledge and intelligence clear. I’ve always viewed knowledge as stuff you can google, but intelligence as the ability to interpret the things you’ve googled and apply them.