Jake

Cleland

WHY DOES THE AWL LOOK LIKE GAWKER NOW?

$520

Come on, Let's Get Happy!

dihard:

Turns out, we may not be able to. I just read this really great book called Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile, by David Nettle, which explores what makes people happy and unhappy.  It was really quite interesting, a little scientific at parts, but overall pretty eye opening.

Here’s what I learned from this book.

People will never be completely happy. It is in our nature to look at better looking alternatives – status, beauty, money, etc – and pursue them, thinking that if we only had those circumstances, we would be much happier. And we all think we will be happier at some point in the future. But basically, you’ll never be happier than you are right now.  Sure, things may get better, but you’ll adapt quickly to the positive changes and return to your previous state of satisfaction. This was demonstrated by economist Richard Easterlin. He has an ongoing survey across America where he asks people to go down a list of consumer goods/events that people spend their money on - like a home, car, tv, swimming pool, second home, traveling abroad, etc, and check off the items that form their idea of the good life. Then click off the ones they already had. Sixteen years later, the same group was asked to perform the same task.  Over the 16 years, the average amount of items that people already had on the list increased from 1.7 to 3.1, but “the good life” went from consisting of 4.4 items to 5.6 items. The participants were always two items short of where they wanted to be – both at the beginning of the survey and at the end.

So I guess we’ll always be striving for more. Nettle says this is in our nature. “Evolution has given us a strong implicit theory of happiness,” he argues. It “hasn’t set us up for the attainment of happiness, merely its pursuit.”

Studies show that women report to be happier than men, but also more miserable than men, experiencing more fear, anxiety, sadness, shame, and guilt than do men.  So how are they both happier and more miserable than men? Well, women just experience emotion to a greater intensity. (surprised?)

People who are married are happier than those who are not. Now this does not necessarily mean that marriage makes one happy, but rather, perhaps happier people get married and stay married longer. Next in line based on marital status are those cohabiting, single, separated, divorced, and, finally, widowed. The study on widowhood suggests that the old adage, ‘tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all’ may just be false. Rather, losing something you have is worse than not having it in the first place.

Interestingly, marital status accounts for much more of the variation in life satisfaction that does social class.

And money.. well, there appears to be no relationship between income and life satisfaction (to a certain degree). Yet we continue to choose to working hard for a promotion or a raise when we would most likely attain more satisfaction spending that time with people or hobbies.

So there’s my book report. There’s a lot more to it, so check it out for yourself. It’s quite an interesting read!

Also, if you missed The Atlantic’s article, What Makes Us Happy?, which chronicles what they call the longest running and most exhaustive study of mental and physical well being, check it out.

How incredibly interesting. I believe it, too. It’s all about being content with what you already have, that’s the secret.

(Not so) Little status update for y'all

Sitting in my torn up ergonomic office chair, in pyjama pants I’ve been wearing for longer than I’d like to admit and a really awesome shirt my ex-girlfriend’s parents bought me a while ago (I charm the fuck outta parents, yo. Or maybe they just thought I needed to stop wearing the same two shirts. Whatevs), watching Paramore music videos. My obsession with Hayley Williams is hastily becoming problematic.

Speaking of ex-girlfriend’s, let’s talk about that for a second. It’s been a long road to recovery, but I really can’t stress enough how good the months since the romantic exodus occurred have been. I guess when you’re a steaming cup of depressachino for so long, even the smallest things seem unfathomably pleasing. So yeah, pretty happy most of the time. I attribute that to two things, mostly: The fact that I have something going on (more on that in a bit) and the fact that she’s unhappy. She doesn’t talk to anyone, even her formerly closest friends, she just works a lot (she’s going to Canada later this year). And this makes me feel awesome. Not out of spite, but I’m aware of how vindictive that sounds regardless.

Part of what aided the recovery was really “getting back to myself”. Like I’ve touched on before, that means learning to be comfortable with who I am as a person without depending on someone else for validation. Something that helped was aesthetic: I started wearing nerdy shirts (like my signed FPS_Doug shirt), my old NOFX sweatband, and my Gamer Army dogtags. Silly trinkets, perhaps, but their sentimental value helped me get back to a time where I was good to myself. From there, I could start reshaping myself. An ongoing process that entails constant re-evaluation of who I am (part of that is not posting dumb shit about issues I don’t know enough about slash posting dumb contrarian shit just to get a reaction). The skyrocketing Tumblarity is too high a price for the alienation of a lot of people I respect.

I’ve hinted a little bit about what I’ve got “going on” over the past few years. It’s been in planning for a couple years and has gone through numerous revisions, and I’m incredibly pleased with where it’s at now. Don’t want to make the big reveal just yet, but I will let slip that it’s an “internet show”. IPTV is the real term for it, but nobody I’ve spoken to has any fucking clue what it means (Internet Protocol Television, by the way) so calling it that is conversationally impractical. What I’m doing writing an episodic series is anybody’s guess, as if I have any idea. But I’ve watched a shitload of TV in my time, and we’ve all gotta start somewhere, so this will be my ‘Clerks’, I guess. My experimental magnum opus. The series itself is kind of an homage to popular culture, and is (or hopes to be) a comedy. I’ve been cooped up spending most of my days writing, planning, sketching like a workaholic for the past few months, so it’ll probably make no sense at all and will resemble the scrawlings of Tony from The Shining when read by the eye of sanity. It’ll be done before Christmas.

So, that’s pretty exciting.