One of my favorite threads on HN is an analysis of David Foster Wallace's suicide in light of his famous "fish and water" speech. It's hard to summarize, but do read it, especially Cushman's comment. Then juxtapose it with the list at the end of this post from Aaron's "Raw Nerve" series, and you'll understand what I was getting at with the above quote. In short, treating life as a hackable problem seems to make people be deliberately harsh and "realistic" with themselves in order to cause change. That can make you unhappy (it happened to me), or if you're already predisposed to depression, that can make it much worse.