Theodoric Chew Profile picture
Dec 2 17 tweets 5 min read Read on X
I've studied happiness for over 10 years.

The shocking truth?

Everything we know about being happy is wrong.

Here's what ancient cultures knew that modern psychology forgot: Image
Modern psychology has spent billions researching happiness.

We've created countless interventions, therapies & frameworks to make people happier.

Yet studies show these interventions are LESS effective than they were 20 years ago.

You might wonder how that's even possible... Image
The answer lies in ancient Greece.

2300 years ago, philosophers made a crucial distinction we've forgotten:

There are two types of happiness:
1. Hedonia (pleasure)
2. Eudaimonia (fulfillment)

Modern psychology only focuses on the first.
Hedonia is about feeling good:

• Positive emotions
• Absence of pain
• Comfort

But ancient cultures knew this was the shallow end of happiness.

The deeper form - eudaimonia - is something entirely different:
Eudaimonia isn't about feeling good.

It's about becoming good:
• Developing virtuous character
• Living up to your potential
• Finding deeper meaning
• Contributing to others

Ancients believed happiness came from who you ARE, NOT how you feel.
Aristotle argued that pursuing pleasure actually makes us unhappy.

Because pleasure is fleeting. The more we chase it, the more we need.

It's like a drug - the high feels amazing, but the crashes get worse.

Modern psychology missed this completely.
The Stoics took this even further.

They believed happiness came from accepting life's circumstances, not changing them.

Sounds counterintuitive, right?

But there's profound wisdom here:
When we try to control external circumstances to be happy:

• We never feel "enough"
• We feel powerless
• We create anxiety
• We blame others

The Stoics taught: Focus on what you can control - your thoughts & actions.
Ancient wisdom emphasized community & relationships.

Modern psychology often treats happiness as an individual pursuit.

But no one achieves eudaimonia alone...
As humans, we find true fulfilment when we are:

• Building meaningful connections
• Playing your role in society
• Contributing to others

We're literally wired to serve something bigger than ourselves.
The ancients discovered something profound about virtue:

Developing good character is the path to lasting happiness.

And virtuous actions create positive feedback loops through:
• Wisdom to make better decisions
• Courage to create opportunities
• Trust to build relationships
This is why modern happiness interventions often fail:

They try to make us feel better without making us BE better.

It's like treating the symptoms while ignoring the disease.

The ancients knew: There are no shortcuts to true happiness.

The solution they found was brilliant...
The path to lasting happiness isn't:

• Controlling circumstances
• Chasing pleasure
• Avoiding pain

There's so much more to life...
Instead we should focus on:

• Accepting what we can't control
• Contributing to others
• Building character
• Finding meaning

This reveals the truth about happiness that modern psychology missed entirely...
The ancients were right all along:

True happiness isn't something you pursue. It's something you become.

Modern psychology is finally catching up.

Research shows meaning & purpose predict well-being better than pleasure does.
So stop chasing happiness.

Instead:
• Contribute to something bigger than yourself
• Focus on character development
• Build meaningful relationships
• Accept what you can't control

This is how you build a life worth living.
A bit about me:

Founded & scaled Asia's largest mental healthcare company (backed by Tiger Global & YC).

Building in public, sharing founder lessons from 0 to serving 4M+ lives.

Follow for insights on startup building, healthcare tech & scaling in Asia.
theodoric.com

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More from @theodoricchew

Nov 27
At Steve Jobs's memorial service, all 500 guests were gifted one book.

Steve read it every year for 38 years.

Here are 5 ideas from the book he used to build his trillion-dollar empire: Image
Image
The book was "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda.

It wasn't just another self-help book though, it was Steve's guide to:

• Challenging the status quo
• Trusting his intuition
• Building the future

Let's break it down:
1. The Power of Intuition

Jobs called intuition his "greatest gift."

Yogananda taught: "The mind must learn to hear the infallible counsel of the Inner Voice."

This became Apple's most controversial business strategy:
Read 17 tweets
Oct 29
The man who heals what doctors can't:

Gabor Mate.

He made a shocking discovery on curing trauma after working with 1000 patients.

Here are the methods that led this holocaust survivor to become the most sought after mental health expert ever (and how you can heal yourself): Image
First, let's talk about Maté's shocking discovery.

When he worked with thousands of patients, he noticed something the medical system missed:

Most illnesses aren't chemical imbalances.

They're your body's response to unresolved trauma:
But here's where it gets interesting.

Trauma isn't what you think.

It's not just about catastrophic events or obvious abuse.

It's woven into the fabric of our "normal" lives - hidden in childhood stress, cultural pressures, and everyday disconnection.
Read 17 tweets

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