I think you have to go deeper and ask yourself the timescale and extent of "happiness". Because a different definition may mean actually "fulfilled" rather than "happy".
And it's different for different people (and at different stages of life).
Some people are optimizing for physical and mental happiness hour by hour. Sometimes, that produces good short term outcomes, but you may have self-gratified at the expense of not achieving long term things (which often require being momentarily unhappy). An example might be: I want to live in a Sprinter van and see the US in my 20s, work itinerant jobs, and experience amazing sunrises, sunsets -- versus my sad friends who are slave to the corporate finance life.
Others put long term fulfillment above momentary happiness, find themselves hour by hour sometimes miserable, but suffering through it to achieve some goal that fulfills them deeper than a momentary dopamine fix. The corporate finance drone sits through a "boring" job, but maybe gets the option to maximize "moments" later in life, having postponed gratification.
I'm sure for everyone it's a weighted combination of these, depending on their inclination and upbringing.
I also suspect that it's generally people who grew up relatively privileged who tend to view optimizing happiness as a choice or option.
> you may have self-gratified at the expense of not achieving long term things (which often require being momentarily unhappy)
At 43, having achieved a few things that even most people at this relatively high level have not, I wonder if I have not accepted too many times that the delay of gratification, was, in and of itself, evidence that the action would take me further toward my goals. Unfortunately, I don't know any way to learn how to recognize suffering-for-the-sake-of-suffering except by getting caught in those traps now and again. I have read philosophy, law, psychology. It doesn't really seem to have made a difference. Maybe it has and I simply can't perceive the mountain for all the gravel.
And it's different for different people (and at different stages of life).
Some people are optimizing for physical and mental happiness hour by hour. Sometimes, that produces good short term outcomes, but you may have self-gratified at the expense of not achieving long term things (which often require being momentarily unhappy). An example might be: I want to live in a Sprinter van and see the US in my 20s, work itinerant jobs, and experience amazing sunrises, sunsets -- versus my sad friends who are slave to the corporate finance life.
Others put long term fulfillment above momentary happiness, find themselves hour by hour sometimes miserable, but suffering through it to achieve some goal that fulfills them deeper than a momentary dopamine fix. The corporate finance drone sits through a "boring" job, but maybe gets the option to maximize "moments" later in life, having postponed gratification.
I'm sure for everyone it's a weighted combination of these, depending on their inclination and upbringing.
I also suspect that it's generally people who grew up relatively privileged who tend to view optimizing happiness as a choice or option.