

Talk Deeply, Be Happy? - flowseeker
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/talk-deeply-be-happy/?hp

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anonjon
I don't know why the study paints this as being a strange outcome. This
outcome makes sense to me intuitively. Perhaps because we confuse momentary
happiness (having fun!) with prolonged mental wellbeing. They are somewhat
related to each other, but are not a causal or necessarily even a correlative
relationship.

I've never really understood the point of smalltalk (beyond social things
where you don't really know anyone). If I'm going to be having a conversation,
I like it to be about something. I think having a meaningful conversation
signifies that you are actually interested in the other person and interested
in knowing what they think. If you think about it from that perspective, that
you are actually making deep interpersonal relationships with the people
around you, of course you will be happier. The person making smalltalk with a
hundred people is someone who is still lonely in some aspect of the term.

It also makes sense in that discussing and thinking about 'deep' issues, you
are becoming more knowledgeable about yourself. People who know more about
themselves are going to be better able to please themselves (fill their lives
with things that make them happy), because they actually know what they like
(and what they are like).

Substantive conversations make for a substantive lives. And substantive lives
are more enjoyable than empty ones.

This study is sort of just be rediscovering the Platonic theory of pleasure.
(Sensual, Esthetic, and Ideal pleasures).

Moral of the story, read Plato (talk about it), be happy.

