From: den Otter (neosapient@geocities.com)
Date: Sun Oct 11 1998 - 16:32:00 MDT
----------
> From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com>
> > At 04:04 AM 10/11/98 -0400, Mary Therise Gleason wrote:
> >
> > >I once suffered from Clinical Depression as a teenager. (snip)
> > >Gradually, I burnt it out of my system, but with it I think
> > >I lost something. Like the other side of the coin, "happiness", if you can
> > >understand that...
>
> Who says clinical depression is bad, anyway? Negative thinking is inherently
> more powerful than positive thinking, despite the silly fad in
> willpower-worship. The response sets of unhappiness evolved to handle tougher
> problems; the analytic abilities that deal with failure are considerably more
> powerful than the skill-formation abilities evoked by success. Whatever price
> chronic depression exacts, it's more than worth it.
>
> I speak from experience, of course.
Speaking from experience I can say that the exact opposite is true;
depression leads to nothing, while happiness and success go hand
in hand. I guess we humans are a very divers species...
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