Happiness Research

Happiness research is an interesting topic I've been following for a long time...and so when someone disses the research in an aside in an otherwise excellent post...I feel called upon to defend it.

As per usual, I'll address the questions in a sensible order, rather than the normal order.

Question 0:   What is happiness?

• It is distinctly not a thing...it is a collection of things.
• Felt happiness in the moment
• Remembered happiness -- almost unrelated to felt happiness.
• There's a pile of different felt-happinesses.  Paul Ekman, emotion-researcher extraordinaire, catalogued (can't remember precisely) 19(?) different happiness feelings, all of which elicit the same (basic) bodily happiness response.
• It is not equivalent to what we pursue.  People do lots of things, and should do lots of things that do not maximize happiness.  It requires absurd contortions of the definition of happiness to even pretend that happiness and "worthwhile goals" are similarly directional.

Question 1: When we talk happiness research, what are you measuring?  

• The gold standard of happiness measurement (AFAIK) is the Measurement-Buzzer as pioneered by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his flow research.  Carry a buzzer.  When buzzer goes off, indicate felt happiness at that moment on a 1-7 (ish) scale.
• A second, much less useful device, is to ask folks to rate their own happiness in general in a non-buzzered environment.
• A third, rarely used uber-measurement is brain-scan analysis.  

Question 2:  What do we know about happiness, using the first measurement.

• Flow.  People who are thoroughly engaged in activity which hits the right mix of difficulty and novelty and feedback are the happiest.  
• Commuting is the crappiest part of everyone's day.

Question 3:  What do we know about happiness, using the 2nd measurement.

• Disposition is by far the largest factor.  Almost certainly as genetic as personality.
• Events in general matter very little.
• Gratitude + Excercise + Marriage (w/ or w/o ring) + Friends + Community are probably the three things you can impact to change (positively) your (stable) happiness.  Do Gratitude; Do Excercise; Find a community.   Get hitched.  Keep contact with friends.
• Aside:  A buddy of mine has been pushing for >5 years the idea that exercise is first an internal chemical-/mood- regulation mechanism
• Kids decreases felt happiness while raising them, but increases after they move out.  (Grandchild effect).  

Question 4:  What do we know about happiness, using the 3rd measurement.

• Meditation is insanely powerful...if you spend enough years.  The levels of experienced happiness available to a 20-years practiced buddhist master meditating (specifically) on compassion are unachievable by the un-practiced.
• Even small amounts of meditation practice (regularly) can be huge.

Question 5:  What does happiness research end up telling us?

• You have to decide whether to optimize felt happiness, remembered happiness, or other life-goals that are perhaps somewhat opposed to happiness.  (Great artists appear to rarely chase happiness)
• Once you decide which mix of goals you're chasing, we have pretty good ways to maximize.
• Of course ALL (yes, I'm shouting) goals are subject to self-discipline and incentives, and so patience is still the god-trait.  Barring patience...you can hire someone to whip you if you err.