Chapter Summary : The subtle art of not giving a F* : Happiness is a problem

Happiness is a problem

1. The first noble truth of buddhism is that life itself is a form of suffering. I think the author here combined buddhism with recursion. The author here says acceptance is the end, the pursuit of the end is another form of suffering. 
2. The rich suffer because of their riches, the poor suffer because they are poor.
3. Happiness is not an algorithm, it is not an end goal. It is a process and a journey. Hopefully the view along the road is what you enjoy. Dont go to the mountains if you like the ocean. 

Reward vs Process

1. You have to figure out whether you are fascinated by the reward. If so you cannot have the reward without the struggle. You cannot choose the result without the process. 
2. People who enjoy long workweeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who fly to the top of it. 
3. This is not directly about willpower or "no pain, no gain". There might be tradeoffs, you may like the reward so much that you are willing to bear the process which you may not enjoy as much. This is not just corporate america : college students when doing branch selection, often make such tradeoffs. Eg : I am great at chemistry, but I am ok studying computer science because chemistry may not pay the bills. Applogies for chemistry majors reading this, this is not to cherrypick on you, but to explain the concept of tradeoffs. Willpower and grit comes in that whether you are ready to pull through on the process. That is where the sacrifice comes into play. 
4. Its a never ending upward spiral. If you feel that at any point you are allowed to stop climbing, then you are missing the point. The joy is the upward climb itself. You reach milestones on the way : get into top school, graduate top of class, get the top job , get the first promotion, become a manager, become a director. At each step, the problems you are solving are different. What got you here to milestone n, wont get you to the next milestone n+1. So your problems will change, but that doesnt mean they will get easier. The nature of the problems you are solving will change. It is all about whether you enjoy solving those problems or not. It will also depend on which milestone you get to. For example : if you think you are a great engineer and hate management, you will not like the problems that managers have to solve day to day and that kind of job wont scale. That is where matching your milestones with the problems you like to solve matter. 
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