#161: Unhappy medium
About half of my friends kind of hate their jobs, so they're moderately unhappy most of the time, but never unhappy enough to leave. This is the mediocrity trap : situations that are bad-but-not-too-bad keep you forever in their orbit because they never inspire the frustration it takes to achieve escape velocity.
The mediocrity trap is a nasty way t... See more
The mediocrity trap is a nasty way t... See more
Adam Mastroianni • So You Wanna De-Bog Yourself
When a culture’s standard of success is to “be extraordinary,” it then becomes better to be at the extreme low end of the bell curve than to be in the middle, because at least there you’re still special and deserve attention. Many people choose this strategy: to prove to everyone that they are the most miserable, or the most oppressed, or the most
... See moreMark Manson • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (Mark Manson Collection Book 1)
Kaustubh Sule added
.psychology victim mentality pervading due to pressure of extraordinary performance
About half of my friends kind of hate their jobs, so they're moderately unhappy most of the time, but never unhappy enough to leave. This is the mediocrity trap : situations that are bad-but-not-too-bad keep you forever in their orbit because they never inspire the frustration it takes to achieve escape velocity.
The mediocrity trap is a nasty way t... See more
The mediocrity trap is a nasty way t... See more
Adam Mastroianni • So You Wanna De-Bog Yourself
And third, using your “higher faculties” doesn't always leave you better off. As I wrote recently, smart people aren’t happier. That’s partly because people have all sorts of wrong theories about the things that make them happy, so all their smarty-pants scheming is in vain. In fact, sometimes thinking harder actually makes people worse at figuring... See more
Adam Mastroianni • Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs
sari added
meaning is healthier than happiness,
Adam Grant • Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
When things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently even dramatic improvements in objective conditions can leave us dissatisfied. When things deteriorate, expectations shrink, and consequently even a severe illness might leave you pretty much as happy as you were before.
Yuval Noah Harari • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
We optimize for short-term ego protection over long-term happiness. Increasingly, our understanding of things becomes black and white rather than shades of grey.