Nobody optimizes happiness

Everyone I know is scheming for the future. They’ve got big goals and get up every day and work like mad to try to achieve them. I’ve always found something odd about that: Despite all this effort, people don’t seem to think too much about the specifics of what would happen after their goal is achieved.

Don’t worry, I won’t tell you to abandon your goals and detach yourself from desire. I’m just observing that even if you achieved your goals, you’d need to make a huge number of decisions to convert them into a “life” and then (hopefully) happiness. And people don’t seem to think much about those decisions.

Maybe it’s not the achieving stuff that makes us happy, but rather the act of chasing after achievements. Most people need to feel that they are contributing to society. At least for me, when I try to picture my ideal days, it doesn’t matter if I’ve accomplished anything in the past. But my visions always involve working towards some kind of goal i... See more