3 rules to happiness

[dasmiller]

Before there was XKCD, we had Latka to explain things such as happiness to us:

 

[Hawk one]

There's also the idea that women used to provide just as much value, except now it's more efficient for everyone to specialize, be paid in cash, then use the cash to buy mass-produced items.

For example, rather than having each farm-wife growing vegetables in her kitchen garden, preserving food for the winter and cooking meals from scratch, it's more efficient for some people to get paid for working eight hours at large-scale vegetable production, others to work in the canning/freezing industry, others to work in the trucking industry, others to build microwave ovens and refrigerators, then all come home to store-bought ready-to-microwave meals they can prepare in five minutes, which each had a small part in producing. Repeat for the making of clothing, mending, knitting, laundry, etc.

True enough, but in the past, there was also a certain amount of specialisation, just in different form. For example, a farm family in the old days would quite often be a fairly big one. Not just the farm owner and his wife and children, but also people that were employed and/or thralled in one form or another, making each farm a much more popolous place, and where one could easily expect to make dinner for anywhere between 10-25 people (or even more). So while making a dinner from scratch for your typical modern family is very inefficient, back then, it was probably not seen as such.

OK, I'll stop with the derails now.

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

<snip>

To bring this back on topic, it's funny how a lot of happiness is relative. Take a woman (or man) from 200 or 300 years ago and suddenly give her all the conveniences of the 21st century, and she would be astounded at the luxury and convenience.

But we don't spend every day in amazed joy that we don't have to keep the fire going, haul water, and hitch up the horses for an all-day trip of 20 miles, because we consider ease and luxury only in comparison to what we're used to.

IIRC, happiness is in a large part to do with how well you think you're doing compared to your peers.

You don't have to give someone a pay cut to make them less happy, just give everyone paid the same or less than them a rise.

This is probably why inequality is such a tough problem to solve. No matter how much people have, they still resent those around them with less catching up.

 

[Dave Rogers]

These are the three keys to happiness:

1. Your Spouse. [...]
2. Become a vegetarian, better yet a vegan. [...]
3. Be unselfish. [...]

Eddie Cochrane put it more succinctly.

Step one: You find a girl to love.
Step two: She buys you some tofu.
Step three: Now don't be such a tightwad.
Well, that sure seems like Heaven to me!

Dave

 

[BobTheDonkey]

IIRC, happiness is in a large part to do with how well you think you're doing compared to your peers.

You don't have to give someone a pay cut to make them less happy, just give everyone paid the same or less than them a rise.

This is probably why inequality is such a tough problem to solve. No matter how much people have, they still resent those around them with less catching up.

So I'm guessing from the first 4 letters of this post that you have a study tucked away somewhere that empirically shows evidence of this claim?

Because...my happiness is far less dependent on comparing myself with everyone around me so much as earning enough to live a comfortable lifestyle (note that comfort doesn't require thousand plus dollar shopping sprees at big designer outfitters, I'm a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy) and not have to worry about being able to pay my bills.

Actually, that's probably where I'd start my list:

1) Don't take on more debt than you can easily afford (One of the best times of my life was when I'd finished paying off my truck and before buying a new car. I spent 1 1/2 years practically obligation free. I paid rent, my share of utilities, and auto insurance. I owed nothing to my job, owed nothing to anyone. That was a good year.)
2) Find a partner (if you must) with the same Rule 1
3) Try new experiences, find the things you enjoy doing and then do them more often, keeping in mind Rule 1.

 

[Mark6]

In my experience, everyone around them feels like it's longer, too, depending on how much the vegan insists on talking about diet. Can't they just do it, rather than talk about it? I always think that when people insist on talking about their personal beliefs that much they're trying to convince themselves, not the audience.

Are you talking about vegans or goldbugs?

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

So I'm guessing from the first 4 letters of this post that you have a study tucked away somewhere that empirically shows evidence of this claim?

<snip>

Of course:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20424085

Does money buy happiness, or does happiness come indirectly from the higher rank in society that money brings? We tested a rank-income hypothesis, according to which people gain utility from the ranked position of their income within a comparison group. The rank hypothesis contrasts with traditional reference-income hypotheses, which suggest that utility from income depends on comparison to a social reference-group norm. We found that the ranked position of an individual's income predicts general life satisfaction, whereas absolute income and reference income have no effect. Furthermore, individuals weight upward comparisons more heavily than downward comparisons. According to the rank hypothesis, income and utility are not directly linked: Increasing an individual's income will increase his or her utility only if ranked position also increases and will necessarily reduce the utility of others who will lose rank.

Full text here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/alumni/se...ebrownmoore_psychscience_before_revisions.pdf

 

[Pup]

Because...my happiness is far less dependent on comparing myself with everyone around me so much as earning enough to live a comfortable lifestyle (note that comfort doesn't require thousand plus dollar shopping sprees at big designer outfitters, I'm a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy) and not have to worry about being able to pay my bills.

I expect that for most people, the definition of "comfortable" is pretty much dependent on comparing themselves with their neighbors, even though they don't realize it. People don't miss things, when nobody else has them either. For example, running water and electricity: part of a comfortable lifestyle or not? Most people would say yes, unless no one else they knew had them either.

 

[alphahelix]

Its easy

1. Don't concern yourself with how to make yourself happy.

B. Don't allow anyone else to define happiness for yourself.

¥. Exploration (how ever you wish to apply that term) is the key.



We got vodka bacon and cowbell we need ponies too.

 

[RenaissanceBiker]

And don't forget to go to the link in my post and check out the poster's name.

I did and I applaud you good sir. That really should have ended the thread.