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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +layout: post |
| 3 | +title: "We live in a world built by dead people" |
| 4 | +description: "Pursuing happiness hasn't made us happy. Instead we feel lost." |
| 5 | +date: 2025-09-29 |
| 6 | +image: /assets/images/2025-09-29-dead-people.png |
| 7 | +lang: ko-KR |
| 8 | +--- |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +> levels.io 스타일 특징 |
| 11 | +>>직설적인 시작: 바로 핵심으로 들어감 |
| 12 | +짧은 문단: 2-3문장씩 끊어서 읽기 쉽게 |
| 13 | +대화체: "we're like", "I know" 같은 구어체 사용 |
| 14 | +볼드 강조: 핵심 문장은 굵게 |
| 15 | +이미지 활용: 설명에 맞는 이미지 삽입 |
| 16 | +소제목: 큰 아이디어마다 섹션 구분 |
| 17 | +인용구: > 로 중요한 말 강조 |
| 18 | +구체적 예시: Notch, Minecraft 같은 실제 사례 |
| 19 | +반복 구조: 질문 → 답변 → 예시 → 결론 |
| 20 | +강렬한 마무리: 간결하고 임팩트있게 |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +This generation has been raised to pursue happiness, we should "follow our passions" and we would get there. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +Us Millenials, we more than ever eschew authority and do whatever we want. We're not settling at 30 with a family, instead we're chasing our dreams. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +We're basking in luxury. We travel, stay in hotels and then proceed to post pictures of it on Instagram. But then we sit on the side of that infinity pool and we're like "wait I'm still not happy". |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +We did all those things that were supposed to make us happy and it didn't work. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +Pursuing happiness hasn't made us happy. Instead we feel lost. We've been told a big fat lie. |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +## We have to dig into biology to find out why |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +> I was brought up to think: "It's not your mission in life to be happy, it's your mission in life to leave the world better than how you found it" |
| 38 | +> — Ronda Rousey on JRE #690 |
| 39 | +
|
| 40 | +Individual happiness was never the objective of life. Only recently (probably the last two post-war generations) humans have made it that, en masse. **Survival of the self is the primary objective of life** (according to most theories). That's why we're scared of death. |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +Our secondary objective is procreation, as that helps the survival of the species. So we're rewarded with happiness if we eat (sushi), drink (coffee), find mates (on Tinder) and have sex with them. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +## Meaningful work |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +What else is there we like to do? Achieve things. But just achieving is not enough, it has to be meaningful work while working towards achievement to reward our brains. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +We see it very often. Business founders selling their company and getting depressed. People retiring and getting depressed. They make money but they lose what really made them happy: the work. |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +Notch, the creator of Minecraft, famously sold his company to Microsoft for $2,000,000,000. Sadly, by most accounts, he's probably never been more depressed. |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | +## Why? Because biology |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +See, the buildings you see in this picture were built by people that are now dead. We live in a world built by dead people. We're using the infrastructure built by dead people. |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +So in that respect, it's good for the species if you do meaningful work, try to make the world better (a cliche, I know) and help people around you. Because the next generation will enjoy the fruits of your life's labor. |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +**But remember, we're tricked by biology.** There's no rational reasons why doing meaningful work is good. It's entirely subjective. It's biologically subjective. |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +The answer is, because it makes us happy. |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +## The reward |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +Researchers have shown that dopamine regulates motivation, causing individuals to initiate and persevere to obtain something either positive or negative. |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +So, dopamine motivates us to do stuff, and serotonin gives us pleasure when we get there. |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +We're slaves to biology. And this slavery is mediated by brain chemicals. |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +So since we can't escape that we're slaves of our biology, what is there to do? Well, we can be aware of it. And that lets us at least pursue activities that might benefit the world and the people around us. |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +Thank biology! |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | + |
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