Comment by throw20102010 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throw20102010 | Hacker News Reader

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A lot of these things are assuming a traditional model of well-being (that being fit and smart and long lived makes you happier). This is stuff that doctors say I need, but I don't actually need them like air and water. What if our model of well-being is wrong?

An obese person can be happy as long as they don't peg their happiness on being able to do a bunch of physical activities. Plus, all the time spent not working out can be spent on pursuing other interests.

A dumb person can be happy. There are billions of us.

A short lived person can be happy- it's more about the quality of life than the quantity.

So if I can live in a world in which I don't have to do a bunch of physical activity, can play with the screens that I want, and can enjoy my life? I don't actually need a lot of the things that a doctor says I need. To be fair, an obese person has a higher chance of being hospitalized, which sucks, so being dumb and obese will probably lead to me being less happy.

Are you sure you're not just looking for a rationalization saying that you can live any way you want and still be "happy"?

Of course I'm not ruling out that this is possible. An obese smoker might live to 101 and laugh about it. An athlete might die of Leukemia at age 21. Life is uncertain, you can make of the odds whatever you want.

On the other hand:

Obesity is associated with lower self-reported happiness

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24336235

Physical activity helps depression:

https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1808

You also need to count in all the ailments that can result from obesity and lack of exercise, none of which are going to contribute positively to one's level of well-being. Of course it's not all about the length of a life, but the things that cut lives short tend to be quite unpleasant.

> Are you sure you're not just looking for a rationalization saying that you can live any way you want and still be "happy"?

This is how I see this argument.

> This is stuff that doctors say I need, but I don't actually need them like air and water.

I'm sorry, but you do need to be physically healthy for a long life, and it does help with your mental state. You need good blood pressure, you need coronary arteries that aren't blocked, you need a liver that functions and you need kidneys that work.

You missed the point. You don't need to live a long life to be happy. That's you trying to impose your worldview on other people.

A lot of people confuse things that are correlated with being happy with things that make you happy. Being fit does not make everyone happy, it makes some people happy. Eating cheesecake makes some people happy, but not everyone.

What if the things that are correlated with happiness change over time? What if instead of idolizing pro athletes the next generation idolizes pro esports players? Will physical fitness start to see less of a correlation with happiness, playing second fiddle to something else?

I agree that you do need unblocked arteries to stay alive. So increasing obesity may lead to more hospitalizations (and unhappy people that way). But could it be offset by increased well-being in other areas of life?

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