What sort of person do you want to be?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
21

<p>You are asserting something as a psychological fact. So…no a matter of opinion.</p>

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<p>This isn’t true. Happiness is the emotion that results from knowing that you’ve achieved something worthwhile. It’s not the worthwhile thing, in and of itself.</p>

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<p>But this doesn’t make psychological sense.</p>

<p>By making happiness our ultimate goal, you’ve de facto defined success as “something that brings happiness” (since success is, more concretely, the accomplishment of some aim/purpose — and happiness is apparently the supreme/over-arching one).</p>

<p>However, we only feel happy after we detect that some effort has been successful.</p>

<p>With your de facto definition of success, though, you’ve just argued that feelings of happiness arise…from feelings of happiness.</p>

<p>It would be great if being happy just made you happier in this hedonic positive feedback process that is, er, self-causing. But that’s not how the human mind works.</p>

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<p>and that’s a non sequitor — even if all of our actions were in pursuit of happiness, that would not mean that our actions must therefore be meaningful and unselfish. Indeed, it would mean that humans would be unable to pursue anything besides something meaningless and intrinsically self-oriented.</p>

<p>(Also, you’re admitting that good deeds are good whether they bring happiness or not, suggesting the existence of other values besides hedonic ones.)</p>

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<p>Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain value. Happiness arises from this activity when it’s going well, but it’s only after we see that something valuable has been created that we feel happiness. Since the feeling comes after the valuable result, then that feeling cannot be the valuable result.</p>

22

<p>Success does not mean happiness. I don’t mean to bring up platitudes, but I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories of investment bankers quitting and becoming writers, or CEO’s leaving to become artists. They, by society’s definition, were the epitome of success, yet they could not find happiness. </p>

<p>I think happiness comes more from a sense of accomplishment that is separate from a traditional idea of success, or as Philo eloquently put it, by “creating and maintaining value.” Accomplishment gives us a feeling of satisfaction, which is then termed “happiness.” </p>

<p>Accomplishment is personal. No one else can decide for you what to deem as an “accomplishment.” It comes from what gives you a feeling of satisfaction, and thus, happiness. </p>

<p>Now, people do tend to have patterns in terms of what brings them satisfaction, and this usually follows background, stemming from socioeconomic class, race, family situation, etc. People brought up in certain ways tend to value different things, and gain “satisfaction” from different accomplishments. Of course, it is not applicable to all people, but in general, it follows certain lines. For example, people from lower socioeconomic classes value a traditional “white picket fence” lifestyle far more than me, a student from relative affluence, who values change and nonconformism. </p>

<p>In the end though, happiness is relative. Choose what you want to do with your life, and follow that, regardless of outside influences or, as clich</p>

23

<p>By age 30, I would love to be one of those whimsical musicians that has a standout style and isn’t afraid to deviate from social norms. I would love to dabble in writing prose on the side. </p>

<p>I’d probably get married to a boy who is also into art/music. I’d also love to settle down and have a baby girl, though this will probably happen later in my life.* I will continue on with my vegetarian diet, and may strip down to a vegan diet by the mid-thirties; also, I will exercise each day by dancing/yoga. </p>

<p>I’d love to play in concerts to benefit the less fortunate or play in hospitals to cheer everyone up. After all this, I will probably move to Japan, learn Japanese, and relieve my childhood to any descendents (watching anime, reading manga.)</p>

<p>*I LOL-ed at the lineage posts.</p>

24

<p>@GoldenRatio:</p>

<p>Why do you feel you must mess with me?</p>

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<p>Eh, at 30? Hopefully, happy, healthy, and wise. I want to be doing something important and meaningful, I just don’t know what yet. Whatever will be will be.</p>

26

<p>When I’m 30:
-I’ll probably still be in the middle of my lengthy neurosurgery residency :confused:
-I hope to marry a beautiful, intelligent, funny, and all around amicable woman.
-I hope to be as popular with friends and colleagues as I am now in high school!
-I want to lose at least 100-110 pounds by then and possibly get ripped.
-I want to keep advancing my percussion skills by purchasing a drum set.
-I want to keep that wild side that I have
-I want to live in the Northeast or Southeast, most likely in my native Philadelphia area
-I want to continue to attend Phillies games
-And most of all, I want to stay young and happy with my life as long as I can! I hate to think that one day all of my youth will be gone :(</p>

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<p>@BlueUkiyo: Why would I mess with you? :frowning: I mean every work I say!</p>

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<p>@GoldenRatio: Then that is an incredibly weird coincidence, isn’t it?</p>

<p>Things in common in our posts:
veganism
love of art
interest in healthy activities
dabble in writing
participation in charity
desire to move to Japan</p>

<p>The only thing our posts didn’t have in common was a desire to have children.Two different people with such similar visions posting on the same CC thread within a day of each other? That is just CRAZY!</p>

29

<p>Hmmm in 15 years I would like to have a nice stable (preferably also well-paying XD) job that I enjoy. Unlike apparently everyone else, I want to have a kid, though maybe a bit later? I want to continue to enjoy life, travelling lots like I do now.</p>

<p>The main goal that I want to achieve in life (but probably not by 30 lol) is to make some sort of contribution to the world that leaves it a better place.</p>

30

<p>Wait…Golden Ratio, is your name based on (1+sqrt(5))/2 =1.618?</p>

<p>I read that in the Da Vinci Code. lol.</p>

31

<p>@GoldenRatio:</p>

<p>Oh, after going to your profile I can see you’re in the eighth grade. I’m 19 and I just assumed you were roughly my age. That kind of makes me feel like a creeper now. Here I was thinking that I had miraculously found my dream girl online. :frowning: </p>

<p>Oh well, it’s still an amazing coincidence. Take care.</p>

32

<p>Professionally, I have lots of dreams. Most of them require professional or graduate school. So, I suppose I’d probably be in training at 30 years old. I have a long shot dream about trying entrepreneurship as well, which I hope to explore sometime before going to college.</p>

<p>As a person, I want to be alive :slight_smile: , well travelled, thoughtful, more controlled, more healthy, interesting, caring, closer to G-d, kinder, have developed a personal philosophy, in a stable relationship (with children only if we have external care providers involved). </p>

<p>At a certain point in my life, I want to be able to die knowing that I developed as an individual and influenced other peoples’ lives for the better, in different ways.</p>

33

<p>@BlueUkiyo: LOL, sorry for the confusion. You’re 19? Wow-I thought you might be a sophomore (closer to my age)…haha, darn you CC! :)</p>

<p>But I wish you the best as well!</p>

<p>@logicx24: In an indirect way; I guess what I really meant was “perfection,” since the Golden Ratio is the “Perfect” Ratio…but who wants their username to be “Perfect?” It would make you sound like a pompous jerk!</p>

<p>But in all reality, I honestly do not know why I picked “GoldenRatio” as my username. It just sort of popped out.</p>

34

<p>So if I divided the length of your post into two arbitrary segments a and b, and calculated the ratio (a+b)/a, would it equal 1.618?</p>

<p>Just measured. With a ruler and everything. Nvrm, it doesn’t. You didn’t live up to your name :open_mouth: I am disappoint.</p>

<p>I also have way too much time on my hands.</p>

35

<p>Q: What sort of person do you want to be?
A: The sort who measures the dimensions of Internet posts with a ruler.</p>

<p>Only on CC.</p>

36

<p>Be as smart, fashionable, sexy, and suave as I am now and then some. Pretty much it.</p>

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<p>CEO of my own hospital with free schools in poor rural areas</p>

<p>Researched tangible solution in neuroscience, cancer, or biotech</p>

<p>good luck guys!</p>

38

<p>@logicx24: I’m not that mathy! :-S I’m more interested in art/creative writing then taking a ruler and measuring out the length of everybody’s posts, LOL.</p>

39

<p>Math and writing aren’t mutually exclusive. You can do both lol; that’s what I’ve been doing for years. I’m a prospective engineer who likes self-reflective writing and philosophy. Nbd.</p>

40

<p>@logicx24: That correlation doesn’t apply to me; I positively stink at maths! :P</p>