⭐⭐⭐ The Conquest of Happiness by Russell
| Full Title | The Conquest of Happiness |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bertrand Russell |
| Year Published | 1976 |
| Date Read | March 09, 2021 |
| Rating | 3/5 stars |
Some interesting ideas here, but in the middle of a bunch of stuff that’s largely forgettable. Two pieces I did remember:
If there’s something that you need to decide on / figure out, we all know how much anxiety can be caused by worrying about it for days/weeks/months. Russell recommends focusing on it extremely intently for a very short period of time (hours/days), and then letting the brain figure it out in the background (and critically, not thinking about it for a long time. Then, upon returning to it, it can often have ‘figured itself out’. I haven’t tried it yet but have never heard of this concept before.
When worrying about how bad things might be if something does/doesn’t happen, consider if you’re assessing it realistically. Would it actually be the worst thing in the world? Almost never is that the case. Interestingly, I’ve found this works better for things that are objectively a bigger problem (“what if I get fired?”) than smaller (“what if this
interaction goes poorly?”).