@michael_nielsen
YES. If you pursue a useful end without joy, you won't be able to do much that is useful. If the end is so important for you that you want to pursue it at any cost, then there's joy in the pursuit.
@michael_nielsen
Doing things with clear, beneficial outcomes in mind will tend to get you to local maxima.
To get to more global maxima you have to “stuff around” more.
@michael_nielsen
Good companion to de Beauvoir (Ethics of Ambiguity):
"If the satisfaction of an old man drinking a glass of wine counts for nothing, then production and wealth are only hollow myths; they have meaning only if they are capable of being retrieved in individual and living joy."