THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: LTK on 07 Mar 2014, 13:39
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New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25128-tell-us-what-made-you-happy-win-14-folio-society-books.html?#) is giving away some books and to be eligible they want you to answer one question: Which item that you purchased in the past 10 years has brought you the most happiness – and why?
Which is a really weird question and I'm struggling to come up with an answer. An 'item' is also poorly defined. Is my apartment an item? Does it count if I rent it? I could say my university education made me happy, and I can consider my diploma an item that I paid for with tuition fees, but that's not the same, is it?
What would your answer be?
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Beer.
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Ahh, but which beer made you the happiest? It asks about a single purchase!
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Past 10 years? That is tricky. I would say my education too, but that's not an actual item. The item I owned that made me the most happy was probably my old bike, but I didn't buy it, it was a hand-me-down from my grandma who hadn't used it in 20 years. So I have an item I didn't buy and something I bought that isn't an item. :-P
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Hmm. I'm trying to think of things that have consistently made me happy over the last ten years and I'm coming up short of anything related to a purchase. Certain experiences which I guess I've technically bought have brought happiness (travel, concerts, plays, cookery classes) but although I have enjoyed the memory of those experiences since they happened I don't think it counts.
Tricky!
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I think we may spend more time discussing the nature of "item" than the nature of happiness. For example, does a marriage license count as an item? My wife and I had to pay a fee to get one, but does that count as a purchase?
How about an adoption fee for a dog? Does that count?
I'm not even going to argue about the hospital fees when our son was born, or our moving expenses when we moved to Massachusetts. Those aren't "items".
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I can't define happiness to other people but I can identify myself experiencing it. For example I felt it today when I went on a walk and saw a sea of crocuses, when I stood and watched a dog boisterously spectating at an informal tennis game, and when I met a tailless cat who accompanied me on my stroll. None of those were purchases.
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If I'm going to define 'item' as something solid that is in my possession, and that I paid money for... My favourite handbag makes me feel very happy. I love organising my things, I love having things handy wherever I go (I always have my wallet, keys, sketchbook, iPod, phone, kindle and passport in it), and the size and the way the compartments and pockets are organised, good design makes me feel really satisfied. Plus, it's really pretty and I am a very aesthetically minded person.
That said, I get more pleasure out of things I experience rather than items I own.
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Hmm. I'm trying to think of things that have consistently made me happy over the last ten years and I'm coming up short of anything related to a purchase. Certain experiences which I guess I've technically bought have brought happiness (travel, concerts, plays, cookery classes) but although I have enjoyed the memory of those experiences since they happened I don't think it counts.
Tricky!
I keep thinking of that industrial-strength Kitchenaid mixer.
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My girlfriends.
FUCK those aren't items
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my TRUCK. despite the atrocious gas mileage ... I just love it.
(http://www.todoautos.com.pe/attachments/f84/448618d1306443773-vendo-dodge-ram-1500-2007-venta-037.jpg)
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I'm still paying for it, but I do love my 2009 Toyota Prius. Not even for the mileage, it's just fun as fuck to drive, and it's never not been fast enough. (The mileage obviously isn't as good if I go faster, but the option is there). It's also the first car I've ever owned.
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<tribute to my namesake>I am disappointed, nay, apalled even, none of you said condoms :mrgreen:
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I had trouble coming up with an answer. My first best pick was indeed a certain train ticket, but then I thought of something better which I won't name here because it symbolizes an attempt to better my life from a state where I had majorly fucked up, and I hate explaining how I had gotten there.
So basically, it is something which symbolizes me taking charge of my life.
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Purchases are a lot better at providing pleasure than at providing happiness.
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Are they always different?
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I keep thinking of that industrial-strength Kitchenaid mixer.
I did, of course, think of that fairly quickly - but although I am happy to own it and looking forward to the day when I have greater reason to use it regularly (as in, when I am in a larger house with space and reason to bake bread frequently), it doesn't provide as much happiness as, say, a cat asking me to pet it. Plus it was a present.
Do you think they ran this competition so we all realised that our happiness is not based on possessions? Or is this a side-bonus?
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Are they always different?
They are never different #hedonism
I'm going to go with the two computers I've bought for myself (waiting for self-bought computer 3 right as of now and I'm stoooked). I do most of the stuff I love to do on one. They don't exactly make me happy - but they enable me to do stuff that makes me happy, so I guess that's good enough.
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Would the US Declaration of Independence be improved if it said "life, liberty and the pursuit of hedonism"? :P
Do you think they ran this competition so we all realised that our happiness is not based on possessions? Or is this a side-bonus?
Probably they just didn't think it through. On the giveaway page itself, first they say:
All sorts of things make us happy, from the home we live in to the whisk that beats the eggs for our morning omelette. We are seeking to discover what you buy that delivers the most happiness.
Then after that:
All you have to do is take our brief survey telling us in which purchase over the past 10 years has given you the most pleasure, and why.
The fact that they used 'pleasure' there tells me they aren't actually considering the difference between the two.
Are they always different?
It's a matter of scale. Happiness is something you measure on a longer timescale than pleasure. Drinking beer can give you pleasure but not happiness*. A puppy that just shat on the rug doesn't give you pleasure, but the puppy does lead to more happiness. I assume. I recall some studies saying that pets are good for your mental health and life expectancy, but if you ask people about their happiness, they might not take into account their mental health and life expectancy.
Self-report measures of happiness support the idea of the 'hedonic treadmill', which says that you can have good or bad events in your life but these do not have an effect on your overall happiness in the long term. Usually, buying a new house or losing a close family member strongly affects your mood for some time, but before long you'll have adapted to the new baseline, and you don't feel more or less happy than before. That's also why money can't buy happiness: Beyond the minimum standard of living, more money may give you more pleasure but it doesn't affect your long-term happiness. Without that minimum standard of living, the day-to-day struggle to get by puts such a significant damper on your mood that you just can't reach a comfortable state that people call 'happy'. That goes for other things too, and as Valdís indicates, resolving gender dysphoria gets rid of that damper and really makes her more happy. So unless there's something that actively makes your life worse every day, most people would consider themselves roughly equally happy all the time. That's basically my whole view of happiness.
*I know, "only if you stop drinking."
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People mention dogs and cats, but dogs and cats are hardly "items".
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In this context I think they are. They're more items than educations are. The definition of an item is a distinct physical object, which technically doesn't specify whether it is animate. ;)
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I have no idea what happiness really is, apart from a state of mind.
However, one item I bought seven years ago has brought me more pleasure than any other single item I can think of:
(http://www.ambisonic.info/tetramic/assembly/mainColumnParagraphs/00/image/breakout.jpg) (http://www.ambisonic.info/tetramic.html)
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Hah! I guessed what it was, but had to quote it to be sure: ambisonic.info/tetramic/assembly
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That image sent me to an incredible TMI type place.