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On Friday my workplace had this event where people came and talked about happiness and how to be happy (cue the speech on corporate control in our lives). Some of the ideas that were presented seemed to have potential and I noticed some posts here by lainons that seemed pretty unhappy. With that in mind, I wrote the notes up as a PDF to post here. I hope someone finds it useful (or at least not annoying)

This is surprisingly well made for some notes taken during a conference. I'll save it and read it thoroughly later. Thanks lain!

Glad you liked it. I used to have a job that required detailed note-taking, so that probably is what accounts for it. I do credit LaTex with making it look more involved than it had a right to be!

It's not wrong but it's kind of useless. I know why I'm not happy. I have no meaning in life anymore, and trying to get around that with work or personal goals or social connections just doesn't work because I don't have any framework to place it in. It's pointless so it's pointless and beating around the bush won't help any. These notes do feel helpful for someone who is already doing ok though. Just not for me.

>>9227 Thank you lain, this was a very interesting pdf and I enjoyed reading it. I was surprised it didn't ascribe more correlation between a sense of "meaning" and a sense of happiness, but I still found the information interesting and thoughtful. I think specifically I attribute happiness with providing a function and having some kind of meaning behind my actions. I hope I'm not going too off-topic but this blog post in particular has shaped the way I feel about happiness quite a bit, although as I say, this is very focused on meaning instead of happiness directly: http://meltingasphalt.com/a-nihilists-guide-to-meaning/ With that said thank you again for the pdf, and I really must also compliment your note-taking skills, I'm very jealous of them.

>>9236 I'm not sure it would help, but I keep thinking a good book for you would be The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus Camus was one of a group of atheist philosphers back in the day. Since they were atheists, they had to contend with the idea that, if God doesn't exist, there is no reason not to commit suicide. Camus' work is essentially a dissertation on how to live in a universe that has no inherent preexisting meaning to it. There's an overview here, but you might have to sign in to YouTube to see it:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jQOfbObFOCw I hope you find a way to get back to better, lain

>>9237 Thanks for the link! I'm only a bit of the way through, but this is an interesting read!

>>9227 >Wake up and repeat the mantra ”All is well always”. The point is to trick the brain into thinking about positive things at the beginning of the day. Well, it worked for Candide and Panglos. Jokes aside, thank you for taking the time to share this, Lain. Do you mind if I pass it on to others?

>>9239 Thanks lain, I'll give it a read

>>9239 I'm reading it right now (diffent lainon, not the one you answered to) and, to be honest, I fInd it rather tedious. The Stranger was so much more flowing and easier to read. In a sense.