Hacker News Reader

there's no 'better' state when you're already happy. They don't need to change anything when their reality is 'happy'.

Yes, but only for you. The people you live your life with (some of whom you even love) are in the same state of mind as before, and you have no (or at the very least less) reason to change something for the better for them.

I can't understand this position. A positive person often does positive things without a reason or need, especially for their loved ones, as that brings more happiness.

The position is: you are sitting smiling happily and doing nothing, while the nazis come to take your family and you away to the KZ.

(read stories about that actually happened in reality. Basically a form of madness/strategy of the brain to deal with a situation it seems impossible to solve)

That seems a sane response to obvious, impending doom, tbh. Panicking doesn't seem like it would help much, either.

In any case that seems like a separate emotion than "happy"... "traumatized" seems more like it.

I don't think this is how people usually think of positive people. This is resignation, not positivity. IMHO a positive person in this situation would believe in their chance of surviving and fight back.

That's not true if you consider the world around you and your interactions with it to be part of your "state".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com