11 Rules of Happiness | Hacker News Reader

11 Rules of Happiness

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31 pointsVonGuard13 comments

These are the best rules for living that I've been given. Very pertinent to business folk.

I don't usually criticize articles but this one I can't let pass. What kind of drivel is this where breaking the other guy's wrist is supposed to make me happy in life? This is the kind of advice I would expect a mid-level manager at a used car dealership to dish out to new salesmen. This is Hacker News, a place where I get to directly converse with the folks who run the coolest and most promising startups in the world. There is no place for cheesy articles like this here. I wish there was a "does not belong here" flag.

My first thought was satire. Since there are a couple good rules, my second thought was troll. But this is also a new twist on an old bit of link-bait: it's the narcissistic sociopath fantasy applied to business instead of dating. Given the last sentence of the first paragraph, it might be meant satirically. (If so, it failed. Satire makes something impossible to take seriously, but this post evokes the opposite reaction: I can't believe we have to take this shit seriously.) So I think this is a trollish satirical representation of the arrogant sociopath model of dating.

Anyway, it does have some interest, since the limitations of the arrogant sociopath model are more obvious in the business context than in dating. People looking for dating advice are, for various reasons, willing to ascribe all kinds of weird thought processes to women. With business, we all know a little too much to swallow this. For example, it's obvious that rule 6 is a perfect recipe for impressing dumb people quickly while screwing up a situation. Better have a good exit strategy when your unwillingness to listen to nagging doubts, or your inability to have doubts, finally catches up to you. God, I hate working with people who follow rule 6, because the only way to pull it off is to be blindly, willfully stupid. (Good people who try to follow rule 6 are known as workaholics.)

Number 5 just makes you autistic or a belligerent dick unless you really have the "strength" you're advertising. Advertising dominance that you haven't earned has only four possible effects:

1. You look autistic.

2. You look like a belligerent dick.

3. You make yourself a target of other belligerent dicks.

4. You fool stupid people.

#4 is supposed to be the key to swimming in poontang, since women (of course) are not only ruthless and overly emotional but also complete idiots. Who cares if most people think you're an ass if you get to bang a few hot, damaged bottle blondes, right? Okay, even granting that this might actually work in real life dating, how the hell is this supposed to work in business? You only do business with easily bluffed idiots? Right, all those insanely rich and successful easily bluffed idiots who have all the money and connections you want.

I generally associate people who do that ultra firm handshake and staring thing with people who then going to try invite me to play golf (which I have no interest in) and then try and sell me something. At best it is likely to creep me out a bit.

I don't think these kinds of tips work if it is obvious to others that you are following a checklist every time you meet someone.

Agree. Overly firm handshakes just freak me right the hell out, like they're either A) trying to socially engineer me, or B) establish dominance, both of which are immediate turnoffs.

Random, arbitrary "Rules" that generally have little to do with happiness and more to do with how one should behave in social settings.

I agree, - to name an example, "be yourself" has to do with social situations, if it were about happiness "accept yourself for who you are" would have been more appropriate.

I like this list. It's interesting how brain can see new meaning if you force yourself to connect a seemingly unrelated title to the body of the post. It kind of clicks with the philosophy of "love yourself".

See, if you love yourself you aren't an egotistical moron, you love yourself too much to let that happen. If you love yourself you won't let yourself be in position of being any type of jerk, etc. Because as opposed to admiring yourself, loving yourself goes a long way, much further than vanity.

So the guy basically provides actions which will indirectly make you happy after a bunch of ricocheting off of others. These are subtle details that do create overall appearance, image. It's like they say - you only need to cover hands, neck, and head to stop feeling cold.

For more direct effects on happiness I would pick #2 (be yourself), #7 (do not seek spotlight), #8 (criticism), and number #11 (be happy). The last one is a bit absurd, but think about it - happiness is a cause, not an effect. Instead of achieving it, better to force it on yourself in advance, then everything else will come. In fact that's the /only/ way it works.

Well written, but I was wondering why would anyone still write a "numbered list" after pg's article about lists. Not that I absolutely love everything pg writes without negotiation, but that one was an obvious hit. So, I'd name it a "11 Rules Of Happiness I've come up with so far". Would sound more authoritative.

Maybe because not everyone read that essay? The real reason I think is because people want traffic, and list posts get traffic. I experimented with that format and even if you write bullshit, you'll get traffic. I'm personally aiming for a combination of both. Last thing is that list posts are easier for the reader, and my goal is to create something for the reader, not for me.

Good point, I agree about the traffic and making it easy to read. It's annoying, but I automatically want to read the article with a title like that, because I assume I won't have to concentrate too much to get a possibly valuable idea.

Only got as far as rule number 1, remembered that I'm a masochist, and ctrl w.

I like advice about remembering names.

I agree with chime...

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