Comment by Sakes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Sakes | Hacker News Reader

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When I comment on this site I try very hard to say exactly what I mean and nothing more. I believe, but may be mistaken, that you have made some assumptions about what I was saying.

Above I asserted an objective truth, and followed it with my list of subjective truths.

Objective truth: Sustainable happiness is recognizing what is truly valuable in life and appreciating it. To elaborate, to evaluate the value of everything in life based upon its monetary value would be a mistake and limiting.

Then came my list of subjective truths which I prefaced with "For me this is". By subjective I mean I acknowledge that while I hold these to be true, I am unable to prove to you that they are.

To address your points: I really need to get back to coding my startup. I will revisit this later. I hope that you continue to discuss this with me even though no one else will care by the time I get back to it. (From the HN community perspective this thread will be most likely dead before this evening)

Slurry Discussion Continued:

If you are making the argument that there is a monetary threshold that needs to be met in order to be happy (for a normal person) I would agree. What that exact threshold is I am not sure. In my youth I had enough to be happy on 40k a year even though I wasn't, but this was due to a lack of understanding/perspective.

If you are making the argument that money directly buys happiness, I would say this is a short sighted and incorrect view.

Did I summarize your point in either case above? What was your exact point? I'd like to discuss further.

Also, pertaining to the specific article, satisfaction and happiness (while similar) are two different things for me. I am not sure why they took a survey concerning satisfaction and assumed that "satisfaction" is synonymous with happiness for all participants.

Not sure we actually disagree. I wasn't taking issue with your main point or your list so much just costing it out (roughly) for my own amusement. Both a sense of perspective and a modicum of cash are necessary but not, imho, by themselves sufficient to be happy. Together maybe they are enough? Maybe not? Idk.

Appreciate your continuation of the discussion.

Thanks for the clarification.

"Both a sense of perspective and a modicum of cash are necessary but not, imho, by themselves sufficient to be happy."

I am 100% in agreement with this.

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