> Go look at the clouds, or better the stars, for some time. But don't do it tool long because you might start wondering why the fuck you're wasting so much time and energy fulfilling other people's TODO lists

I tend to agree. I’d like to live a different lifestyle than the one I have today, but that would require rolling back the clock about 20 years at least and learning 1,000 lessons I have now that I wish I’d known back then. Don’t marry the wrong person. Figure out how to marry the right person. Have kids with the right person. But also you don’t HAVE to have kids. Avoid divorce. Avoid debt. Know myself, truly.

Now I’m on the “hedonic treadmill” and struggling to get off. I’m reading The Happiness Trap, it is good so far. But there are bills to pay, mouths to feed, and so it goes. The TODO list keeps growing, and I can only keep doing the job in front of me.

And yet, it is hard not to read this article and feel a bit, what’s the word, perhaps melancholic, about the direction we’re heading as a species. I’ll raise my son the best I can, and be the best person that I can be. And maybe build some stuff to leave the world a little better than I found it. None of us asked to be here. But given that we’re here it makes sense to try and do what we can to make things better. For now that means commenting on HackerNews about the current state of affairs and lamenting the direction humanity is going in. We’re burning the planet, pursing instant gratification, and “late-stage capitalism” is the status quo we live with. All we can do is what we can do. It is easy to think “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” but I’ll keep hoping for a better world where we take advantage of each other less and do a bit more to help each other though this thing called life.