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Comment by knighthack | Hacker News Reader

> What you're doing here is replacing a possibly incorrect view of the world with another possibly incorrect one. You're doing this because (the search for truth is a futile one because) given the choice of being sad and maybe right and being happy and ever so slightly more wrong, you should choose the latter.

I completely disagree with this.

You must avoid a choice that lets you be happy and "slightly more wrong", if that choice ultimately deviates from the truth.

Always pursue truth first. It is knowing the truth that often leads to fulfilment, even if it may not lead to immediate happiness. because with truth can now grasp at the problem and find a way to fix it. Ignorant bliss is only a temporary salve, and cuts short the route to true fulfilment.

Always opt for truth no matter how sad/bad it makes you feel. Emotions are fleeting; the truth isn't, and knowing the truth is what gives you more control over your emotions.

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As an alternative perspective: too many people who are fixated on finding the one true ground truth end up actually pursuing cynicism. The "truth" they find is invariably depressing and rather than enabling agency and action leads them to believe they have no agency at all.

Truth—real truth—is very very difficult if not impossible to find. We all approach life through a lens of some sort and it's impossible to calibrate that lens without access to an alternative perspective, and we only have access to those alternatives through highly imperfect language.

I've never known someone obsessed with finding absolute ground truth to be happy. I've known plenty of people who are happy who see life through a lens that leads to joy but would be regarded as naive by the perpetual cynic.

I feel we are mixing up subjective feelings with objective facts here. Facts exist outside of a person and doesn't care about feelings. Feelings belong to a person and exist separately from facts. You can't invent your own facts but how you feel about them are up to you.

Facts have objective truth. Feelings have subjective truth. You can't really be wrong about your feelings. You feel what you feel. You can have various relations to your feelings though. Like you can feel that your feelings aren't helpful or they don't align well with each other. You can chose to work on that I suppose and call that truth. But I think it's somewhat problematic to think that there is some essential or objective truth in emotions. That there's a "objectively correct" way to feel.

If you can convince yourself to feel differently about something then you may call that gas lighting or you may call it growth. That's up to you.

Pursuit of the truth can also be a distraction from what’s actually truly happening in this moment. Emotions aren’t arbitrary — they contain immense amounts of information. I’ve found that “controlling” emotions doesn’t work for me. What works a lot better for me is to acknowledge and accept my emotions, care for the part of me that is feeling that, and then let the emotion fade naturally. I’ve learned to more gently ride the waves and shifts of feelings that move through me, and it’s really made a big difference in my life.

There is more to life than pursuing truth. Ultimately, it is impossible to fully attain, so striving for it at all costs is a battle that cannot be won.

Ask yourself what does it mean to live a good life? And then continue to ask that question as you live and experience new things. And don’t forget to touch dirt now and then. We are much more than thinking machines.

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