Hacker Cinema
Happy Feet Two
2011 · Film · 99 min
Part of Happy Feet Collection
Directed by George Miller
Mumble the penguin has a problem: his son Erik, who is reluctant to dance, encounters the Mighty Sven — a penguin who can fly! Things get worse for Mumble when the world is shaken by powerful forces, causing him to bring together the penguin nations and their allies to set things right.
5 positive3 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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9 comments on Hacker News
There was a movie a while back that talked about what makes people happy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_(2011_film)
It had some interesting ideas, and one of the things that stuck with me is the idea of your brain being a "difference engine" in that the variation is what matters. If we don't experience pain, we can't experience pleasure.
It seems a bit simplistic when stated that way, but I think there is something to it.
Another thing I have come to believe as I have aged is that our western (American especially) society places too much emphasis on happiness, in that we think happiness is (and should be) the prime goal of every human. I have come to believe that less and less, and think something like satisfaction, contentment, and purpose are much more important as life goals than happiness. Happiness is an important part of life, and is important for reaching the other goals I mentioned, but it is not the end goal (to me). I think most of us somewhat intuitively understand this, although our response is often to redefine what happiness is rather than concluding happiness isn't our end goal.
If happiness was everything, we would be much more accepting and encouraging towards hedonism than we are. A heroin addict who has a good clean supply and no responsibilities would be the ultimate dream life if we truly believed pure happiness was the most important thing.
In many Asian countries the kids live with their parents and if they move out after marriage it’s to a house on the property with the parents or very closely nearby for support.
Getting together regularly with family or friends is usually very healthy. I suggest people watch the documentary “Happy” 2012 by Roko Belic. It was introduced in a class to help with stress among many other supportive topics.
Experiencing flow while learning skills and working on something meaningful is happiness.
"It’s amazing how much contentment and sheer satisfaction is found in finding something you are interested in learning and seeing yourself grow as your mind and skills expand while progressing through ever more complex levels. It’s like a video game, but better! Actively learning something stops time, or at least you won’t notice the passage of time because you’re so gratifyingly engaged in something. This is the state of “flow,” or the feeling of energized focus and enjoyment while engaged in an activity that is discussed in the 2011 documentary, Happy."
From: https://moviewise.substack.com/p/going-through-an-existential-crisis
I've been doing vfx for 20+ years. So...
- watch a movie :
2020 Upside Down Magic
2017 The Fate of the Furious (visual effects artist)
2015 San Andreas
2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron
2013 R.I.P.D.
2011 Happy Feet Two
2011 Mars Needs Moms
2009 A Christmas Carol
2008 The Tale of Despereaux
2007 Enchanted
2006 The Shaggy Dog
2005 Constantine
2004 Hellboy
2003 The Matrix Revolutions
2001 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- or a more recent TV show:
Another Life
Gabby and the Unsittables
Charmed
There's certainly other things I've worked on, but they're lost down the memory hole for good.
According to the documentary Happy [1], happiness is ~50% genetics and ~50% about what happens in your life. The most intriguing part for me was that major life events like getting married (happy) or becoming disabled (bad) don't affect so much happiness in the long run.
[1] https://www.thehappymovie.com/
It has been discussed many times why work makes us happy and the most compelling is flow: https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en
It was also covered in the documentary "Happy".
I actually was thinking the article would discuss more in detail this or even just put a citation (he cited Keynes and Marx) but instead it went on a long personal anecdotal comparison after comparison.
I also was hoping the author would discuss the developing trend of people working from home and how that relates but.. nope.
IMO the article was too long for my liking. A fairly disappointing read.
There have been many studies that have shown that while extreme cases of wealth disparity do cause unhappiness (I'm talking extreme poverty) most of the time it is not the case. This is discussed in laymen and great length in the documentary "Happy.
There is some indication that certain forms of non-chronic adrenaline producing stress (even life threatening ... ie sky diving) may help prevent depression (I'll find a reference shortly).
I honestly believe that increased opioid usage is playing a huge part here and not wealth (at least through my own observations). In fact wealth and health care availability might actually be stimulating opioid usage (ie getting pills from doctors).
This is what I can tell you.
In my freshman year of college, I helped my best friend get through depression at the moment when I thought he would take his life. We were like 300 miles away, and despite the distance, I was lucky enough to be able to make a difference.
My friend was going through what I think has been the hardest time of his life (although throughout his life, he has been through some really tough times). Also, my friend was a mere teenager in his middle teens and (in my opinion) lacked support from family; both psycologically and financially.
Tips: A depressed person will say "you don't understand [how I feel]". Do NOT try to convince this person that you do, and while you might want them to feel like you agree with them and see where they are coming from, it is best not to seem like you can understand their immense unhappiness.
Another thing to avoid is using yourself as an example of how things will be OK. For example, don't say something like "yeah, my parents divorced when I was young too, but look, I'm ok and so will u".
I think a depressed person's least concern is how your life is going (unless it is your life that is depressing this person) so don't say things like "it makes me sad to see you like this", because it will just feed a vicious circle of sadness and nothing gets solved.
The final thing that I can tell you to avoid is saying something along the lines of "you should see a psychologist/psychiatrist". I know, its ironnic, but that will feel to the depressed like you want to send the burden of helping this person out to a doctor.
also, don't say things like "I don't want you to ...(be sad, die, ...etc)" because as I said before, its not about what you want, it is about how they are feeling.
To do's:
Ask this person why they feel this way. Ask this person if they are considering suicide...and I know what you may be thinking: "won't that put ideas on their head or encourage them to do it?"
Sincerely, it is very unlikely that they are depressed and haven't though about it. it will be rather a better way for you to understand this person and take preven[tative?] measures if necessary.
Feel free to remind this person that you love him/her. (I'm hopping and assuming that you do)
There is also a suicide hotline that will advice you on how to help this person. On the other hand, i'd avoid calling 911 for help on this matter unless your loved one is about to end it all. This is because of all the terrible reprecussions that will arise out of that. Also, this is different than referring a psychologist, since it will not throw unintended hints of crazyness to your loved one.
Did you know that if a person makes a suicidal statement to "the authorities ( police, doctors, etc...)" they will get sent to a hospital for a long while to "recover"? The problem is that these places don't really help your loved one recover, they will just administer a lot of drugs and emprisson them for at least a week in a medical facility that I hear is quite a miserable place to be. (My friend went there and hated it).
Last but not least, here is a link on a PDF of QPR:
http://www.scshare.com/downloads/MHA_QPR.pdf (like the official what to do(s) in these terrible times )
I wish you the best of luck and happiness to you and your fiance.
Last but not least, I want to recommend you the documentary called "Happy". I believe it can show you ways to improve not only your fiance's emotional situation, but also yours (whomever you are).
PS: I believe that while Hacker News is not the typical site to find advices of this kind, I am glad you asked because while I like technology and business, I know of other things, I like helping others and HN is pretty much the only page where I care to get involved. So, to the selfish person coughDigitalSea cough, healthy human happiness is totally worth looking for in any crevice one can look, even on the internet.
So many things one could say... I actually just watched a movie called "Happy" earlier today, watch that (it's on Netflix) and report back. You have a tremendous opportunity to make a positive impact in this world, heck I'm sure you already have in many ways. Cheer up : ) "I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."