• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

does having a diverse knowledge base make people happy?

Karbon

Karbon

Hyper hoñorary
Joined
Sep 27, 2006
Location
Santa Cruizin'
Moto(s)
superchicken, BRP SM, GSXR750
General shotgun blast question.

I got in a chat with a buddy of mine who says its a double edged sword. You know more, therefore you are susceptible to suffering. But, at the same time your wider knowledge base allows you to better rationalize and cope by distancing the suffering of others, or at the very least gives you better context.

Michael Shermer has a book called "Why people believe weird things", that touches on this idea in one of the chapters. I haven't read the book yet, BTW.

Anyway, thoughts and comments.
 
Last edited:
I feel better about myself if I learn something. I'm not nearly smart enough to be depressed by the weight of the world
 
Thoughts.
1. Thread title is confusing and after reading it 3 times. Yes.

2. Why people believe weird things?? Easy...people are weird.

3. This post was for the most part useless and yes.
 
i remember 2 famous sayings...'ignorance is bliss' and ' you can't handle the truth'...

works for me...

i don't worry about things i can't do anything about nor concern myself that isn't part of my every day life...

i'm happyer being dumb...
 
Ignorance is bliss.

Seriously :|

P.S. What the hell, BeP0r?!! Why did you steal my thunder :mad I would have been much happier had I not seen your post :(
 
my suspicion is happiness is not heavily correlated with volume of knowledge.

other things like having basic needs met and realistic (or even low) expectations would be more important factors.
studies have been done on what makes people happy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness#Measures_of_happiness
Psychologist Martin Seligman asserts that happiness is not solely derived from external, momentary pleasures,[10] and provides the acronym PERMA to summarize Positive Psychology's correlational findings: humans seem happiest when they have

Pleasure (tasty food, warm baths, etc.),
Engagement (or flow, the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity),
Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness),
Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger), and
Accomplishments (having realized tangible goals).
Click to expand...

work correlates higher with happiness than having sex.
internet is uncorrelated with happiness which would explain barf.
correlation_of_activity_with_happiness.png
 
Last edited:
Jack of all Trades, master of none.

Not good as you understand just enough to know you understand nothing.
 
I don't understand why knowledge would make anyone suffer.

Unless, all they really wanted in life was a "reason" for their existence. Or have a need for some other outside guidance to tell them how to behave. Then sure, "knowing" we're just an infinitesimal piece in a gigantic bowl of intergalactic goo is going to make you suffer.
 
Last edited:
V4 said:
i remember 2 famous sayings...'ignorance is bliss' and ' you can't handle the truth'...

works for me...
Click to expand...

Don't forget my personal mantra, "No brains, no headaches."
 
The more you learn about things, the more interesting the world becomes. If I wanted to remain ignorant I'd join a religion and read one stupid book.

String theory, it's mind blowing.

BTW: happiness is external and can be given and taken at a whim. Bliss is internal, and once achieved can never be removed.
 
Intellectual stagnation is also pretty crappy, so until I'm living a subsistence farmer's life with no free time I'll keep learning all kinds of stuff as my curiosity and ambition prompt.
Its not too painful, as long as there are some similar minds to banter about odd topics with.
Ignorance may be bliss, but I guess I've never experienced the level of ignorance that delivered the bliss.
 
The more I know the more I forget. The more I forget the happier I am.
 
Karbon said:
You know more, therefore you are susceptible to suffering.
Click to expand...

Suffering is a choice. It may not seem like it, and at times it's really hard to remember it, but it is.
 
I woke up pondering the fact that the platypus is exceptional in that females have five different pairs of X chromosomes, and males have five X chromosomes and five Y chromosomes. To my surprise, I discovered that the platypus X and Y chromosomes are completely unrelated to the X chromosome of all other mammals but somewhat closer to that of birds...

this put me into a disarray of previous theories until I remembered that Jack In The Box has the 2 tacos special for .99 cents which made me happy...

I chose my destiny thereafter...

thank you....
 
Karbon said:
General shotgun blast question.

I got in a chat with a buddy of mine who says its a double edged sword. You know more, therefore you are susceptible to suffering. But, at the same time your wider knowledge base allows you to better rationalize and cope by distancing the suffering of others, or at the very least gives you better context.

Michael Shermer has a book called "Why people believe weird things", that touches on this idea in one of the chapters. I haven't read the book yet, BTW.

Anyway, thoughts and comments.
Click to expand...

apologies to sound obtuse, but i am not following any of this. what is meant by 'diverse knowledge base'? what knowledge leads to being susceptible to suffering? and the concept of coping by distancing yourself from the suffering of others completely baffles me. how is that a positive attribute of diverse knowledge? it sounds more self absorbed than diversely knowledgable to me.
 
I AM THE GALACTIC MANTRA (look it up)

I am:

light
infinite
the channel
expanding
psychedelic
vibration
timeless
unity
activating
resonate
galactic
radiant
defined
electric
lunar
magnetic
planetary
balanced
organized
connected
inspired
in harmony
integrity
perfect
manifestation
dissolving
releasing
liberated
dedicated
universalized
enduring
transcending mantra
being
communicating
spirit
breathing
cosmic
essence
power
action
dreaming
abundance
intuition
GOD
extreme
internal and external
eye am flowering
clocking
aware
life force
surviving
DMT
spiraling
art
accomplishing
healing
beauty
elegance
pure
flowing
love
chakras
coinciding
playing
magic
illusive
free will
wise
exploring
space and time
waking life
vivid
enchanting
timelessness
incomplete infinite design
alien
human
receptive
vision
energy
mindful
questioning
answering
intelligent
fearless
evolving
eye am opening my 3rd eye to the unseen vision
translating
eye am synchronicity
reflecting
endlessness
order and chaos
the tao
crystalized
self generation
affirming
enlightened
life
tone
color
electronic
lunar + solar
opposite + polar language
radial
particles of plasma
endurance
cosmic
releasing
liberated
perfect
pulsing
realizing
I am the 1 because the 1 are all
form
I am in the infinite nothing that becomes the everything
symbolic
relative
I am the divine spirit that harmonizes with the laws
projecting the digital loom
the tool of experiencing desire
and finding ecstasy in process
eye am me, we are you

[youtube]6WIfK-_WbTM[/youtube]
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top