Two states:
- Happy in non-intese way, joyful, pleased with the world, not caring, zen-like. Not productive.
- One of the two:
- Extremely happy about everything, motivated by extreme happiness, laughter, positive states. Productive. I argue that this is a very hard to keep state, and instead people go to…
- Upset, annoyed, unhappy, non-pleased, motivated by stress, irritated. Productive. I argue it’s the place where most things in life lead you to. I am in this state.
I discussed about these two states (zen, and either extremely happy or extremely irritated) in what I consider to be the best article I’ve written (it’s in Romanian).
I am upset. Why is that?
As a first note, in order just to accept my state, I have to be in that state. Other people are irritated also, but to truly admit it, to plainly say “yes, I am irritated” you need a bit of cynical attitude which is specific to the state.
Reasons for being upset:
- Perhaps genetics. My father tends to be like this from time to time. I think this is a minor reason only.
- My focus on improving things, which lead me to currently doing mostly audits on how to improve. And reading things like Lifehacker. They all help me focus more on wanting more. Constantly. Which leads to irritation.
- I may well be addicted to stress and the negativity which comes with it. See the quote at the end of this article. The idea that the Internet rewards instantly. And I may just like this quite a lot, even if it leads to aggression.
- I correlate stress with productivity (you are stressed, thus you are productive). What if the reverse happens – since I’m stressed, I am productive). This may be a reason in itself.
Quote from Manic Nation: Dr. Peter Whybrow Says We’re Addicted to Stress –:
““The computer is electronic cocaine for many people,” says UCLA’s Peter Whybrow. “Our brains are wired for finding immediate reward.” Which is why we can’t stop.
[…]
“Many of the usual constraints that prevented people from doing things 24 hours a day—like distance and darkness—were falling away,” says Whybrow. Our fast new lives reminded him of the symptoms of clinical mania: excitement over acquiring new things, high productivity, fast speech—followed by sleep loss, irritability, and depression.
Whybrow believes the physiological consequences of this modern mania are dramatic, contributing to epidemic rates of obesity, anxiety, and depression.”
PS, 2018.08.18:
Well, according to a new study published in the academic journal Intelligence, angry people think they’re a lot smarter than they actually are.