Top all-time · #15735
Matthieu Ricard
Personal blog · matthieuricard.orgphilosophyhealth
Matthieu Ricard's personal blog at matthieuricard.org covers philosophy and health. Since 2010, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Essays by Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard on happiness, ambition and selfishness, including a post on Ayn Rand. Commenters cite them as sources for their points about happiness.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
What Hacker News says?
Ambitions, e.g. for success at work or sport, are natural and come from the urge to have a high social ranking. After all we're first and foremost social beings. So our position among others is inherently important to us. But we're not living in clans any more. Civilisation has made things difficult. This kind of success (to assert ourselves over others) is overly glorified. Athletes are looked at god-like. Money an…
Comment linking /en/books/happiness-a-guide-to-developing-life-s-most-important-skill
on “Ask HN: Does success in work bring you happiness?”Submitted Give Altruists a Chance as a story · 4 points
HN discussion>Happiness is a marketing term. You can apply marketing methodologies on basically anything and "flood market with it" to the point where it is depleted of any positive impact it might have when used properly. If you look at people who are flagged as "happiest man in the world", people like Matthieu Ricard[1], you will be very far from the image of someone that reached "some kind of state of exuberant ecstasy day to…
Comment linking /en/medias/matthieu-ricard-why-are-you-called-the-happiest-man-in-the-world-1-of-5
on “How to Live a Happy Life (2016)”Hmm, some recent thoughts of his on selfishness.. http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/index.php/blog/253_ayn_rand...
Comment linking /en/index.php/blog/253_ayn_rand/
on “Buddhist monk's brain produces highest reported level of gamma waves”> Plenty of people are happier with nicer things. Are they truly happier, in the sense of being more content? Or are they just deriving more temporary pleasure from the hedonic treadmill they're on? You can probably tell which one it is by how long their happiness with their house / car / TV / fill-in-the-blank lasts before they start thinking about trading up to an even nicer fill-in-the-blank. Buddhist monk Matthi…
Comment linking /en/pleasure-and-happiness-the-great-mix-up-part-2/
on “Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades”