NASAdude

This text was written in response to an article that Craig wrote.

In a true race,

• how hard you run affects the outcome of the race.
• how hard you run affects how quickly you reach the finish line
• quitting means that you haven't finished

In life, assuming death is the finish line,

• how hard you live life doesn't affect the outcome, since life isn't a race or competition
• how hard you live life doesn't affect how quickly you reach the finish line (assuming healthy living for both cases)
• quitting means that you have finished; suicide is a quick shortcut to the finish line

Life is not a race.

I used to be concerned a lot about "wasted time."  It doesn't slow you down on your way to death, but it affects how quickly you get to the waypoints on that road.

The real question is, what are your goals in life, your waypoints on the road  to death?  Those are what you need to race to achieve.  If you hurry from waypoint to waypoint, you can do so much in your life.  While the economics of our society might want you to believe that idea, that mode of thinking deprives you of a lot. 

It isn't a race to death.  It isn't a race to waypoints.  It comes down to the simple idea of doing what makes you happy.  I'm not condoning psychotropic drugs or living a life of leisure.  Or am I?  As long as your increased happiness doesn't significantly decrease the happiness of those around you, what harm is there? 

In a societal model, we would only need to optimize the summed happiness to find an ideal solution.  Arguably there are some people who will be put out and end up doing things that could make them unhappy.  But the net affect is that more people are able to increase their happiness due to the efforts of the unhappy person.  What's to keep the unhappy person from quitting, from seeking out a different role in society to increase their personal happiness?  The obvious solution is that society needs to endear the individual into seeing their sacrifice as something that makes them happy only because their efforts are benefiting others.  Simply foist self-sacrifice as a means to happiness.

Sure, it may seem like a catch-22, but it works.