‘Success Addicts’ Choose Being Special over Being Happy
It is always a bit paradoxical to discuss articles like this over a message board where we compete for votes and the top comment haha.<p>I often think that happiness is a shallow goal, and you leave a lot on the table if you are unwilling to suffer. Success and achievements are answers to that old question 'why?', they justify our existence.<p>Contrary to that, to paraphrase Gene Wolfe from Book of the Long Sun: "<i>When something is good it needs no justification.</i>"<p>another relevant quote (just because!) from East of Eden:<p>"<i>On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other? None of my children will be great either, except perhaps Tom. He's suffering over the choosing right now. It's a painful thing to watch.</i>"