Discussion Opinions on this article (It doesn't get better, it gets easier)

[lovelyheartz]

Personally, I don't think life is worth living even if it gets easier. Just seems really terrible. I don't want to live with this shit.

 

[Makko]

It does get easier as you gain life experience. "Better" and "worse" are not terms to work with because on closer inspection they don't actually mean anything.

 

[FuneralCry]

Yes, sometimes we can find coping mechanisms to make our lives more bearable. I agree with what you said, it doesn't automatically make life worth living. For many people, life just gets harder. For me over time I have became more tired of dealing with my problems and more worn down as each year has passed. You don't always cope better over time, you often just get more exhausted by it as you have been dealing with it for longer.

 

[dreamlessnight]

"Easier"? Ever heard of these dogs and learned helplessness? This article feels like projecting a single case on an imaginary group of like-minded people. Isolation is one hell of a drug. May they find peace at last.

 

[Makko]

This article feels like projecting a single case on an imaginary group of like-minded people.

Not so much like-minded as like-experienced. The notion that life gets easier is entirely about reviewing experience, not about theorising about what could be.

 

[dreamlessnight]

I see, thanks for the quick reply. It feels like a bad joke, people jever getting a happy life but going through the motions to the point they know the script by heart. And it doesn't break the cycle as movies show us, just makes the whole thing predictable.

 

[lovelyheartz]

It does get easier as you gain life experience. "Better" and "worse" are not terms to work with because on closer inspection they don't actually mean anything.

Can you explain how "better" and "worse" don't mean anything? I'm not disagreeing, I'm just kind of curious.

 

[Makko]

Can you explain how "better" and "worse" don't mean anything? I'm not disagreeing, I'm just kind of curious.

When making comparisons, you need to compare apples to apples. Is my life at 28 better or worse than it was at 18? I can't say, because I was a completely different person. My circumstances were different. My outlook was different. My experience was different. My values, priorities and expectations were different. Some things can be compared between now and then and some things cannot.

I'm better equipped to deal with the challenges of life at 28 than I was at 18. Therefore I can say that my life has become easier now compared to then. This can be defined and measured with some objectivity. But has it become "better"? I measure goodness by entirely different variables now than I did then. Whether the old me thought life was good by the old measures is irrelevant to the current me who thinks and feels in dimensions that the old me didn't even know existed. The old me and the current me would disagree on the basic definitions. It's not meaningful to compare two different "betters".

 

[fly away]

Some people don't get better no matter how hard they try, even with all resources available. And as you get older, it gets much harder. Both mentally and physically.

 

[Celerity]

Thanks for sharing. I only skimmed, but if I lived like OP of the article, I would have CTB long, long, ago. Who the fuck would want to live a life like that?

 

[Bullit]

I want my three minutes back; there is nothing to be gleaned from this article.

 

[ClownMe]

How does life get even remotely easier? If anything it technically gets harder as you age.

 

[Makko]

How does life get even remotely easier? If anything it technically gets harder as you age.

You're supposed to accumulate resources and life experience over time. If you don't do that then yes, life will stay as hostile and inscrutable as it was when you were a kid, except you also have to deal with your body falling apart.

 

[suisuiforum]

Being dead seems to be the easiest once you overcome that initial hurdle.

 

[Alwaysbadtime]

For poor people it only gets harder and worse.