Wayfinding Part 3 Quotes

“It bears repeating that so much of our frustrations in life come from being confused. This feeling that the purpose of life is to be happy is a major source of our confusion. We want to be happy, and we like to think we were put here to be happy, so why aren’t we happy all the time? And why can’t we just choose to be happy? It makes perfect sense to desire happiness, and as much of it as possible. After all, happiness is the reward mechanisms in our brains firing. Remember the rats from the first part of this series? They kept pressing their levers, over and over, because the wires buried in their brains were located inside the reward centers. Pressing the lever made them feel happy, and there’s no better raw feeling in the world, so they would press the lever until they died. Drug addicts, overeaters, smokers, gamblers, alcoholics, and thrill junkies will all do the same thing. The happy chemicals flood our brains, and we believe we have found the meaning of life. I have sad news for you, dear reader. News that is so sad, it comes first with a reminder that happiness arises as we dispel confusion. And the reason we do not want to accept the following truth is because on its face, it seems depressing. But I promise that once we work through all the implications, we will be less confused and far happier on the other side. The truth is this: The meaning of life is to survive, reproduce, and see that our offspring survive. I know that’s quite the bomb to drop on you while we are discussing happiness, but there’s a reason I bring it up now. Because happiness and sadness are not states that our bodies seek for the sake of feeling those things. No, our bodies use happiness and sadness to motivate and reward us for certain”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“I alternated between attempting to make the easy look difficult and the difficult look easy, for this is the dual nature of men in the company of women.”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“We are obsessed with sex, because those organisms who have this obsession leave behind many more copies of organisms with this obsession.”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“It has been estimated that anywhere from 10% to 40% of internet activity is related to porn.”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“Evolution is best grasped by understanding that those things which feel the urge to make copies, and are best suited to make copies, will make a lot of copies. Give this enough time, and you’ve got some Xerox-obsessed creatures running around. •••”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“We are not rational animals; we are rationalizing animals.”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“The greater our cognitive dissonance, the more creative our rationalizations, and the more important we will make the goals that we are pretending to accomplish.”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold

“This is the art of rationalization, and we do it so often that some researchers believe that a majority of our time is spent rationalizing. That is, we go around much of the day lying to ourselves about why we are doing most of the things we do. When”
― Hugh Howey, Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold