zlacker

>>wallfl+(OP)
This very much captures the hedonic treadmill: when you increase your baseline level of happiness, you re-normalize to the new level, with relatively little change in your absolute happiness.

But while I do think appreciating what you have is part of how to avoid the hedonic treadmill, I don't think it's a matter of learning to be happy with a routine.

I've found it possible to make a conscious effort to avoid hedonic adapation, and enjoy novel things without allowing them to become a new baseline. If you can maintain your expectations at the same level, while improving your actual circumstances noticeably above that level, you can maintain a higher level of enjoyment of your life.

>>JoshTr+nU8
It does make me think it's - once again - a privilege thing. A lot of people can't afford vacations full stop. Another group can, but only in their own country or only stepping over the border.

Single, full-time working people, especially in tech, start to unlock the ability to travel abroad, maybe even one of those big two-three week Life Changing things to somewhere exotic, but only once in a lifetime or once every few years.

Middle / upper-middle class incomes eventually get to a point of wealth and freedom where they can take vacations abroad multiple times a year.

And I think you need to be even above that level, where you don't have to worry about your base income or mortgages or whatever, where you can have this lifestyle where you can have novel things and experiences all the time. And even then there's a risk people get used to it.

>>Cthulh+Ae9
I mean, you're kind of choosing to care about those things.

In general, these are just different goals in life. If you want a house and kids more than you want the freedom to travel, that's cool and pretty normal. There's no stone tablet handed down from the skies that says that has to be the way it is, though.

When I was 23 I saved a few grand up and went hitchhiking around Europe on a budget of something like < 500 eur a month.

I didn't care about my base income and still don't. I think most people accidentally structure their life so that the 9-5 becomes necessary (e.g. if you rent a room in an expensive city, or a flat or house, now you need to pay for that).

The income is a means to achieve the things that you want. If you can't X because Y, and you want to X, then give up Y, not X, find a different way to do X.

I have a mortgage now, but I didn't bother with it for the longest time for precisely the reason you'd described. It locks you down. I waited until I was sure that it _wouldn't_ lock me down because I could really afford it (i.e. it's not 50% of my income from a full time job).

If I'm being charitable, I had the advantage that I could move my belongings etc in to my parents' house if I wanted to. They're pretty poor, probably in the bottom 20% in the UK, so that's not some fantastic privilege.

If you have fuckup parents (not just poor but failed in some way), then yeah, this becomes a lot harder, and I'm sorry about that.

>>throwa+Qr9
Exactly what I was thinking. There is alway some kind of privilege to consider, like having a US or British passport, but there’s no way seeing the world a bit is a pleasure reserved for the ultra-wealthy FAANG employee. I wish we were friends, because I bet you have some interesting stories about hitchhiking across Europe, and that’s more than you can expect from a stereotypical upper class tech worker.

>>eloisi+dv9
Yeah. Basically I'd just give it the normal caveats, you're on a Western forum and there is an implicit assumption that you're in the "golden billion" and that you're reasonably physically and mentally healthy.

Beyond that, if you couldn't find a way, then it's just not your priority, ya know?

Russian blokes from mining towns can afford to travel third class on the Trans Siberian, what's your excuse?

And I'm sure we'd have fun too!