
People 'get happier as they age' - mgcreed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8183522.stm#
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asdlfj2sd33
When you're a teen you're either extremely idealistic and deeply troubled or
extremely idealistic and happy, either way exciting times.

Your 20s are a weird transitional period between that and adulthood.

Your 30s, your adulthood, for the wast majority of us, you're finally coming
to terms with the fact that you will NOT be just like James Bond, or Michal
Jordan, or Michal Jackson, that you will in fact be perfectly ordinary.

This sucks hard, but you're an adult now and quite possibly may even already
be responsible for your own family.

So most of us adjust.

And when you're old, you wake up realize you're not dead yet, and that right
there puts you in a good mood.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_Your 30s, your adulthood, for the wast majority of us, you're finally coming
to terms with the fact that you will NOT be just like James Bond, or Michal
Jordan, or Michal Jackson, that you will in fact be perfectly ordinary._

Fuck that. Your life is what you make it. If you want an ordinary life, make
ordinary life choices. But if you want something more, it's not like it's
impossible.

I mean, come on, living an extraordinary life is why many of us on HN are
starting companies, right?

~~~
asdlfj2sd33
I think most people start companies to gain freedom and independence. Money
does not automatically make you extraordinary, millionaires are fairly
ordinary.

~~~
swolchok
Why make millions when you could make billions?

------
yannis
What happened to grumpy old men?

~~~
Alex3917
People tend to vastly underestimate the effect that emotions have on physical
health. Chronic depression, anger, and stress are basically the equivalent of
an all bacon diet. Probably far worse for your health than being morbidly
obese. The reason there are no angry or stressed old people is that they're
all dead.

There is a bunch of scientific research about this in Emotional Intelligence,
if you're looking for cites. (And Malcolm Gladwell opens his newest book
talking about this as well.)

~~~
nostrademons
"The reason there are no angry or stressed old people is that they're all
dead."

I'm not so sure of this. My grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 92, yet
for the last 25ish years of her life was depressed, lethargic, and generally a
drain on everyone around her. Similarly, my dad is now 70 and has been sure
that the world is about to end for the last 15 years.

Makes me a little depressed to think that genetically speaking, I'll probably
live a long and unhappy life. :-)

I think it's more that depressed old people tend not to get off the couch,
i.e. you won't see them at senior centers, they don't participate in studies,
and you will generally have little cause to interact with them.

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gojomo
It does not appear the Carstensen survey controlled for the many ways unhappy
people deselect themselves from the old-age pool, by dying early. (It's
unclear whether the Charles review considered this, either.)

There is plenty of evidence from other research that "happy people live
longer". Because of this quite-literal "survivor bias", these reports provide
essentially no evidence that "less-happy people become happier as they age".

~~~
michael_dorfman
I was thinking that it wasn't so much that "people get happier as they age",
as much as "old people can't be arsed to write down in a journal every pissy
thought that occurs to them".

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dimitar
Now, do IT people, especially programmers get happier as they age?

~~~
dan_the_welder
I hear they start to drop more packets.

