
What Makes Us Happy? (2009) - tim_sw
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
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acconrad
This article breaks down the Grant Study at Harvard Medical School, which is
one of the longest-running longitudinal studies ever (at over 75 years)[1].
The primary researcher has written several books[2][3] on the topic, and it's
a fascinating study.

One thing to remember is that happiness is relative and changes over your
lifetime. What makes you happy does not make others happy, and what makes you
happy at 20 may not make you happy at 30 or 40. It's easy for HNers to read an
article like this and strive to achieve happiness in the boxes defined in this
article, but living authentically in what gives _you_ happiness is just as (if
not more) important than the tenants that are outlined in this article.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Study](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Study)

[2]
[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004146](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004146)

[3] [http://www.amazon.com/Aging-Well-Surprising-Guideposts-
Devel...](http://www.amazon.com/Aging-Well-Surprising-Guideposts-
Development/dp/0316090077)

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peter303
High School reunions are the unsophisticated version of this study. You get a
snapshot of your cohorts emotional state every 5 or 10 years. In the long term
some grow into a state of peace and others descend in competition and
bitterness.

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xutopia
I found that self esteem is an indirect but very effective means to be
happier.

Here is a good intro about it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhuabY4DmEo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhuabY4DmEo)

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methodover
A couple years ago I came to a conclusion that improved my life quite a bit:
Happiness is a terrible goal.

Many other people seem to have this baseline positive emotional state. They're
more or less in a state of contentedness most of the time.

For me, that's not how I feel most of the time. My baseline emotional state is
not happy. I'm not content. I get flashes of contentedness -- after
accomplishing something awesome, for example. But most of the time, I feel
relatively unhappy.

Thing is, for me, that lack of contentedness seems to drive me. It pushed me
out of a really terrible career path back in college. It helped me find
programming, and then drove me to learn it. It helped drive me across the
country to work at a startup. It helps me spend insane amounts of time and
energy on side projects. In the past five years I seem to have accomplished
more than any of my peers have in the same amount of time.

I don't know if I WANT to be happy. I feel like it'll only slow me down. I
feel like I bring more to the world by being unhappy.

And honestly, being envious of happy peers just sucks. For me, I've just put
it aside.

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mgolawala
Another thing to keep in mind when considering what makes us happy is
cultures. I have had the good fortune of being born into one culture, raised
in a country with a second slightly different culture, and spending my adult
life in a third, very different culture.

It is quite plain to me that people are driven quite differently. There is
always the background noise of attaining social approval and status through
accumulation of wealth and shiny things.. but each of these cultures scores
other things in a slightly different way.

To give one example, in many (perhaps most?) asian cultures, having 3
generations of a family living under one roof, is seen as a sign of (familial)
success and unity. I have noticed that in general in the US, the longer you go
into adulthood without moving out of your parents home it is considered a sign
of failure.

I don't know which one is better, but it is interesting how society influences
what makes you happy.

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bmh_ca
Goals, rules, skills, and feedback.

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ionised
An endless pursuit of more stuff.

~~~
karmakaze
An endless pursuit, in general works for me.

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mikeskim
A highly biased sample of less than 300 is supposed to really say anything of
any significance for the general population? I think not.

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neogodless
And this is thoroughly discussed in the article. It's a sample of men from
Harvard. However, it is a very long, in-depth study.

Just as you can argue that it can, at best, indicate correlation - and only
apply to white Harvard men... it's also possible that the lessons learned are
applicable to people outside that narrow scope. It's possible. But then it's
also possible that the internal opinions, biases and struggles of Vaillant are
bleeding into the conclusions as well.

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apexkid
Definitely not reading such a delineating and boring post. #JustSaying

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dang
Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

