The technologist mantra today presumes there is always something wrong with the world that requires fixing. Those things are always external phenomena framed as problems, like a process taking too long, a product being too low quality, or an outcome being too expensive. To the technologist, fixing those problems is a net good for the world because there is always a market of people on the other side ready to be made happy by a new solution.

The issue with this ecosystem of builders and desirers is that everyone, on both ends, has become unconsciously convinced that human happiness should be tied to extrinsic circumstances. When hiring their employees or selling to their customers, companies perpetuate narratives likening waiting in line, overhearing background noise, or not having enough storage space to the end of days: something absolutely worth buying out of or solving for. The rate of tech growth in the last two decades has driven this mentality exponentially, creating a loop where consumers become conditioned to desire more, and more builders are accordingly motivated to build for them. “Make something people want”, as YC says.

I see this singular issue as a bigger threat to actual wellbeing than the vast majority of contrived issues that people continue to burn down today.

Looking at happiness from first principles: the skill we all possess, yet many have forgotten, is the ability to create our own intrinsic peace by simply managing the way we perceive the world around us today. We have a natural tendency to observe a phenomenon; classify it as non-ideal; then allow our complex minds to run unchecked, extrapolating negative implications for our future selves; and finally let these thoughts manifest as unhappiness in the present.

That doesn't always have to be the case.

Once you realize your mind can be managed, and that you can literally choose to disallow slowness, low quality, or cost from eliciting your negative feelings, you begin to understand that happiness does not have to be bought, or built - it can be trained, practiced, welcomed - and suddenly you have unlocked a life of far more peace than most people have today. I strongly believe that enabling more people to observe this is something worthy (and possible) to build towards, via technology, education, or social reform.

Technologists play an outsized role in breaking the current cycle, and I would like to contribute in any way I can. Get in touch if you'd like to help too.

“Build a painkiller, not a vitamin” is a motto commonly taught in startup schools today.

Would you rather be reliant on painkillers your whole life, or learn to become impervious to pain?

“but sinjon, willing to buy something =/= hating your life?”

then why do we value the desperate customer? if they were just “alright with” adopting something new and not totally dissatisfied with the status quo we wouldn’t see them as a strong market opportunity