Come to the Dark Side… We have COOKIES!!!!

9 min readOct 5, 2019

That might sound stupid, but wouldn’t you do it? 😀

Sure, it might feel like some dark cult to go with all the people chasing happiness and cookies in life, but aren’t the cookies worth it? It’s like taking candy from a stranger; you shouldn’t do it… unless you really want the candy ;-)

Star wars jokes aside, I’ve been thinking a lot about cookies and happiness lately (no really). It all started with me being unhappy because of how nervous I was with strangers.

So a year ago, I was at an extracurricular club thing for the first time and of course, I was worried about what others would think of me. Then, suddenly I saw what I needed to cheer me up… COOKIES!!!

Of course, I immediately wanted to run over and grab some, but no one else was going (I later realised everyone was just as nervous as me 😉). Suddenly, the 30-year-old guy supervising the club walks over and holds out a cookie to me and I still remember exactly what he said:

The difference between those who are happy and those who are not is that those who are happy take what they want.

And I stood there thinking, “But I just wanted some cookies…” while wondering how deep that was…

Ever since then, I keep being reminded of that whenever I see a cookie. And it makes me wonder: was that guy right about happiness coming from doing whatever it takes?

In other words, should your end goal be to always be happy in life and not worry about the rest?

*Yes, I know that’s quite the question from a story about cookies, but they just have that kind of magic ;-) 🍪✨

How I Learnt Philosophy… from Cookies :-)

As I mentioned, I’ve been thinking about cookies and happiness a lot lately. Lucky for me, I found an entire type of philosophy that studies things like this.

It’s called cookieology!

Just kidding. It’s actually called hedonism (still sounds cool…) It’s the type of philosophy that deals with how we find as much happiness as possible.

Sure, it might not directly study cookies, but it looks at lots of things that cause short-term happiness (like cookies after a really nice dinner :-) As I started to learn more about hedonism, I started to think more about happiness and cookies in general.

So this week, I had the chance to learn about one of the prominent people involved in the philosophy of happiness and his name was Epicurus. You probably haven’t heard of him (he wasn’t all that famous), but he had a LOT of influence in the happiness research department.

Even though he didn’t mention cookies (he lived in ancient Greece and I don’t think they had cookies yet), I thought a lot of Epicurus’ beliefs about happiness were really interesting and reminded me of my cookie story!

So with that in mind, join me on the dark side (I promise I’ll bring along cookies 😋) as I talk about three interesting lessons around happiness that I learned about :-)

Lesson #1: What if We Lived Life to Always be Happy?

Now, Epicurus had a really special belief on his goal in life. Simply, he wanted to get the most happiness he could out of life.

At first, that sounds simple… shouldn’t everyone try to get the most happiness out of life? 🤔 BUT consider this: if eating cookies made you happy, would you ALWAYS eat cookies to be as happy as possible?

When I put it like that, the answer seems to be no. Clearly, it wouldn’t be healthy to always eat cookies and you would get sick very quickly. Well, it’s the same thing with happiness.

Epicurus believed that you should be trying to get the most happiness out of life, but you’ll “overindulge” in happiness if that’s all you look for.

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little. — Epicurus

And he always pointed out that you had to look for the right TYPE of happiness.

For instance, you could always look for short-term, physical happiness like with hedonism and cookies. You could buy fancy things and always look for easy tasks in life. But Epicurus believed that you would quickly run into a lot of problems doing this (apparently he didn’t like cookies… [thinking emoji])

Epicurus instead lived life trying to always optimise for long-term, mental happiness. Think finding lasting friends, having self-esteem, or feeling proud of starting a cookie factory ;-)

He reasoned you can enjoy long-term happiness right now, look back on it in the past and remember feeling happy, and even think about having those things in the future and expect to feel happy! In comparison, even the most delicious cookie in the world is something that you can only eat right now…

So while he said that people should try to maximise happiness, he didn’t think the way to do that was to always look for nice things like cookies. He instead advised people to live modestly, limit their desires, and understand the world so they could find as much mental happiness as possible.

(Pretty interesting insight from a discussion about cookies if you ask me… ;-)

Lesson #2: Deep Philosophy is Fine and All, But What about Citing Sources?

As interesting as Epicurus’ views on happiness were, what was more interesting was the way he justified them.

See now, he wasn’t just one of those romanticised philosophers who always thought about abstract emotions and whatnot. Epicurus actually had two kinds of philosophies: ethics (the emotional stuff) and physics (the sciencey stuff).

While he had lots interesting theories in ethics, he also had supporting theories in physics to back them up. And one of the most surprising theories I found from that sciencey group was his view of atomism theory.

Even in ancient Greek times, people theorised that things were made of atoms at the most basic level. Epicurus was one of those people.

He wasn’t the first to start the idea, but he used it to support his beliefs in ethics in a very special manner. I know it sounds wacky at first (even in an article about cookies and happiness 😄), but bear with me.

Epicurus’ beliefs on atoms and happiness… (just kidding)

Epicurus defined some basic rules for atoms (which weren’t entirely accurate, but this was ancient Greece so how much can you expect?) — from everything being made of the same type of atoms, to there being infinite atoms, to how atoms move.

In that last one, he believed atoms had three predictable kinds of motion and then one random swerving motion. And he used that random motion to justify all randomness in the world.

Sounds nice, right? The atoms that make up everything have a random motion that leads to every unpredictability in the world (from luck to free will).

And beyond sci-fi abstracts, he also often used plain logic to justify his beliefs. For instance, ancient Greek society emphasised respect for gods and the fatal consequences of going against their will. Epicurus, however, thought this fear reduced mental happiness, so he wasn’t too excited about the idea.

And while reasoning whether the idea of gods made sense, he used an interesting paradox:

God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able.
If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils?
Or why does He not remove them?

Whether you or I agree or disagree with him, the key point is that Epicurus justifies his beliefs through logic and science. That makes it SO much easier to think about whether you think he’s right, because you can understand how he thinks.

Overall, it was really interesting to read about his theories in physics and how they tied in to happiness. Maybe the next time I come across a magical cookie, I can thank the randomly swerving atoms for bringing that luck my way ;-)

Lesson #3: What if Our World was Built to Spread Happiness?

Due to Epicurus’ beliefs about how people should live life to maximise happiness, he thought a lot about how society worked and whether it helped people achieve that goal. Everything from politics to religion was something to analyse.

As I just mentioned, he had controversial views on religion, but that wasn’t all. For a person chasing happiness, he sure did cause a lot of people worries 😅.

For one, he had quite a special take on politics. Epicurus shunned politics, saying it opposed ‘peace of mind’ and ‘virtue.’

These days… I can kind of see what he meant 🙃

Back then, society was very hierarchical (or patriarchal to be more exact). A few people had power and the rest weren’t worthy of it.

Even critical thinkers of Epicurus’ time believed in this system — historical rockstars like Plato and Socrates were 100% for it.

Epicurus, however, refused to accept conventional politics. He believed in a more egalitarian society, where everyone could pursue happiness. And of course, he justified his beliefs with the matching physics theory.

Remember the atomist belief that everything was made of the same atoms? Well, Epicurus used that as the basis for equality — underneath we’re all made of the same atoms, so why should we be treated any differently?

I think that’s one of the most beautiful points he made.

He also used these ideals when he gained power himself. He went on to spread his principles on happiness through his own school of ‘Epicureanism.’

Here, he emphasised the importance of equality, friendship, and all those other mentally-pleasing qualities (which means no cookies, unfortunately… 😟). And he didn’t declare himself as the leader in that mini-society, but created justice systems based on consensus between all equal people.

In the end, Epicurus had a bunch of interesting ideas about happiness back then, but the best part is how valuable they still are today.

What This Means for Us Today

Even though most people haven’t heard about Epicurus and don’t spend much time thinking about happiness and cookies, you’d be surprised to hear the influence these ideas had.

I mentioned earlier that Epicurus started a school of philosophy: Epicureanism. Well, that school went on to reach leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Julius Caesar.

That being said, you don’t have to be a world-changing leader to use these lessons. I think we could all have a bit more control in choosing the right time to have more cookies for instance ;-)

Right now, there are so many issues in finding happiness. People are more lonely, anxious, and unsatisfied than ever, despite also having more connections and opportunities than ever.

Personally, I think Epicurus’ ideas on intentionally seeking long-term happiness could go a long way — even in the little things in life.

Perhaps, you could finally deprioritise short-term happiness from addicting social media, the never-ending ups and downs of money, and yes… even over-eating cookies 😭.

At the end of the day, you don’t need to always pursue happiness, but having more control over it can never hurt.

Key Takeaways

There are different kinds of happiness. Short-term, physical happiness exists only in the present. Long-term, mental happiness exists forever.
We’re all made of the same atoms. Why shouldn’t we be equal?
It doesn’t take a great leader to use the power of happiness. We could all do better in small ways with more control over it.

Before You Go

Hey, I’m currently trying to unlock that inner happiness as I scramble to meet deadlines in two hours ;-) If you’re starting your own #happygoals, feel free to: