

The secrets of the world's happiest cities - wallflower
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/01/secrets-worlds-happiest-cities-commute-property-prices

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gruseom
Holy cow is this ever true:

 _But one group of commuters report enjoying themselves. These are people who
travel under their own steam [...] They walk. They run. They ride bicycles._

Completely matches my experience, and it's astonishing how strong the effect
is.

~~~
Yetanfou
And when distance becomes to long for human-powered transport you can always
use something like this:
[http://databikes.com/infophoto/ural/dnepr_mt_9-1969.html](http://databikes.com/infophoto/ural/dnepr_mt_9-1969.html)

It is what I use, summer and winter, in the Swedish countryside. While these
older bikes might not be the epitome of efficiency (which is part of the
reason why I'm trying to convert one to wood gas - plenty of wood here) they
are easy to fix and a lot more fun than many other self-propelling vehicles.
When it rains your clothes get wet, when it snows they get white. So what?
When it is cold you dress up, when warm you do the opposite.

You might think this is impractical. You're probably right. Sometimes you have
to trade in some efficiency and practicality for other, less tangible
benefits.

~~~
facepalm
Motorbikes are too deadly for my taste. But perhaps computers will make them
acceptable in the future (self-driving motorcycles).

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doctorcroc
This sentiment really resonated with me:

"He explained it by way of a story: sometimes, he said, he would pick up his
three-year-old son from nursery and put him on the back seat of his tandem
bike and they would pedal home along the South Saskatchewan river. The snow
would muffle the noise of the city. Dusk would paint the sky in colours so
exquisite that Judge could not begin to find names for them. The snow would
reflect those hues. It would glow like the sky, and Judge would breathe in the
cold air and hear his son breathing behind him, and he would feel as though
together they had become part of winter itself."

I've been reading The Wisdom of Insecurity, and this is a central theme that
Watts discusses - the idea of being separate and removed from nature. He
argues that the isolation of the self from the surroundings causes stress and
insecurity . Somehow, this article is hinting towards the same concept, but
from a different perspective. I wonder how in other ways we can improve our
society by increasing human joy that come from experiential happiness as
opposed to purely pursuing industrial optimization and efficiency.

~~~
canoebuilder
On the matter of being separate and removed from nature, light pollution is
something that needs to be addressed. There's nothing quite like staring into
a star-filled sky. An experience had by millions upon millions of our
ancestors, a regular imbuing of their souls with an infinite grandeur, has
been _greatly_ reduced in the past couple of generations. It is sad, really.

In addition to bemoaning that intangible, but nonetheless real, loss. There
has been recent study of the detrimental effects of light pollution on the
creatures that share the planet with us.

I think this is representative of an issue that is an underlying cause of a
lot of modern chronic stresses. Our disrespect for all the life on earth and
to future generations of that life, especially of our own species, by our
falling down on the job of our stewardship of the planet.

Now that's a tall order to rectify, but if our collective actions can result
in emergent effects that are detrimental to our societal and planetary health,
the opposite is possible as well.

 _opposed to purely pursuing industrial optimization and efficiency._

Not to take away from your general point at all, but I think the above is just
something a lot of people tell themselves or that is assumed but the evidence
for it is not actually there.

Similarly, there seems to be a lot of, "Well, we have to do X, because we have
to do Y." Where Y is not something that actually _has_ to be done.

I think a lot of things just develop a kind of inertia and go from there. Cars
for example in their overbuiltness and overuse are about the farthest thing
from efficient and optimized, especially when you factor in their impact on
the environment, destruction of human life, and general unpleasantness.

~~~
doctorcroc
I appreciate your response. Sadly, I think light pollution is one of the more
tame harms we've done to this planet. There's stuff going on right now that's
a lot more egregious (one which I think is going to be inevitable is the
damage done by Hydrofracing, since we're not even sure of the extent).

To your second point, I wasn't implying that we're even that efficient or
optimized as a society - we hugely discount the negative externalities of our
actions like you mentioned. What bothers me is the mentality surrounding it
all. The Einstein quote pops into mind - "Confusion of goals and perfection of
means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age." In that sense, we are
relentless in our pursuit of the next hot thing without asking ourselves what
it will do for our collective happiness and joy in 10, 20, or god forbid 100
years from now.

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brandonhsiao
I think what surprises people is not so much the idea that walking improves
your mood as the idea that your mood dramatically affects your happiness.
People tend to think of happiness as a profound, grand-scheme-of-things thing.
But here's a thought experiment: take a person in almost any living situation
and make it so that whatever his circumstance, his minute-to-minute mood is
always happy. How unhappy could such a person be?

The other reason it's surprising, I think, is that while being indoors all day
sucks, it's a kind of suckage you don't realize till it's fixed. When I used
to stay indoors all day, I'd find myself constantly in a bad mood but not know
why. It's kind of like socializing for introverts. As an immature introvert I
didn't think I needed social interaction till I was virtually starved of it.

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sebnukem2
Fascinating, and so much common sense at the same time.

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mililani
I hate these sort of ratings. Different strokes for different folks.
Personally, I would be really happy living in a desert if there were a lot of
attractive women who happen to be attracted to me. But, hey, that's just me. I
couldn't care less for things like transportation infrastructure, etc...

~~~
pavlov
What ratings? The article doesn't have any ranking lists, it discusses how
Bogotá has become a more livable city.

