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Manfred comments on Is love a good idea? - Less Wrong
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Congratulations, you have violated Betteridge's law.
Better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.
-J.S. Mill
I'd go further than that. Better to be a human being dissatisfied than a human being satisfied.
Huh?
Pretty much what MathiasZaman said. Or to put it a few other ways: if you're satisfied, you're not trying hard enough; contentment is a sickness of the soul; a man's reach should exceed his grasp; etc.
Since no-one else has tried to alleviate your confusion, I think that RichardKennaway sees perfect satisfaction as wireheading or something similar.
It sounds like you're refuting my thoughts because they're based on the belief that I should optimize my happiness. If so, could you elaborate? Just quoting Mill isn't a refutation.
Well, I mean, you're free to optimize what you want. But I doubt you'd want to be turned into a pig in exchange for slightly more happiness. Humans are pretty complicated as a rule, and happiness is only one of many things we like. Valuing the well-being of other people is totally okay.
I forget where this quote is from: if humans were all alike, love would be the arbitrary elevation of one person over a billion equals. But each person is truly special; we in our limitedness merely only appreciate the specialness of those we know well.