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Temperance for the win

One completely unintuitive key to a good life is temperance.

If you indulge too much in anything you will regret it. That’s how people get fat and alcoholic and divorced. Funny how getting too much of something makes you sad! Also, important to note that humans always return to a base level of expectation, so overindulgence becomes normal, which requires even more indulgence to seem happy. That’s a hedonic treadmill which can’t be escaped from.

If you’re ascetic and avoid the good things of life, that seems a shame. In the end, what else is life for other than enjoyment with, or helping out, other people!

So temperance is the key, the middle path that allows happy enjoyment but not regretful hedonism.

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