So does canabis (albeit in a rather creative way). I love the stuff but it's definitely better in smaller and infrequent doses.
Alcohol, on the other hand, I have really not found especially helpful for creativity. YMMV.
It's inconsiderate and in poor taste, to say the least.
Low-brow dismissals and over-generalizations such as this one make for boring and un-curious conversations.
Instead, we look around, and see that vices fall into a handful of categories: trick the brain into making the feel-good chemicals (risk-taking, sex, good food) or sticking the feel-good chemicals in there yourself (drugs, booze).
I'm not going to assert that I know the greatest pleasure possible. Someone's probably out here stretched out on MDMA while cliff-jumping into a volcano or some likewise truly insane shit. But I can assert that that person is experiencing pleasure unfathomable by anyone who asserts that the greatest pleasure is "thinking".
Probably some integral of pleasure is part of the equation, and it depends on you preference for pleasure distribution. But maybe I'm blurring the line between pleasure and fulfillment.
The animistic or instinctual side of happiness triggered by drugs is not purely a module but it can be encapsulated into a concept called the the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. This pathway can be mechanically manipulated to make you feel a certain portion of happiness via drugs sex or the natural secretion of dopamine.
The thing about this module is that it lives separately from another module called the neocortex. The neocortex encompasses the higher functionality of your brain with things like higher order thoughts, perception and consciousness. The unique thing about the neocortex is that it can self actualize. It can see signals being sent by other parts of the brain and it can override or interpret those signals as false. This is what happens when you do something like exercise. One part of your brain tells you you're tired, but your neocortex overrides this and forces you to continue because you're aware that the feeling is an illusion. Exercise is actually healthy.
For someone to feel truly happy the mesolimbic dopamine pathway and the neocortex need to be in alignment. The dopamine hit must register AND the neocortex must validate that feeling as well. Signals of happiness from one module but not the other register as sort of an invalid false happiness.
For example when you're an addict and you're doing heroin the reward pathway sends a signal, but the neocortex denies it. The addict is generally unhappy even though he gets "high" all the time. For the parent poster, the neocortex is telling himself he's happy by "thinking" but there's no dopamine hit from the mesolimbic pathway. The in-congruence from both modules in the brain form a happiness that isn't quite real. To truly be happy you need both.
Also note that the brain additionally develops tolerance to dopamine so any feeling of happiness is relatively fleeting. You need to use different stimuli and go through long periods of "no dopamine" to feel happy. Humans are biologically designed this way by evolution.
I'm sorry to tell you this, because in general being aware of all of this generally makes people less happy. Ignorance is part of what makes all of this work, because it is your neocortex that is determining all of this. Knowledge of this influences how your neocortex chooses to override certain signals from the mesolimbic pathway... it's all very very meta.
We may be splitting hairs because this stemmed from a comment saying thinking is the most pleasurable thing in the world and you said anyone who thinks that way is lying to themselves.
Through your biological lens I have no choice but to agree, the thing that is most pleasurable in the world is mesolimbic dopamine pathway and the neocortex alignment (or so I'm told).
But through a conversational lens I guess it's all how you get there. And thinking->problem solving->success is a plausible path to get there which is why I disagree with your statement that they are lying to themselves, ignoring the existential truth that we are always lying to ourselves.
Sure, if this is what he means, then he is correct. But what he wrote is just "thinking" which is false.
>which is why I disagree with your statement that they are lying to themselves, ignoring the existential truth that we are always lying to ourselves.
It is a bit. The success of problem solving usually comes with only a mild dopamine hit. There are way more situations that create a greater surge of dopamine. Parent stated "thinking" was the most pleasurable thing ever which obviously not the case for people in general.
For example it's much more pleasurable to win a billion dollars or successfully bed the hottest girl in the club or to dominate everyone else in some competition. Clearly our biology is geared towards giving huge rushes of dopamine for situations that aren't exactly tied to "thinking" or strictly "problem solving". I find it hard to believe that the parent is completely unaware of this. He must know on some level. That's why I claim he's lying to himself.
I consider it a fair point of discussion.
A thought experiment I've put myself through is would I still be pursuing software if I has unlimited access to sex, drugs and entertaining people were magnetically attracted to me.
I don't know the answer to that question, but I've had moments of satiation with regards to those things and I end up learning and/or thinking deeply - and in those moments it is the most pleasurable thing.
This is probably different for everyone because after being satiated being alone and thinking is what I like to do. I've also completely stopped drinking for similar reasons as the grandparent comment.
But it's more then just drugs, sex and fame. Your children, the love of your wife, friends. That sort of thing can make you happy.
Just thinking though typically does not make anyone happy, and this can be verified. Happiness is associated with endorphins and part of your brain lighting up in an MRI.
Also if you "think" about it even further. If humans can actually "think" themselves into happiness, a lot of the stresses of the real world would magically disappear. Survival of the fittest does not allow this. A content human is not one positioned to compete and survive. We are wired to never be fully satiated, never to be happy for long. Our brains give us a taste of happiness so that we can spend most of our lives working to chase it. Because an unsatisfied person is a competitive person and that makes him evolutionarily more fit.
Being fully aware of our evolutionary nature actually hinders survival. Nature wants us to live in an illusion thinking we're chasing a goal with an endpoint that equates to contentment and happiness. If you "think" too much, as I have, you see past the illusion and you're now less likely to play the "game" so to say.
What I realized from "thinking" too much is that it actually makes you MORE unhappy. It makes you realize the horrible truth of most things and the pointlessness of many other things.
No offense to parent but what I see from his statement is basically someone who hasn't thought deeply about certain things too much.
People do attempt to think themselves into happiness with therapy see some benefit.
Just thinking - yes, probably not going to make anyone extremely happy.
But I still believe it's a plausible argument that after any cycle or combination of sex, drugs, fame, family, friends there may be a point where, for some people, thinking/problem solving may have it's place as the most pleasurable option in that moment.
And the winning combination for some people may be family, friends and problem solving, rather than family, friends and drugs. So it's possible they are not lying to themselves. It may maximize pleasure over time.
You probably found a success niche via problem solving.. and interpreted the source of your happiness as "thinking through problems." If you continuously failed to solve problems while thinking you obviously wouldn't be happy so it isn't "thinking" or "problem solving" that triggers this... it's success. Thus there are other avenues to this version of happiness outside of problem solving, you just need to find something you're successful at. If problem solving is it, so be it.
That is definitely something to be grateful for. I too, enjoy thinking deeply, and abstain from Alcohol when trying to solve problems.
But thinking can also be torture and sometimes I just want to drown out all the depression and anxiety. Alcohol is good for delaying that. Only problem is it’s a temporary fix, and the agony comes back stronger.
Alcohol is also good for dumbing yourself down to the same intellectual level as a social group.
The reason I’m working towards being a nondrinker is so I can confront my mental issues in a healthy way, and so my kids don’t see me destroy myself as they grow up.
Of course, if you find it adversely affecting you, then you owe it to yourself to abstain.
Back in my gigging days, we called it “the perfect buzz”. 1-2 drinks before performing worked well- but more than that did not.
I only share so much because for some of us it’s a very slippery slope. I used to not be aware of _why_ I was drinking so much.
I do really enjoy the taste of a craft beer, or a decent bourbon. The part I’m working on now is balance. I don’t want to get to where I _have_ to stop drinking.