And then (in the most extreme case) you’ll end up feeling miserable because of something completely trivial, because you’re ignoring everything that could make you happy and the only things that can have any impact on your state of mind are negative ones.
Someone commented above about the instrumental value of crying and feeling bad, and you’re actually pointing out the case where crying and feeling bad fail at being instrumental. Basically, I’m for whatever attitude that gets you to stop crying and start fixing some problem, and if resetting your baseline helps, it’s fair game! It definitely works for me in some cases.
I think this quote is trying to argue against the attitude that problems that are minor compared to other problems don’t deserve any attention at all. That everyone without shoes should just wrench themselves into happiness and go around being grateful, rather than acknowledging that they keep stepping on snails and pointy things, which sucks, and making productive steps toward acquiring shoes.
I remember reading something about plastic surgeons getting kind of looked down upon because they’re not proper heroic doctors that handle real medical problems.
Someone commented above about the instrumental value of crying and feeling bad, and you’re actually pointing out the case where crying and feeling bad fail at being instrumental. Basically, I’m for whatever attitude that gets you to stop crying and start fixing some problem, and if resetting your baseline helps, it’s fair game! It definitely works for me in some cases.
I think this quote is trying to argue against the attitude that problems that are minor compared to other problems don’t deserve any attention at all. That everyone without shoes should just wrench themselves into happiness and go around being grateful, rather than acknowledging that they keep stepping on snails and pointy things, which sucks, and making productive steps toward acquiring shoes.
I remember reading something about plastic surgeons getting kind of looked down upon because they’re not proper heroic doctors that handle real medical problems.