"Got that bit from Mihaly himself, though it's possible I took it out of context." I'm curious also about the context, I'd be ready to argue against M.Cs. hims

"Got that bit from Mihaly himself, though it's possible I took it out of context." I'm curious also about the context, I'd be ready to argue against M.Cs. himself, if he really claimed that, but it would be strange, because one of his main points is that better societal conditions, higher standard of living, etc. don't make people that much happier overall, in fact you start the article with this yourself. "Yes, and if you'd bother to read the article, you'd see that it mentioned this." Sorry - didn't mean to sound negative. Yes, you give the example of the guy addicted to programming, unable to move on to what he would want to do instead. Incidentally a similar effect might be at work in totalitarian regimes: people are addicted to the little games they have to play to get by and are not motivated to change the system. Something like a Stockholm syndrome on a larger scale. Just speculating here :)