The Happiness Project - Making Yourself Happier | Hacker News Reader

The Happiness Project - Making Yourself Happier

happinessproject.typepad.com

15 pointsmhb13 comments

I dislike Happiness Research because it sets the dangerous precedent of thinking you know better than other people what is best for them. Happiness study results reflect averages, not perfect happiness equations. I see this type of thing leading to a BNW scenario. I find BNW scarier than 1984 because 1984 is obviously bad while BNW doesn't really bother a lot of people, happiness researchers probably included.

I haven't read through many of these here yet, but surely its advice wouldn't hurt. Doesn't look too much like your ordinary fluffy-self-help from my initial glances.

In some respects, hacking more happiness out of life might be one of the most worthwhile kinds of self-help things one can do. If you can be happy despite economic, social, or personal tribulations, you've got something right.

Doesn't look too much like your ordinary fluffy-self-help from my initial glances.

I agree. And you might be interested in the author's c.v. (http://www.happiness-project.com/about.html):

ABOUT ME I'm Gretchen Rubin.

I started out as a lawyer. At Yale Law School, I was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and won a writing prize. I went on to clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court.

I had a great experience in law, but I realized that what I really wanted to do was to write. Since making the switch, I’ve published four books. I’m currently working on The Happiness Project. It will hit the shelves in January 2010 (Harper).

OTOH being happy all the time seems like an obvious failure mode of human cognition.

But it's certainly possible to increase your average level of happiness. I wasn't happy at all in junior high, for example, and my life has gotten monotonically happier since then.

Going to the library or bookstore to read makes me happy. I just finished reading "Peaks and Valleys" (by the author of "Who Moved My Cheese"). peaksandvalleysthebook.com

All you need is love.

OT: how come in Alextra the site is ranked very low, ranked l,000,000 +, and supposly has 22K subscribers?

Still I like it and subscribed to it.

because Alexa rankings are BS

sats v maxs is a good point, but shallowly addressed in the blog post. i didn't like how the research intoned one thing, while the author wrote the mother was a maxs just for fun, and that she herself felt guilty about being a sats. that emotional reversal doesn't make sense.

and that's the only point it made. meh.

I do martial arts and taking out my aggression or anger on a punching bag makes me feel better, is it me or does a list of what should make me happy or to be happy really getting tiring. I am all for trying to understand the nature of happiness but please don't tell me what should make me happy.

You would have been better off actually reading what she wrote rather than knee-jerk reacting.

She's writing about the fact that expressing an emotion is bidirectional. No longer expressing that emotion will cause it to pass quicker.

You're talking about relieving stress by doing something physical and/or violent (both have been shown to work).

Unless you are punching that bag with a look of utter disgust on your face the two scenarios are unrelated.

> I do martial arts and taking out my aggression or anger on a punching bag makes me feel better

Now, imagine what taking out your aggression on a hobo or an old lady would do to you!

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