We should avoid pain, not chase pleasure.
The harm that pain inflicts is real; everything pleasure offers is an illusion.
Pain can destroy a person outright. Pleasure cannot make anyone truly, completely happy.
That’s because pleasure is a kind of simulation — it isn’t real.
Say someone buys a mansion.
If a fire breaks out and the house burns down, the pain that follows can, if handled badly, cast a shadow over the rest of their life.
But the purchase itself makes them happy only for a while. Before long the glow fades, and off they go in search of the next pleasure — every bit as hollow as the last.
So our main task in life is to avoid pain, not to pursue pleasure. Avoid pain, and happiness comes of its own accord.
And my definition of happiness is simple: a calm life and a mind at peace with itself.
Investing follows the same logic. The first principle isn’t growing your money — it’s protecting your principal.
Happiness is achieved by steering clear of pain, not by chasing pleasure.
The happiness in a drink is fake. Most people drink because something is weighing on them.
Rather than face the problem and solve it, they use alcohol to hide from it for a while — which is foolish, shortsighted, and sure to come back to bite them.