You know that old thing where people solipsistically optimizing for hedonism are actually less happy? (relative to people who have a more long-term goal related to the external world) You know, “Whoever seeks God always finds happiness, but whoever seeks happiness doesn’t always find God”.
My anecdotal experience says this is very true. But why?
One explanation could be in the direction of what Eliezer says here (inadvertently rewarding your brain for suboptimal behavior will get you depressed):
Someone with a goal has an easier time getting out of local minima, because it is very obvious those local minima are suboptimal for the goal. For example, you get out of bed even when the bed feels nice. Whenever the ocasional micro-breakdown happens (like feeling a bit down), you power through for your goal anyway (micro-dosing suffering as a consequence), so your brain learns that micro-breakdowns only ever lead to bad immediate sensations and fixes them fast.
Someone whose only objective is the satisfaction of their own appetites and desires has a harder time reasoning themselves out of local optima. Sure, getting out of bed allows me to do stuff that I like. But those feel distant now, and the bed now feels comparably nice… You are now comparing apples to apples (unlike someone with an external goal), and sometimes you might choose the local optimum. When the ocasional micro-breakdown happens, you are more willing to try to soften the blow and take care of the present sensation (instead of getting over the bump quickly), which rewards in the wrong direction.
Another possibly related dynamic:
When your objective is satisfying your desires, you pay more conscious attention to your desires, and this probably creates more desires, leading to more unsatisfied desires (which is way more important than the amount of satisfied desires?).
I don’t think this is the whole story, but part of it is surely that a person motivating their actions by “wanting to be happy” is evidence for them being less satisfied/ happy than baseline
Here’s another possible answer: maybe there are some aspects of happiness that we usually get as a side effect of doing other things, not obviously connected to happiness. So if you optimize to exclude things whose connection to happiness you don’t see, you end up missing some “essential nutrients” so to speak.
It is difficult to focus your attention on achieving your goals, when instead you are focusing it on your unhappiness.
If you are unhappy, it is probably good to notice that and decide to do something about it. But then you should take your attention away from your unhappiness and direct it towards those things you intend to do.
It’s when you are happy that you can further increase your happiness by reflecting on how happy you are. That’s called gratitude. But even then, at some moment you need to stop focusing on being grateful, and redirect your attention towards getting more of the things that make you happy.
Semantics. What do we, or they, or you, or me, mean when we talk about “happiness”?
For some (hedonists), it is the same as “pleasure”. Perhaps, a bit drawn out in time: as in the process of performing bed gymnastics with a sufficiently attractive member of the opposite sex—not a moment after eating a single candy.
For others, it’s the “thrill” of the chase, of the hunt, of the “win”.
For others still: a sense of meaningful progress.
The way you’ve phrased the question, seems to me, disregards a handful of all the possible interpretations in favor of a much more defined—albeit still rather vague, in virtue of how each individual may choose to narrow it down—“fulfillment”. Thus “why do people solipsistically optimizing for hedonism are actually less happy?” turns into “why do people who only ever prioritize their pleasure and short-term gratification are less fulfilled?” The answer is obvious: pleasure is a sensory stimulation, and whatever its source, sooner or later we get desensitized to it.
In order to continue reaching ever new heights, or even to maintain the same level of satisfaction, then—a typical hedonistically wired solipsist will have to constantly look for a new “hit” elsewhere, elsewhere, elsewhere again. Unlike the thrill of the “chase” however—there is no clear vision, or goal, or target, or objective. There’s only increasingly fuzzier “just like that” or “just like that time back then, or better!” How happy could that be?
You know that old thing where people solipsistically optimizing for hedonism are actually less happy? (relative to people who have a more long-term goal related to the external world) You know, “Whoever seeks God always finds happiness, but whoever seeks happiness doesn’t always find God”.
My anecdotal experience says this is very true. But why?
One explanation could be in the direction of what Eliezer says here (inadvertently rewarding your brain for suboptimal behavior will get you depressed):
Someone with a goal has an easier time getting out of local minima, because it is very obvious those local minima are suboptimal for the goal. For example, you get out of bed even when the bed feels nice. Whenever the ocasional micro-breakdown happens (like feeling a bit down), you power through for your goal anyway (micro-dosing suffering as a consequence), so your brain learns that micro-breakdowns only ever lead to bad immediate sensations and fixes them fast.
Someone whose only objective is the satisfaction of their own appetites and desires has a harder time reasoning themselves out of local optima. Sure, getting out of bed allows me to do stuff that I like. But those feel distant now, and the bed now feels comparably nice… You are now comparing apples to apples (unlike someone with an external goal), and sometimes you might choose the local optimum. When the ocasional micro-breakdown happens, you are more willing to try to soften the blow and take care of the present sensation (instead of getting over the bump quickly), which rewards in the wrong direction.
Another possibly related dynamic: When your objective is satisfying your desires, you pay more conscious attention to your desires, and this probably creates more desires, leading to more unsatisfied desires (which is way more important than the amount of satisfied desires?).
I don’t think this is the whole story, but part of it is surely that a person motivating their actions by “wanting to be happy” is evidence for them being less satisfied/ happy than baseline
Here’s another possible answer: maybe there are some aspects of happiness that we usually get as a side effect of doing other things, not obviously connected to happiness. So if you optimize to exclude things whose connection to happiness you don’t see, you end up missing some “essential nutrients” so to speak.
It is difficult to focus your attention on achieving your goals, when instead you are focusing it on your unhappiness.
If you are unhappy, it is probably good to notice that and decide to do something about it. But then you should take your attention away from your unhappiness and direct it towards those things you intend to do.
It’s when you are happy that you can further increase your happiness by reflecting on how happy you are. That’s called gratitude. But even then, at some moment you need to stop focusing on being grateful, and redirect your attention towards getting more of the things that make you happy.
Semantics. What do we, or they, or you, or me, mean when we talk about “happiness”?
For some (hedonists), it is the same as “pleasure”. Perhaps, a bit drawn out in time: as in the process of performing bed gymnastics with a sufficiently attractive member of the opposite sex—not a moment after eating a single candy.
For others, it’s the “thrill” of the chase, of the hunt, of the “win”.
For others still: a sense of meaningful progress.
The way you’ve phrased the question, seems to me, disregards a handful of all the possible interpretations in favor of a much more defined—albeit still rather vague, in virtue of how each individual may choose to narrow it down—“fulfillment”. Thus “why do people solipsistically optimizing for hedonism are actually less happy?” turns into “why do people who only ever prioritize their pleasure and short-term gratification are less fulfilled?” The answer is obvious: pleasure is a sensory stimulation, and whatever its source, sooner or later we get desensitized to it.
In order to continue reaching ever new heights, or even to maintain the same level of satisfaction, then—a typical hedonistically wired solipsist will have to constantly look for a new “hit” elsewhere, elsewhere, elsewhere again. Unlike the thrill of the “chase” however—there is no clear vision, or goal, or target, or objective. There’s only increasingly fuzzier “just like that” or “just like that time back then, or better!” How happy could that be?