How to Maximize Happiness
What I've learned through trial and error
The modern world seems hellbent on keeping you down.
No matter how great your life is going, as soon as you go online you start to feel depressed and miserable.
We’re all under assault from algorithms that exists only to maximize engagement at any cost.
The powers that be don’t care. Who do you think is profiting from it?
You’re on your own, and whether you’re happy or miserable is something that only you can decide and only you will ever care about.
Here are some things that work for me. I’ve learned them over the years through trial and error. Implement them into your own life ASAP and I’m sure you’ll see the benefits as well.
Build a business so you can own your time and income
Nothing makes you feel more helpless than the knowledge that your time and even your ability to feed yourself exists at the mercy of another man you have to refer to as “my boss”.
Even worse: that guy is just a personification of the real power.
In reality, that guy is just as helpless as you are.
He has a nicer office and a bigger salary, but at the end of the day he’s just a higher tier of slave, because those perks also exist at the mercy of the same force that’s controlling your life.
As far as your employer is concerned, neither of you are people. You’re just database entries that either make the number at the bottom of the spreadsheet bigger or smaller.
The second that number gets smaller: You’re gone.
And just like all bureaucracies, you’ll never be able to find someone who will take responsibility for the decision. Anyone you talk to is just the messenger. It’s always above their level or somebody in some other department who made the decision. At no point will you ever find anyone who will accept accountability or even treat you like a person. If you ever try to demand that someone treats you with respect they’ll just view you as an asshole.
If you want out of this nightmare you have to build your way out.
True, you can’t escape all bureaucracies. You still have to pay your taxes and deal with the government in other capacities.
But it’s a hell of a lot better than being a cubicle jockey.
Pay zero attention to the news
There’s nothing there that benefits you.
To the media companies (and that includes podcasters and social media people) you’re nothing more than another impression on their dashboard.
You’re an engagement metric that can be tweaked at will.
Increase the curiosity gap on the headline?
Your chances of clicking just increased 50%.
Dial up the outrage?
Instead of just viewing the post maybe you share it or leave a comment.
That’s all anyone who posts about current events and politics cares about vis-a-vis you.
You’re nothing to them, so stop paying attention to them.
The mental peace you get from not reading the news would be a billion-dollar product if you could bottle it up and sell it in capsule form.
And you can get those benefits for free just by choosing to not look at the things that piss you off.
Do everything analog unless it makes you money or the digital version is better
Most people blindly adopt new technology without thinking.
The desire to keep up with the Joneses, not wanting to appear like a Luddite, fear of FOMO; whatever it is that’s causing it, people keep buying.
A lot of the times new innovations just make things worse.
Writing in a notebook with a fountain pen is objectively a better experience than using your thumbs to type into the notes app on your phone.
Going to a cafe and reading a physical book is better than holing up in your house and watching brainrot TikTok videos.
Etc.
Of course, a lot of times the new tech is genuinely better.
E.g. Uber is better than taking a taxi.
You have to decide for yourself on a case-by-case basis. If the new way isn’t working for you, stick to the old.
One way that technology has undeniably made things better is how easy it is to make money now.
You don’t have to Go West and drill for oil. You don’t have to build a steel factory or start a retail chain with thousands of stores.
You can just sit at home in front of your computer and print cash.
So whenever you feel doom and gloom about the state of tech: remember that, at least in this one respect, we live in the best time in history.
Go for walks after eating
“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols