
How To Be Happy Anywhere - superasn
http://www.fastcompany.com/1820974/buyology-martin-lindstrom-global-happiness
======
DanielBMarkham
I find it easy to find counter-examples to these anecdotes. There are a lot of
people very aware of how rich other people are without it affecting them one
bit.

I think it boils down to this: very rarely will you receive just plain vanilla
information, if such a thing exists. Almost always the information will be
wrapped in some kind of value system. As you absorb the information, you end
up taking in the value system as well.

Let's use TV as an example. So yep, if you spend your time on one of those
cable channels where you watch rich people all the time, pretty soon it's not
that you'll understand how rich people live, _it's that pretty soon you'll
start believing that it is better to live like they do._ Same goes for the
other channels - military, cooking, whatever. These channels are purveyors of
information, sure, but what they're really selling is indoctrination.

That's fine if you understand it. You should be able to compensate (without
having fits about "the man" or "the system") After all, why would they spend
time sharing information with you that they felt wasn't trendy and something
you'd want to emulate? There might be a boring stuff nobody cares about
channel, but I've never seen it.

Truly happy people can filter out the value system from the information. They
can watch MSNBC, Fox, or CNN. They just compare sources and make their own
value decisions.

It's like this guy got halfway to the actual state of things, then just gave
up. Yes, if you have no information you have no external values being pimped
out to you, but you also are missing a huge amount of learning about your
fellow man and other ways of thinking about things. No information means no
choices. You don't want that.

~~~
gwern
> Let's use TV as an example. So yep, if you spend your time on one of those
> cable channels where you watch rich people all the time, pretty soon it's
> not that you'll understand how rich people live, it's that pretty soon
> you'll start believing that it is better to live like they do.

In Brazil and India, rich people on soap operas don't have many kids; sure
enough, when you correlate the opening of TV stations with birth rates...
[http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/10/fertility-fall-
still-p...](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/10/fertility-fall-still-
puzzling.html#comment-435086)

~~~
patja
I read some speculation that these declining birth rates with the availability
of television was due to having a new alternatives to sex after the sun went
down. Without TV and electricity (lighting for reading and other activities)
there are not as many activities available to compete with baby-making.

~~~
zalew
A very plausible reason. In Poland, martial law led to baby boom.

------
spodek
Information and emotion are orthogonal. If you want to connect them you can,
but you don't have to. In other words, you can use more or less information to
make yourself happier or unhappier.

The ability to manage your emotions is different than the ability to process
information, but it can be learned just as well, they just don't teach it in
school.

~~~
wr1472
Ignorance is bliss

~~~
georgekv
[Rational] ignorance [can be a qualified] bliss.

~~~
Klinky
One person's rational is another person's irrational.

~~~
pjscott
In perception, yes, but not in reality. If you want to be alive tomorrow,
jumping off a tall building will be irrational even if you think it's the last
step in a convoluted ritual to grant yourself immortality. That's an
exaggerated example, but the principle holds in general: people's desires may
differ, but the rationality of any actions taken in the pursuit of those
desires is something you can evaluate objectively, at least in principle.

~~~
Klinky
What about jumping off a building with a parachute or because it's on fire?

I think real life contains many situations where the most rational situation
isn't always clear.

~~~
pjscott
In that case, there _is_ a rational answer; that it's hard to figure out in a
hurry doesn't make it subjective.

~~~
Klinky
I am not sure there is a rational answer when it comes to possibly jumping
from a building and breaking your legs or maybe even dying versus staying in
the building and possibly dying from smoke inhalation or burning to death. It
would be very hard, even in hindsight to figure out what was the more rational
decision.

If you want technological examples, say someone calls someone else irrational
for basing their website off PHP instead of Ruby. Someone calls the printer
industry irrational for making it cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink
cartridges or that someone buys a new computer because their computer is
infested with malware instead of re-installing Windows. You could say those
are irrational choices, but the people who are making those choices probably
have reasons for doing so which may make sense to them. The person with PHP
may not know Ruby and would have to invest significant time in learning it.
The printer companies bottom line will make their decision rational to many.
The person buying a new computer may not have the skills to perform the task,
the local computer shop wants hundreds of dollars to do the work & the
computer is old.

So on the surface we say "that's irrational", but then later after learning
more, maybe our opinion would change to "that's actually rational".

Also this does bring up the point that we often have to make a choice on what
to do without the power of hindsight or with incomplete data. This can make
our choices look irrational to those who are not in our shoes.

------
theorique
This seems to be a very clear example of the contrasting effects of
entitlement versus gratitude.

Experience and research show that looking at examples of people with "more"
(for some definition of "more") and comparing your own lifestyle to that of
those people, is a recipe for resentment, envy, and frustration. These
emotions tend to work against a person experiencing happiness and inner peace.

On the other hand, looking at what's good in your own life situation -
regardless of how it compares to anyone else - and deliberately seeking out
opportunities to feel gratitude for those things, this tends to increase
subjective well-being.

This habit is simple, but not easy. The challenge is greater with so much
media attention on those people who have more than others (Hollywood red
carpet, MTV Cribs, Forbes 400, etc). The key to happiness and inner peace is
to tune out the noise and focus on specific opportunities to feel grateful
within your own life situation.

------
overshard
If you are more informed and less happy you aren't doing something right.
Information doesn't make you unhappy, you thinking about certain information
is making you unhappy.

Whilst I've been to college, listen to NPR every day, keep up-to-date on the
lastest news in my field via Hacker News and various blogs I can still be
happy. I do this in the face of NPR telling me people are dying in Japan from
radiation, my clients walking in and complaining all day about random x
feature being broken when they simply don't know how to use it (even with
clear warnings and arrows pointing to unfilled out fields).

It's a matter of what you choose to think about, I choose to focus heavily on
what I love such as music, StarCraft 2 and creating beautiful software. If I
decided to focus on suffering in the middle east, or how my programming
language of choice simply doesn't perform as well as "x" programming language
of course I'm going to be unhappy or unsatisfied with what I do. I know this
information I just don't focus on it all the time. It's something for me to
bring up in a conversation with people to discuss rationally and use in my job
to better my work but not dwell on and make myself unhappy.

~~~
AznHisoka
I think there are 2 levels of being informed: informed about global events,
and informed about others better off than you. The first is generally
harmless, but the 2nd can lead to comparing yourself to others, and
negativity. You can even argue the first makes you happier since you hear
others are worse off than you.

------
llambda
While I generally find myself agreeing with the sentiments of this article,
let's not forget: the plural of anecdote is not evidence.

Apply this axiom to OP's observations. So he goes to some rural regions of the
world, sees some kids being kids and concludes that because he doesn't see
that same behavior in a modern region of China it must therefore be because of
modernity or technology or whatever that these people aren't happy. But wait,
how does he know they aren't happy? Who is he to say that because he "didn't
see a smile" among them they must therefore be hopelessly depressed? Equally
how do we know that because he saw some kids playing in the street these
communities are "happy"? I could use some of my own anecdotes, experiences
I've had in the barangay of the Philippines that would contradict his
observations despite having the same hallmarks, but again, these are anecdotes
and even if you have a large set of them they still aren't a supplement for
evidence.

The crux of this article is weak. Based almost entirely on the touchy-feely
reality of observational anecdotes. Again, I don't disagree with some of the
broader points. But this article is not a good example of a case supporting
them.

~~~
AznHisoka
It's hard to come up with a scientific, fool-proof study to prove his point.
And honestly, that's not his job, and not the purpose of the article anyway.

Positing a theory based on anecdotes is important because it forces us to re-
analyze our lives and our values. It makes us ask the tough questions, and
come up with our own conclusions

------
Hitchhiker
" For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge
increases sorrow. " - Ecclesiastes 1:18

~~~
jzycrzy
"living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see." - John Lennon

------
brudgers
A branding expert recommends ignorance...call me a cynic.

What he observes is that people who are connected to their communities are
happier. People who are disconnected (or even dislocated) from their community
and obsessed with "stuff" are less likely to be.

The idea that people living in a _favela_ are uninformed demonstrates
ignorance in the same way that shouting at people who don't speak English
would. They are simply informed about a different set of facts - and in
general that set of facts may make their lives richer because it is about
people they know - i.e. who their cousin has a crush on rather than the
Jonbenet Ramsey's of the world.

I've seen escalator's, but knowing how to find potable water that doesn't come
with a monthly bill would make me better informed.

------
jakeonthemove
"I’ve seen what you can get, and we still don’t have many of the things. So,
we need to work harder. Then, I’m sure, one day we will get there." - That's
the spirit!

The only reason why they're not happy is that they make the (very common)
mistake of delaying the happiness until the end result. With so much to learn
and so much to achieve in this world, that end result never comes, that's why
we need to learn to enjoy the process of getting there itself.

Enjoy the road, not the destination! Look back at what you've achieved - be
proud! Look at what others have achieved - be happy for them! Set your eyes on
the next thing you want and go ahead and try to get it - that's the best way
to be happy, even in a first world country (that sounds weird :-)).

------
melling
I've been to Medellin and that's not their first escalator. Maybe it's their
first outdoor escalator. The city is actually modern and a great place to
visit. It's 75F/24C all year. You read stories like this and you'd think it's
3rd world. In much of Central/South America, you will find slums, but a lot of
people live quite well and you'd think you were in an average European or US
city.

------
guelo
I'm sure he used randomized blind statistically significant samples in each
location to come to the conclusion that there were fewer smiles in the Chinese
neighborhood. And he conducted experiments with isolated control groups to
come to the conclusion that this was caused by the TV in their living rooms.

~~~
pleasebehonest
Is it necessary to do this before ever reaching any conclusion? Should we
never trust our own observations until they've been approved with such vigor?

~~~
lurker17
Only if we care about getting reliablly correct answers.

------
nate
This isn't exactly relevant to the article, but somehow shares some of the
spirit of what happens to us as we educate/inform ourselves more:

"this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It’s called
'impostor syndrome.' The clinical definition is a 'psychological phenomenon in
which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.' It means that
you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have
any idea what you’re doing."

\- Kleon, Austin (2012-02-28). Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You
About Being Creative

------
Jun8
Although true in a practical sense (NYT cited a study on older people where in
which more introspective types were less happy) I reject the option of extra
happiness brought about by lack of knowledge, e.g.

    
    
      To each his sufferings: all are men,    
      Condemned alike to groan;    
      The tender for another's pain,    
      The unfeeling for his own.    
      Yet ah! why should they know their fate?    
      Since sorrow never comes too late,    
      And happiness too swiftly flies.    
      Thought would destroy their paradise.    
      No more; where ignorance is bliss,    
      'Tis folly to be wise. 
    

(Thomas Gray, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College", this is the origin
of the term "Ignorance is bliss". The notes on this stanza are worth a read:
[http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-
bin/comment.cgi?text=odec&...](http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-
bin/comment.cgi?text=odec&fromline=99&toline=99&type=explanatory&sort=annotation)).

Would you rather be Cypher happily eating his steak in a fictional world or
the crew of the _Nebuchadnezzar_ living in a real but wretched world? I would
choose the latter but this is by no means an easy question.

------
mvzink
"I came to realize that the more informed we are, the less happy we become
because of our tendency to get __caught up in constant comparisons __."

This should have been his conclusion, not some made up theory about why the
state of the world seems worse than it really is.

This isn't news. Rousseau called it _amour propre_.[1][2] It is the
unhappiness and dissatisfaction peculiar to modern society, wherein constant
comparisons with others give us new values, breed competition and the urge for
power, and prevent happiness. It also leads to a sort of schadenfreude written
about by others: you only enjoy what you have insofar as nobody else has
similar enjoyments.

And Rousseau is mostly known as a political theorist; who knows how many
others have noticed precisely this phenomenon. Yet nobody seems to know how to
overcome this, despite this also being written about. (Sorry, I don't have any
more sources off hand, ask me and I'll come up with them when I have time.)

The surest way: ego-death. The longer yet easier way: realize that others are
not their belongings, accomplishments, or even their past or their future;
these are effects, the person is the cause. Internalize this fact by acting in
accordance with it: deliberately try to see others only as themselves, not as
a collection of effects. Then realize the same is true of you and start acting
like it.

[1] The wikipedia article is useful, but doesn't give a good understanding of
amour propre: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_on_Inequality> [2] The
SparkNotes glossary puts it plainly:
<http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/inequality/terms.html>

------
josscrowcroft
This is really, really well written... first time in years I've felt compelled
to _print_ something so I could keep a hard copy.

------
Swizec
>> "Our brains are not really wired to accommodate such a proliferation of bad
news, regardless of it happening thousands of miles away. One disaster after
another compounds, and increases feelings of helplessness. "

I, also, have noticed a lot of the older generations growing up without the
internet to have this idea that the world is going to shit.

But whenever you ask someone who's been used to this epic proliferation of
_any_ news since early childhood, the compounding bad news doesn't really seem
to have an effect. We see a tsunami happening and an earthquake and a ship
sinking and new riots rising and we don't think to ourselves "Wow, the world
really sucks" instead the thought process seems more like "Oh cool, that's
interesting. I wonder if there are any new lolcats"

You might say we've become less sensitive to people's suffering, but really
we've just learned that not all news is _our_ news.

------
jinushaun
I really resent the fact that, in my older age, I care way too much about
politics. Causes me nothing but stress.

~~~
Retric
I don't think it's aging or knowledge as much as advertizing that's the
problem. I am reasonably well off and get to drive a nice car, but I only get
to drive one and improvements come out a lot faster than I can buy them. I
never wanted a Yacht as a kid, but now I think it would be cool to have enough
money to support a gigantic hole in the water for throwing money into. The
president is just about irrelevant in my personal life but listen to a few
attack adds and it's hard not to really care.

Luckily, I find I am a lot happier now that I stopped watching TV and
installed an add blocker. And what really surprised me is changing how I look
at people, my standard of what's good looking has literally changed now that I
don't see the extremes pushed in my face all the time.

------
waterside81
I share the author's general sentiment, but arrived at the conclusion a bit
differently. I remember as a child and even a teenager thinking that all of
the "adults" knew more than me, were smarter than me, and could solve all the
problems in the world. It was up to me to become as smart as them.

But once I got older and saw first hand how clueless the "adults" were (in the
financial sector, in the travel industry, in software development, in
politics) - I began to long for the days when I thought everyone else had the
right answer and all I had to worry about was to make sure the teams were fair
for football at recess. When you're young(er) and not aware of how things
really work and the problems that exist out in the real world, life is good.

------
meric
If you have the ability to improve the situation then you don't need to worry,
but OTOH there's no need to worry if you don't, either.

"Contentedness" is a state you can choose to be in. You can recognise horrible
events but you don't have to be unhappy over it.

I feel like thinking about how "the reality" is pretty good to convince
yourself to feel better isn't the way to go. What if things _aren't_ going
well? What if there's war everywhere, does that means you must then be
unhappy, that you can't be content?

Stake yourself not on fantasy, dreams, goals, people or events, but as it
_is_. You still can have those things but having or not having them doesn't
need to affect _you_.

------
robfig
I think that much rich world unhappiness stems from spending a lot of time
watching TV or playing video games. If you spend your time playing (e.g.
hanging out with friends, playing sports) or working (e.g. accomplishing
something), then I think happiness is more likely.

The last sentence in particular resonated with me: “Happiness is not measured
by the number of days you live but, rather, by the number of days you
remember.” Every day I've spent consuming media is a day I can not remember.

------
bradleyland
So the author's conclusion is that we should temper our unhappiness over the
state of the world, because the facts are that we live in the "best world"
that has ever existed. I can't disagree with that, because I enjoy being
happy, but I think this is an easy pathway to apathy. I also think that one of
the very reasons we live in the best world ever is that we are so well
informed.

It's easy to send warriors off to slaughter a village if you never have to
witness death. The last century has seen an accelerating increase in the
connectedness of the human race. When a single man's life is threatened on the
other side of the globe, it's possible for millions of people, thousands of
miles away, to learn about it. Our natural empathetic instincts kick in, and
that simple knowledge causes a stirring discomfort within us.

Most people I've met don't really want to be uhnappy. So, once we have this
knowledge, we have two choices. We either do what we can to stop the source of
our unhappiness -- injustice, war, abuse, etc -- or we become apathetic.
Because I am an optimist, I believe most people will chose the former, and I
believe that is why our best days are ahead.

------
OneBytePerGreen
It's not about the amount of information you take in, but about how much you
identify with it.

You can hear all day long about how much money other people make, but if you
take it merely as a fact and do not construct a personal identity/story from
it ("I am upset because others earn more than me", "Life is unfair" etc.), the
information will not affect your happiness at all.

I believe the article is flawed as it seems to require of us to artificially
restrict the amount of information we are exposed to, when the key is to
manage one's perception of the information.

Seems that many Chinese have developed a strong "Keeping up with the Joneses"
mentality lately; I would suspect that is the source of the unhappiness,
rather than the wiring in their new homes.

------
teju
It's not information that's to blame, it's the condition of the world we live
in. Knowing about glaring inequities will either

Cause resentment because one is at the bottom of the pyramid

OR

Create guilt because one is at the top of the pyramid

Add to that the realization that very few people are "self-made" and timing,
family, culture and conditioning play a huge role in success and you have a
recipe for self-doubt/flagellation.

In my case, I just hit a wall when self-preservation kicked in and said "I
WILL BE HAPPY, DAMMIT!". I still work at projects I think will make the world
better, but don't let their success or failure cloud my feelings. I'm content
most of the time.

------
personlurking
We've all heard something to the effect of "you need to be happy with what you
have". For me, this rings true. I've forgone the notion that I need to be
working towards doing my dream job, having my dream house, etc. and instead
looked for what can give me happiness on a daily basis.

Some cultures (usually found in developing nations) celebrate happiness more
than others because they live in the moment. Some countries have amazing
geography and lots of options to be in nature in a matter of minutes after
leaving your house. This is why I live in Brazil and why I left the US.

------
justjimmy
I wished the author would've made explicit distinction between 'being
informed' and 'influenced by mass media'. Being informed to me means being
educated and aware of the world around you – how the clothes on your back is
made, the resources that are used to make your fancy gadgets – of course
anyone would be depressed.

But it's different than to being sucked into a 'lifestyle', the mass media
throws at you as stated in the article for obvious reasons. I wished the
author made this distinction.

~~~
forgottenpaswrd
Exactly, it is the difference between "go and see it yourself" and using
intermediaries to tell you about the world.

The intermediaries could distort this information for their own profit like
"war on terror" to create wars, or to sell more, or to eliminate
adversaries(portray only what is bad about them).

I don't think everybody would be depressed if they saw how their gadgets are
made, in fact it would be very useful to know to decide and choose those that
make your gadgets right, but it cost a little more.

------
frasertimo
Well good god that was awful. I agree with the Author's final points; that
there are less wars, disasters, etc, and that the world is a better place than
before. But it seemed like he just wanted to go on a long-winded pleasure
cruise telling us how much happier people are who don't know how happy they
are.

What an obvious attempt at pulling at our heartstrings. Instead I just wanted
to vomit.

------
iterationx
I would say that one must remember that knowledge isn't an end in itself. If
you waste your Saturday reading Wikipedia or Quora without purpose, that will
make you unhappy, because you are wasting time. So some portion of the
happiness equation comes from acting purposefully.

------
superasn
Oddly enough only today I was watching this movie "better luck tomorrow" in
which there was this dialogue that is quite relevant as to why the author
feels that way:

<http://pastebin.com/KnVgnjM3>

(posted as a link since the text is kind of long)

------
victorhn
In my opinion it is ultimately up to you, to decide wheter you are happy or
not, information certainly can give us certain truths that are "ugly" or
unpleasant, but in the end you can control how you feel about it.

------
bdg
The assertion is littered with flaws. It may have been an enjoyable story
about life outside of our offices, computers and techno-lives... yet littered
with logical flaws.

The micro scale doesn't represent the macro scale. The relationship has not
been proven. Long-term and short-term impact were not explored. Motivation
models for happiness were not explored. Multiple repeatable cases where it was
indeed information and not just "Bad stuff happens, here's a bunch of it at
once" was not explored.

An underlying theme here is that knowing of less than favorable events in the
world impacts your quality of happiness, and that people strive for happiness
through greater consumerism and status. I flatly disagree with this whole
premise. It's a lovely read, but it's (and I don't use this word often) total
bunk.

------
jostmey
One must draw a distinction between satisfaction and happiness. Money and
success may bring satisfaction, but never happiness.

May you never be satisfied, for the day when that happens is the day you cease
living.

------
RickHull
Hm, I'm still not sure _how_ to be happy anywhere. At least, not in the sense
that I would understand _how_ to install a doorknob after reading a
corresponding article.

------
rodolphoarruda
No wonder all great philosophers were depressive people.

------
jacknews
Ask those aspirational chinese if they want to go back to the straw huts. Sure
people are happier with less information. Just like a ostriches.

------
berthamilton
ignorance is bliss!

~~~
sycren
Perhaps it would be fairer to say: Ignorance is bliss when there is no
foreseeable way around the problem.

~~~
berthamilton
Perhaps. Would be hard to work that into the poem tho.

------
paleolithical
Not true - the more you know, the more you realize how little you know, so...

~~~
zyeljanee
So if you use the information that you know well you will raalize that you
need o much more convinced?

------
vseorlov
It is obvious. That's why children are often very happy.

------
lurker17
Pablum.

Kids are happy everywhere because they are carefree kids.

------
hammerbrostime
I better not read the article then

