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This is: Be Happier, published by [anonymous] on the LessWrong.
This started as an assignment to find out about the science of ‘buying happiness’ (using money to become happier) — hence the emphasis on money-and-happiness. I learned a great deal more than how to buy happiness, however, and the project became somewhat more generalized. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but perhaps it makes for a useful supplement to Luke’s How to be Happy. This post consists mostly of quoted material.
In A Nutshell
Money and Happiness
Spend on others, especially people you are close to. Positive feedback loop: Prosocial spending makes you happier, and happiness makes you more likely to spend prosocially.
Don’t be stingy. It's bad for your health.
Don’t think too much about money. It will impair your savoring ability. It's also bad for your family life.
Be time-aware, but don’t think of time in terms of money.
Being richer will not necessarily make you happier.
Do not live in wealthy enclaves.
Avoid conspicuous consumption.
Work Satisfaction
Coping with Stress: React pragmatically rather than emotionally.
Go for ‘approach’ goals instead of ‘avoid’ goals.
Autonomy: Make a point of prefering autonomous goals rather than heteronomous goals (goals imposed by others).
Autonomy: Make sure you have spare discretionary time — even at financial cost.
Be passionate, but don’t obsess.
Do work that you enjoy doing. Flow.
Set goals that are reasonably challenging and reasonably achievable.
Materialism and Purchasing
Prefer experiential purchases; avoid materialistic goals.
Keep your goals intrinsic.
Don’t do ‘comparison shopping.’ And don’t place much stock in the happiness potential of any one positive change.
Follow the herd. “The best way to predict how much we will enjoy an experience is to see how much someone else enjoyed it.”
Interpersonal
Socialize with close others.
Associate with happy people.
Give the people around you opportunities to be generous. Ask them for favors.
Be actively kind (and occasionaly reminisce about your recent acts of kindness).
Stretching Happiness (fighting hedonic adaptation)
Go for smaller, more frequent successes rather than larger ones.
Go for variety and surprise. Don’t keep doing the same thing.
Savor anticipation. Delay consumption. Actively anticipate good experiences.
Divide positive experiences into smaller pleasures, if possible.
Corollary: Conclude negative experiences as soon as possible.
Make a point of avoiding experiences that make you feel bad.
Appreciation
Be grateful and count your blessings (literally). Recycle happiness by reminiscing about good experiences.
Think of counterfactuals. (“If I didn’t have this positive thing, what do I lose?”)
Breathe deeply. Expand your time — by slowing down.
Stay in the present.
Optimal Happification
Actively want to be happier. Motivation and investment matter.
Learn about the science of happiness. Internalize the lessons in this article and in here.
Some Key Terms
Subjective Well Being (SWB) aka happiness.
Hedonic Adaptation — the phenomenon of (rapidly) diminishing positive or negative affect from any one experience or thing.
Hedonic treadmill — the phenomenon of neverending aspirations for materialistic acquisitions that results from hedonic adaptation.
Money and Happiness
Spend on others, especially people you are close to.
Past research in our lab has repeatedly shown that people are happier when they use financial resources to benefit others rather than themselves [Aknin, Dunn, Sandstrom & Norton, submitted, 1,14].
... findings suggest that to reap the greatest emotional reward from spending on someone else, one should direct their purchases to close others
These findings should not be taken to suggest that people should avoid spending on weak social ties. Indeed, treating an acquaintance from yoga to a coffee ...
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