The secret to a happy marriage

by on May 22, 2008 at 1:11 am in Philosophy | Permalink

This article is poorly written but it does in fact present the secret to a happy marriage: "Be annoying."

The pointer is from Craig Newmark.

Jeff H. May 22, 2008 at 3:02 am

I thought that, all things considered, the article, which was albeit a little kitsch, wasn’t all that bad.

Richard May 22, 2008 at 7:52 am

The article definitely sucked and the message sucked worse. An alternative and perfectly obvious interpretation is that happy marriages depend on being able to tolerate your partner’s being annoying.

If the partners have low tolerance then they’ll split and the set of long-lived marriages will be dominated by people with high tolerance. So if you look only at long-lived marriages, it will seem like the partners are especially annoying.

You know what else? High tolerance is both the mainstream explanation and it actually makes fucking sense. As opposed to being complete fucking nonsense.

Steve R May 22, 2008 at 9:06 am

Richard is right. I’m surprised Tyler would accept the causality suggested in the title.

Anonymous May 22, 2008 at 10:19 am

Some people (and a number of women fall into this category) approach a relationship the way that others would approach a job. Ie, just because you’re in a job doesn’t mean you aren’t open to better offers or moonlighting, and if the job doesn’t challenge you enough you get bored and move on.

Some people are also simply drama addicts, and some want attention even in a bad way. Some relationships persist not despite petty annoyances or psychological or even physical abuse, but because of it.

John Dewey May 22, 2008 at 11:29 am

Jerry Zezima intended to be humorous, and perhaps he was. Like Jerry, I’ve been married for 30 years. My somewhat serious take on marriage is this:

1. All humans make mistakes. Every person will make many mistakes over 30 or 40 or 50 years – some small and some large. Forgiveness is critical for marriage survival.

2. Every couple should practice the same Golden Rule that adorns the walls of Southwest Airlines headquarters: “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”

Alex June 13, 2008 at 5:37 pm

After reading this article I felt that as the couple becomes older, their love towards each other becomes stronger. Hope, that’s be true for all the couple.

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