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You're probably about as happy as you were with less/different stuff (unless you were poor enough to be anxious about making ends meet), but maybe you're unusua

You're probably about as happy as you were with less/different stuff (unless you were poor enough to be anxious about making ends meet), but maybe you're unusual. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill On average, happiness peaks at age 20, declines until age 50, and then starts to inch up again ( http://www.economist.com/node/17722567 http://www.economist.com/node/17722567 ).

tmuir 12y ago
Average happiness sounds absolutely preposterous.
- webwright 12y ago
  What about it sounds preposterous? Certainly happiness isn't easy to measure, but it seems like asking "On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you with your life?"(or something like it) is a really important question... And as a society, we'd like that number to be broadly high and climbing as we move forward... No?
  - tmuir 12y ago
    I mean judging your own happiness against the mean or median of 300 million people who live in vastly different locations and climates, with different population densities, prevalence of poverty and opportunity, availability of social services, access to education and medical services, etc, is a meaningless exercise.
    - squeaky-clean 12y ago
      I don't think anyone was comparing happiness against other people here. It's happiness against yourself. Are you happier now than you were last year? Average happiness in this context doesn't mean the average happiness of the world, or a community. It's just how you would deem the average happiness of your life at a certain era. Yesterday I had a terrible day, but I would still say I am happy on average, I just was not happy on that particular day.
solarmist 12y ago
A lot of the decline in happiness is related to starting a family. Average happiness is lower with kids (there are much higher peaks because of them, but also lower lows http://www.ted.com/talks/rufus_griscom_alisa_volkman_let_s_talk_parenting_taboos?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/rufus_griscom_alisa_volkman_let_s_t...) because of all the chaos related to kids.

tmuir 12y ago

Average happiness sounds absolutely preposterous.

webwright 12y ago
What about it sounds preposterous? Certainly happiness isn't easy to measure, but it seems like asking "On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you with your life?"(or something like it) is a really important question... And as a society, we'd like that number to be broadly high and climbing as we move forward... No?
- tmuir 12y ago
  I mean judging your own happiness against the mean or median of 300 million people who live in vastly different locations and climates, with different population densities, prevalence of poverty and opportunity, availability of social services, access to education and medical services, etc, is a meaningless exercise.
  - squeaky-clean 12y ago
    I don't think anyone was comparing happiness against other people here. It's happiness against yourself. Are you happier now than you were last year? Average happiness in this context doesn't mean the average happiness of the world, or a community. It's just how you would deem the average happiness of your life at a certain era. Yesterday I had a terrible day, but I would still say I am happy on average, I just was not happy on that particular day.

solarmist 12y ago

A lot of the decline in happiness is related to starting a family. Average happiness is lower with kids (there are much higher peaks because of them, but also lower lows http://www.ted.com/talks/rufus_griscom_alisa_volkman_let_s_talk_parenting_taboos?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/rufus_griscom_alisa_volkman_let_s_t...) because of all the chaos related to kids.