Two types of happiness

There are two types of happiness:

• The happiness of idyll, of being happy when everything around you is familiar, when you’re around people you love, when you do things you’re done before but they’re no less enjoyable to you.
• The happiness of adventure, taking risks, learning something new, doing something new.

Every kind of happiness I can think of fits into one of these categories. Different people want different proportions of these happinesses. Take the example of learning.

• Some people are intellectually curious: they just decide to learn a new subject not in their major, read up on it, talk to this professor, and they can strike up a conversation, and that’s their way of living.
• Some are just content with one area…

一門深入vs. 廣學多文. A lot of people are comfortable talking to people in their own subject; during lunchtime at IAS (I’ve read) most people sit with those in their own field, but a few people would keep switching tables, talk to everyone… there are people like that. Maybe most people just haven’t figured out how to talk to people in a different subject.