Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by sdevonoes 1493 days ago
> I find it bizarre that you do.

Why? Feeling envious is just human nature. Sure, one can argue that in our current society that kind of feeling is "bad", and we should "fix it". I tend to agree, but that you find it bizarre, it's bizarre to me :D

Oh well, maybe you are a machine (based on your nickname), so yeah, machines do not have imperfections (just kidding).
2 comments
id 1493 days ago
It's definitely not "human nature" to feel envy towards your friends and family, unless you have been wronged by them.
link
k_sze 1492 days ago
> It's definitely not "human nature" to feel envy towards your friends and family.

Let me tell you how I had envied my cousin when he had a Super Famicom (a.k.a. SNES in North America) with a stash of great games and I didn't (not even the base machine), when I was a kid. He never wronged me. In fact, we were really good buddies when we lived next to each other more than 20 years ago, but I still envied.

link
johnnymorgan 1492 days ago
It's so well documented it's even a legit part of the Bible kekw

I guess you're a saint and the rest of us are just dirty sinners haha.

Envy, as I stated, is just an emotion. What the person does with it is where the moral and ethical sides come into play.

If it pushes me to do better in my life, I'll almost certainly mature past that emotion.

Someone else mentioned meditation and I heartily agree, mindset is how you approach the emotions.

"Anger is a great servant but a terrible Master" -- some guy in a fantasy novel

link
guerrilla 1493 days ago
> Feeling envious is just human nature.

Or maybe it's not and that's just something you tell yourself to feel better about being an asshole.

link
malauxyeux 1492 days ago
Does feeling envy make someone an asshole in your eyes? Do you believe that people who feel envy can choose to not feel it? If they can't choose not to feel it, are they doomed to be an asshole (by your definition) for the rest of their lives, barring some change outside of their control?

To me, simply feeling envy (or any negative emotion) doesn't really say anything about the person. Actively stoking negative emotions or acting on them moves the needle in the direction of asshole, though.

link
clausewitz 1492 days ago
Uhh, no. Envy, like every other human emotion, is just that. One part of the vast spectrum of how we perceive the world and its inhabitants.
link