Happiness is a marketing term. It isn’t a real thing, it’s an aspirational state which we are told we can attain through a lifetime of hard work, through buying things, through reading this book, with this one simple trick, click to read more.

As long as you seek happiness, you will never, ever find contentment, as you will forever be chasing the tail of a dragon.

For me, I just one day gave up on the idea that I could ever be happy. I had a long, dark teatime of the soul, but came out of it absolutely content with my lot. Completely changed my life and how I live, and while I wouldn’t say I live in some kind of state of exuberant ecstasy day to day, I am content, and am no longer burdened by the quest for a reified concept.

Make do with as little as you can in every aspect of life without torturing yourself. IMO this also counts for creative ambitions: there are writers who propose to postpone writing for as long as you can.

Healthy long-term relationships, on the other side, seem to require a fair amount of luck, though.

I agree, but I think you need hope in order to be happy. I.e. happiness is the combination of high hopes and low expectations.

Without high hopes you could just be anticipating things to get worse which tends to lead to anxiety and just a general glum outlook on life. Hoping things will be better tomorrow, but expecting things to get worse is a subtle but important mindset shift.

On one level, this has an appealing certain kind of logic. But in practice I've found this leads to depression and cynicism.

So basically, maximal happiness then is no different than TCP throughput.

That's a little-bit of what I've done. Maybe put in another way: I've become more adaptable.

That's simple, not easy.

That's the way towards homelessness.

Yes, that does sound like a joke.

sounds easier said than done. i like having things go my way