The two faces of happiness

There's a big focus on happiness these days. Over 40 books on the subject and happiness coaches in abundance. But are people any happier?

Daniel Kahneman, who founded the field of behavioral economics, and jointly won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 2002 for his work with Amos Tversky on irrational decision making, is an expert in how people make less than perfect choices.

He shows there can be a significant differences about life as we experience it, and life as we remember it. When the doctor asks "Where does it hurt?" she is talking to your experiencing self. When the doctor asks "How have you been feeling lately?", she is engaging with your remembering self.



Often, an unfortunate event ruins the memory of an entire experience. The operation that ends in severe pain. The memory of the motor car accident on the way home from vacation that overwhelms an otherwise enjoyable experience. The pathetic movie ending that spoils a great story. The scratch at the end of a recording that renders irrelevant an hour of listening to celestial music. The loss of your credit card after paying the bill for a delicious meal.

The psychological present is about three seconds long. And most of the 600 million moments we all experience during a lifetime are lost forever. Research shows that money and goals are important to happiness. In the USA, happiness starts to deteriorate below $60,000 per annum. Earn more, and you dont get any happier. Earn less and your misery escalates the less you earn.

Perhaps the way to happiness, is Kahneman's idea of "adversarial collaboration," where two different kinds of mind pursue research as a joint enterprise, to openly and fairly critique each other's work to arrive at the truth, together.

So here's a workshop to explore your experiencing and remembering happiness/misery.

1. Your experiential self: How happy are you now and what contributes to that feeling?
2. Your remembering self: Thinking about life's journey and all the happy and sad moments, how happy have you been overall and why?
3. When during your life were you the most miserable? What were your circumstances at the time?
4. When during your life were you the most happy? What were your circumstances at the time?
5. Your remembering self: Describe the worst thing that ever happpened to you while on holidays and how did it influence your enjoyment of that holiday?
6. Comparing two experiences. Think of two different movies you have seen, houses you have purchased or meals you have eaten out. Compare the experience of each and what was notable about them....the whole meal and the finale?
7. Significant moments and endings: Describe an event in your life where a significant moment or ending spoiled the rest of the experience for you?
8. Describe how you could alter the experience of a product or service so that the ending was always fabulous/amazing/memorable?
9. Think of something you purchased today e.g. at the supermarket, delicatessen. What influenced your purchase?
10. In what ways was your purchase today, rational/irrational and influenced from memories of past experiences?
11. Remember back to your most recent major purchase e.g. house, car. What prior experiences with houses or cars influenced your decision?
12. What's the most irrational decision you can ever recall making? And how did that happen?
13. Offbeat - How could you use "adversarial collaboration" in pursuit of truth and happiness?