Thomas Hettich > Recent Status Updates

The last few pages were great - Anishinaabe teachings that I take note of as they are relevant today (when making big decisions think 7 generations ahead) and an event that brought to tears of joy.

Good introduction to the Firekeeper family on Sugar Island. A good two handfull of characters have been introduced with plenty of potential for conflict. I look forward to see where it goes.

3rd path is that of absolute commitment. Whether it is being home at 6 pm to eat with the family or not eating meat, absolute commitments make life easier.

His second path to happiness is a better than the first. It‘s not about the set-up, but about the corrections. The point is that a great education or diploma will not set you up for life. The constant adjustments to deal with what life throws at you will make the difference. It‘s not the plan, but the planning.

First path to happiness he labels „mental accounting“. While I understand the concept, his examples are mostly silly. For example prepayment of a hotel stay might still end with the experience of having a horrid bill to sour the mood.

The chapter „Ideologische und politische Gegenfeuer“ tackles 3 ways how the past success of achieving GDP growth through increased consumption is sustained. „Die Negationisten“ are the deniers, such as climate deniers.

In the chapter „Weshalb das herrschende ökonomische Paradigma obsolet ist“ the author describes how that science will generally come up with a new and improved model, when the existing model doesn‘t sufficiently describe reality. But as the economic model sustains those who are rich and those in power, the observations that don‘t fit (inequality, biodiversity loss, climate change) are dismissed as outliers .

Im Abschnitt „Die Natur verstummt…“ wird die Geschichtlichkeit aufarbeitet, weshalb die Natur als nahezu wertlose Ressource in der Ökonomie auftritt. Am Anfang wurde sie kaum erwähnt (z.B. bei Adam Smith), und später war die Erhaltung der Natur nicht im Interesse derjenigen, die an der Macht waren.

On page 15 the author makes several generic assertions such as „immer mehr Leute leben unter Existenzminimum“ that without more context seem more false than true (one of the biggest advances of modern age is that a large part of the population has moved out of poverty). He paints a complex and not entirely straight-forward story that capitalism is build on a few fragmented ideas which need to be replaced.

Finished the introduction. I picked up the book as a previous colleague posted about this book of her late father. I‘m surprised that this, the first edition, is from 2021 - I thought the book might be 20-30 years old as it references Tragedy of the Commons - not a paper that I feel is referenced much anymore. (Why it‘s an ironic reference as the author claims, I don‘t know.) It could be Tragedy of Capitalism?!

In the introduction the author describes his baseball accident and how it put him on the path of improving his daily behaviours. On page 9 he introduces his 4-step model of habits (cue, craving, response and reward) and describes other prior models.

Read the first 3 chapters two days ago, today another 3. The book is quiet and describes the life of a 14-year old boy whose only friend moved away, the mom is sick and the relationship with his unemployed dad is distant. The first coming-of-age story that I’ve read in a long time. I really enjoy it.

Chapter 20 'The End of Homo Sapiens': For 4 billion years organisms have evolved due to evolutionary pressures and without an intelligent designer. This might be about to change as humans gather knowledge about changing DNA - we have already changed DNA of plants to make them more frost resistant and are trying to give birth to a mammoth that became distinct thousands of years ago.

Alternative methods to a greater happiness (to improving biochemistry and being fulfilled) are offered by Buddhism. He describes the metaphor of the man standing on the shore trying to prevent the good waves from disintegrating and pushing back the bad waves. After days of trying, he gives up, sits down and is able to enjoy the beauty of the ocean and waves coming in.

He explains well that happiness is misleading, but never mentions "fulfilling" as a more proper word to aim for - "A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless less life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is." From a scientific standpoint, human life has no purpose - any meaning we ascribe to our lives is a delusion.

the male might not want to have sex in the first place and if the rush lasted too long, he might not want to go hunting and die of lack of interest in food.
Human happiness differs from person to person, on a scale from 0-10 some people are born with a cheerful biochemical system that allows mood swings between levels 6 and 10, stabilising at 8. Others have gloomy systems in the range 3-8 and stabilise at 5.

Measures of happiness from a biological standpoint doesn't measure against society-economic factors (like wealth and political freedom), but rather against biochemical and genetic factors. Our biochemical systems seem programmed to keep happiness levels relative constant. A short rush is possible, such as the reward of pleasant feelings to makes who spread their genes by having sex - without the rush, ...

Measures of happiness have shown that money matters (but only for those who have few means) and changes to someones health only matters for a short term (for example, when an accident happens). A healthy partnership and social ties are important for long-term happiness (an unhealthy partnership is detrimental). So although societies have become richer, the social fabric of families and communities has become weaker.

Historians have not been studying the history of happiness. It is not clear whether humans were happier in hunter-gatherer societies, as farmers hundreds of years ago, the Chinese opium addict. There is a lot of evidence that the industrial revolution is wrecking the planet and both nature and many animals are suffering more than maybe ever before. And maybe we ought to consider not only the happiness of humans.

The last decades have seen very little war between states. There are many reasons for this, they include atom bombs which would bring with it the price of suicide, should they be wielded, value moving from tangible resources to intangible ones such as tech workers that can just up and move away, peace dividends coming from trading with other countries and increasing own productivity.

The chapter 'Perpetuum Mobile' argues that revolutions happen all the time now. Whereas in pre-modern times this meant toppling governments, today this happens mostly peacefully. The time since WW2 has been the most peaceful in human history. The peace is largely a consequence of the larger state (no canings in schools, violence against wives banned, state-run courts and police forces).

The chapter 'Perpetuum Mobile' argues that revolutions happen all the time now. Whereas in pre-modern times this meant toppling governments, today this happens mostly peacefully. The time since WW2 has been the most peaceful in human history. The peace is largely a consequence of the larger state (no canings in schools, violence against wives banned, state-run courts and police forces).

The chapter 'Imagined Communities' makes the case that as our local community has whittled, the emotional void has been filled by a much stranger nation community (such as being Swiss, Danish, Thai, etc.) and our consumer community (being vegetarian, fashionable, outdoorsy, etc.).

Chapter 'The Collapse of the Family and the Community': Daily life of humans has prior to the industrial revolution mostly been within 3 frames: the nuclear family, the extended family and the local intimate community. Harari explains how pretty much everything was settled within these frames and only when industrialisation started the role of the state and individual became much stronger.

On 2.8.1880 Great Britain adopted as first country a national time. Before then, a city would have their local time and with the expansion of railroads, GMT was adopted as railroad time in GB. This was an indication that industrialisation became increasingly important instead of the past natural cycles of seasons and sun. Today one has to make an active effort to “forget” time.

The modern capitalist economy has switched the roles known from the past. Where in the past the elite was spendthrift, today they invest, and the masses were frugal in order to survive, today consumption of things they don’t need (resulting also in obesity) sums up many of our activities.

A study from the 1950s by Harry Harlow showed that sufficient nourishment wasn't enough for a monkey to learn to fit into society. Monkeys have psychological needs and desires that, if not met, they suffer from high levels of anxiety and aggression. Monkey baby prefer a barren cloth mother because they were looking for an emotional bond and not only milk. This applies to other animals as well, including birds.

The sun and the ocean provides plenty of energy for our needs - humanity just hasn't yet been able to harness them.
A basic lesson from evolutionary psychology: a need shaped in the wild continues to be felt subjectively even if it is no longer really necessary for survival and reproduction. The tragedy of agricultural industrialisation is that it takes care of objective needs, while neglecting subjective needs.

Industry has been good at finding new resources to complete tasks. Transportation used to be made of wood and stone, the materials used today (such as plastic, aluminium) were not even known then. Also, energy has changed it has taken time For most of human history, solar energy has fuelled us, mainly through plants, and the daily and yearly cycle had a deep impact on us.

Industry has been good at finding new resources to complete tasks. Transportation used to be made of wood and stone, the materials used today (such as plastic, aluminium) were not even known then. Also, energy has changed it has taken time For most of human history, solar energy has fuelled us, mainly through plants, and the daily and yearly cycle had a deep impact on us.