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Comment by swombat | Hacker News Reader

“Enjoying life has nothing to do with what you have, it has to do with who you are hanging out with”.

Umm, I can't agree with that. You need a new mentor, Max.

Enjoying life indeed has nothing to do with what you have. It also has nothing to do with who you go get drunk with.

Enjoying life has to do with who you are, and what your perspective on life is. Some people enjoy solitudes, others enjoy being with close friends, others enjoy being adored by infinite crowds. Some people are happy sitting alone on a grassy hill with half a penny in their pockets, others are miserable even as millionaires surrounded by the best and cleverest people in the world.

Happiness comes from inside, not outside.

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There is a lot of evidence that Happiness is much like IQ in that you are born with a basic peak and while it can be dragged down there is little that can rise it. For the most part, outside of extraordinary circumstances it's fairly constant over your lifetime.

PS: And yes this means there are probably people in the middle of a 20 year prison sentence that are on average happier than you are.

According to studies cited by Sonjy Lyubomirsky (http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/ ) in her Book "The how of happiness" (a happiness book from a scientific view), the genetic predisposition is about 50%. 10% is your environment, and the rest is what you do with your life.

So, there is room for improvement for most people, although not as much as some happiness-gurus may like them to think.

>Happiness comes from inside, not outside.

Unless of course it's your perspective to believe otherwise. ;)

> Enjoying life indeed has nothing to do with what you have

Obviously you have enough food and shelter, or you would be singing a somewhat different tune.

It's hard to enjoy yourself and be happy when you are truly hungry, or cold and wet in the night.

Of course you can be happy with less than luxurious housing, or sub-par food, but have you ever felt the stab of hunger, the wrenching pain in your stomach, not that wimpy little ache you get after 12 hours of fasting?

Enjoying life has something to do with what you have.

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