All products were not created equal: some can even make you happy, new psychological research finds.
All products were not created equal: some can even make you happy, new psychological research finds.
It’s often said that always hankering after more stuff is not good for your happiness.
People who are more materialist, research has found, are more likely to be dissatisfied with life, more depressed, more paranoid and more narcissistic.
Experiences improve with time in the memory, whereas possessions just fade and decay.
Experiences are difficult to compare, whereas it’s easy to see that your phone is out of date.
Experiences tend to be more social, and being social makes us happy.
At least, that was the received wisdom in psychology until recently.
Experiential products
Now, though, a new study has shown that not all possessions are created equal.
There are purely material items, like a piece of jewellery, and there are purely experiential items like concert tickets.
But in between are ‘experiential products’: things which ultimately help to facilitate experiences.
For example, a tennis racket enables you to experience tennis, books allow you to experience the author’s mind and interests, video games let you experience a virtual world and a guitar lets you experience music.
Researchers at San Francisco State University decided to test out how these three types of purchases affect people’s happiness (Guevarra & Howell, 2014).
To investigate, they asked people about various purchases they’d recently made and how happy these had made them.
The results were surprising.
As expected purely material purchases made people the least happy, but the experiential products made people just as happy as the pure experiences.
Ryan Howell, the study’s co-author, said:
“This is sort of good news for materialists.
“If your goal is to make yourself happier but you’re a person who likes stuff, then you should buy things that are going to engage your senses.
You’re going to be just as happy as if you buy a life experience, because in some sense this product is going to give you a life experience.”
Enriching ourselves
When they looked at the reason why experiential products were such powerful forces for happiness, it turned out that it was because they give or enable us to gain skills and knowledge.
In other words learning to play tennis, gaining knowledge from a book, even conquering a video game all provide us with a feeling of achievement.
On the other hand, experiences tended to make people happy because they were generally shared with others.
Howell continued:
“They are essentially two different routes to the same well-being.
If you’re not feeling very competent, the best way to alleviate that deprivation would be through the use of experiential products.
On the other hand, if you’re feeling lonely, you should buy life experiences and do things with others.”
People now spend up to 25% less time enjoying nature than they did 20 years ago. What is that doing to our minds?
People now spend up to 25% less time enjoying nature than they did 20 years ago. What is that doing to our minds?
People are spending less and less time enjoying the outdoors and nature with every passing year.
The recent shift away from nature has been incredible: some studies estimate people now spend 25% less time in nature than they did 20 years ago (Pergams & Zaradic, 2007).
Instead, recreational time is often spent surfing the internet, playing video games and watching movies.
This is a pity not merely because of the physical benefits of being outside, but also because of the psychological benefits.
Here are 10 of the most remarkable ways in which being outside, in nature, can heal the mind.
1. Feel more alive
Being inside all the time gives you a dead, flat feeling.
Being in nature, though, makes people feel more alive, which several studies have confirmed (Ryan et al., 2010).
It’s not just about the extra amount of exercise people get when they’re in nature, it has its own special effect.
Nature itself genuinely makes people feel happier, more healthy and more energetic.
Professor Richard Ryan, who has studied how nature benefits the mind, said:
“Nature is fuel for the soul.
Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature.”
And this extra vitality has all sorts of knock-on benefits:
“Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses.
One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings.”
2. 50% more creative
Going into nature for an extended period can have remarkable effects on creativity.
A recent study had participants take a four- or six-day trip into the wilderness.
Their study showed that…
“…four days of immersion in nature, and the corresponding disconnection from multimedia and technology, increases performance on a creativity, problem-solving task by a full 50 percent,” (Atchley et al., 2012)
Why does it work? The psychologists explained:
“Our modern society is filled with sudden events (sirens, horns, ringing phones, alarms, television, etc.) that hijack attention.
By contrast, natural environments are associated with gentle, soft fascination, allowing the executive attentional system to replenish.” (Atchley et al., 2012)
3. Reduce acute stress
The Japanese are big fans of walking in the forest to promote their mental health.
The practice is called shinrin-yoku, which literally means ‘forest bathing’.
One study conducted by Japanese researchers has found that the practice is particularly useful for those suffering acute stress (Morita et al., 2006).
Their study of 498 people found that shinrin-yoku reduced hostility and depression as well as increasing people’s liveliness compared to comparable control groups.
4. Ease dementia symptoms
Gardens in care homes may have therapeutic benefits for those suffering from dementia, according to a review of 17 separate studies (Whear et al., 2014).
Researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School found that gardens reduced patients’ agitation, encouraged activity and promoted relaxation.
The study’s lead author, Rebecca Whear, said:
“There is an increasing interest in improving dementia symptoms without the use of drugs.
We think that gardens could be benefiting dementia sufferers by providing them with sensory stimulation and an environment that triggers memories.
They not only present an opportunity to relax in a calming setting, but also to remember skills and habits that have brought enjoyment in the past.”
Marc G. Berman and colleagues at the University of Michigan wanted to test the effect of natural scenery on cognitive function (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008).
In the first of two studies participants were given a 35 minute task involving repeating loads of random numbers back to the experimenter, but in reverse order.
After this they were sent out for a walk – one group around an arboretum and the other down a busy city street – both while being tracked with GPS devices.
They each repeated the memory test when they got back.
The results showed that people’s performance on the test improved by almost 20% after wandering amongst the trees. By comparison those subjected to a busy street did not improve.
6. Greater sense of belonging
A small study of 10 children from a mostly Christian background found that those who spent more time outside felt more humbled by nature’s power as well as feeling a sense of belonging in the world.
Being outdoors more also enhanced the children’s appreciation of beauty.
These children took greater notice of colour, symmetry and balance in nature as well as displaying greater imagination and curiosity themselves.
The study’s lead author, Gretel Van Wieren, commented:
“This is the first generation that’s significantly plugged in to a different extent and so what does this mean?
Modern life has created a distance between humans and nature that now we’re realizing isn’t good in a whole host of ways.
So it’s a scary question: How will this affect our children and how are we going to respond?”
7. Urban mental health boost
There is hope for those who live in cities.
The benefits from nature to people’s mental health aren’t restricted those who live in the countryside.
“We’ve shown that individuals who move to greener areas have significant and long-lasting improvements in mental health.
These findings are important for urban planners thinking about introducing new green spaces to our towns and cities, suggesting they could provide long term and sustained benefits for local communities.”
8. Increase self-esteem
All kinds of exercise in nature can boost your self-esteem. And it’s surprising how little you have to do to get the boost.
One review analysed data from 1,252 people who took part in 10 different studies (Barton & Pretty, 2010).
People’s activities varied considerably, including things like gardening, walking, cycling, boating, fishing and horse-riding.
The study found that just 5 minutes ‘green exercise’ gave the largest boost to self-esteem.
9. Improve ADHD symptoms
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who play more outside have less severe symptoms, according to research.
Talylor and Kuo (2011) found that amongst 400 children diagnosed with ADHD, those that routinely played outside in green settings had better concentration.
Not only that but they were usually calmer, relaxed and happier.
The study even found that children who sat indoors looking out at a green space did better than those who were outside, but in a man-made environment without trees or grass.
That’s the power of the green spaces.
10. Help your brain work in sync
Tranquil natural scenes, like a seascape, cause vital areas of the brain to work in sync, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield (Hunter et al., 2010).
By contrast, man-made environments like roads disrupt connections within the brain.
Dr Michael Hunter, who lead the research, said:
“People experience tranquillity as a state of calmness and reflection, which is restorative compared with the stressful effects of sustained attention in day-to-day life.
It is well known that natural environments induce feelings of tranquillity whereas man-made, urban environments are experienced as non-tranquil.
Into the light…
As William Wordsworth put it:
“Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.”
How to be happy at work, at play, with our money and with our minds. The first two are among the most popular TED talks ever recorded.
How to be happy at work, at play, with our money and with our minds. The first two are among the most popular TED talks ever recorded.
1. Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
Dan Gilbert, author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.
2. Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work
Shawn Achor, author of “The Happiness Advantage“, explains why we believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.
3. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness
Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, author of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” asks, “What makes a life worth living?” Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of “flow.”
4. Michael Norton: How to buy happiness
Michael Norton, co-author of “Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending,” shares fascinating research on how money can, indeed buy happiness — when you don’t spend it on yourself. Listen for surprising data on the many ways pro-social spending can benefit you, your work, and (of course) other people.
5. Matthieu Ricard: The habits of happiness
What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, author of “Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill,” says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.
6. Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory
Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman, author of “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” reveals how our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy — and our own self-awareness.
‘Unhappy’ cities have always been unhappy, new analysis of U.S. satisfaction with life finds.
‘Unhappy’ cities have always been unhappy, new analysis of U.S. satisfaction with life finds.
New York, Pittsburgh and Louisville top the list of unhappiest cities in the U.S., according to a recent government study.
At the other end of the scale, the happiest metropolitan areas in the U.S. are Richmond-Petersburg, VA, Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA and Washington, DC.
The study by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, found that many people in ‘unhappy’ cities likely sacrifice their happiness in return for lower housing costs and higher incomes (Glaeser et al., 2014).
It relies on a large survey asking people across the U.S. about their satisfaction with life.
One of the study’s authors, Joshua Gottlieb of the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver School of Economics, said:
“Our research indicates that people care about more than happiness alone, so other factors may encourage them to stay in a city despite their unhappiness.
This means that researchers and policy-makers should not consider an increase in reported happiness as an overriding objective.”
There were also some fascinating trends across all the cities.
Unsurprisingly, people who lived in declining cities tended to be less happy — except that these cities were also unhappier in the past, even when they weren’t in decline.
It turned out that people who’d just moved to ‘unhappy’ cities were equally as unhappy as those who’d lived there for a long time.
Both of these trends suggest that some cities are unhappy places in the long-term.
Here are the unhappiest metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million:
New York, NY
Pittsburgh, PA
Louisville, KY
Milwaukee, WI
Detroit, MI
Indianapolis, IN
St. Louis, MO
Las Vegas, NV
Buffalo, NY
Philadelphia, PA
These are the happiest metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million:
Richmond-Petersburg, VA
Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA
Washington, DC
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Atlanta, GA
Houston, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Nashville, TN
West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL
Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ
Here are the unhappiest metropolitan areas with populations under 1 million:
Scranton, PA
St. Joseph, MO
Erie, PA
South Bend, IN
Jersey City, NJ
Johnstown, PA
Non-metropolitan West Virginia
Springfield, MA
New York, NY
Evansville-Henderson, IN-KY
Here are the happiest metropolitan areas with populations under 1 million:
Tastes good? Despite how individual our emotions feel to us, the brain processes them in a remarkably similar way.
Tastes good? Despite how individual our emotions feel to us, the brain processes them in a remarkably similar way.
The brain translates emotions into a standard code that’s similar across people, a new study finds.
While happiness and sadness might feel quite different to us, the brain actually represents these emotions in a remarkably similar way (Chikazoe et al., 2014).
Cornell University neuroscientist Adam Anderson, senior author of the study, explains:
“We discovered that fine-grained patterns of neural activity within the orbitofrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with emotional processing, act as a neural code which captures an individual’s subjective feeling.
Population coding of affect across stimuli, modalities and individuals.”
This finding contrasts to the established view which is that there are specific, separate regions in the brain for positive and negative emotions.
In fact, the results of this study suggest, the picture is more subtle.
Anderson explains:
“If you and I derive similar pleasure from sipping a fine wine or watching the sun set, our results suggest it is because we share similar fine-grained patterns of activity in the orbitofrontal cortex.
It appears that the human brain generates a special code for the entire valence spectrum of pleasant-to-unpleasant, good-to-bad feelings, which can be read like a ‘neural valence meter’ in which the leaning of a population of neurons in one direction equals positive feeling and the leaning in the other direction equals negative feeling,”
To reach these conclusions they had participant rate pictures and tastes while inside a brain scanner.
What they found was that when someone liked a taste, for example, there were specific patterns of activity in the areas associated with taste, along with activity in the orbitofrontal cortices.
This means our sensory experience of the world is very tightly bound up with our emotional response at a fundamental level.
They also found that across different people, there were similar patterns of activation in the orbitofrontal cortices associated with positive and negative emotions.
Anderson thinks this suggests the brain has a standard way of representing the emotions that’s common to different people.
He concludes:
“Despite how personal our feelings feel, the evidence suggests our brains use a standard code to speak the same emotional language.”
Image credit: Image courtesy of Cornell University
On the other side, as it were, other research has shown that men think that women wearing red is a sign of sexual receptivity.
Still, vital questions have been left unanswered.
For example: do women notice that their man has noticed that another woman is wearing some red apparel and, therefore, get all protective and jealous?
I’m happy to say, thanks to a new study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, we now have the answers (Pazda et al., 2014).
They showed women pictures of other women dressed in dresses of either green or red (see above).
Then they tested for signs of either ‘derogation’ or ‘mate-guarding’.
The lead researcher, Adam Pazda, explains:
“Derogation [involves] speaking poorly of another person to make them seem inferior, undesirable, or unlikeable, while making oneself seem superior and more likable by contrast.
Mate-guarding is the act of protecting one’s own romantic partner from romantic or sexual encounters with others.”
The answer: yes, women were more likely to ‘derogate’ and ‘mate-guard’ when the target woman was wearing a red dress.
So there it is.
Evidence that we all know what red means: the people who wear it, those who see it and those who see them seeing it.
All you wearers-of-red have been warned about the ticking time-bombs you are draping over your bodies.
Better to play it safe and dress in gray, I say.
Image courtesy of Society for Personality and Social Psychology
We have a new ally in the struggle to resist temptation.
We have a new ally in the struggle to resist temptation.
The feeling of gratitude can help people resist temptation, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science.
While practising gratitude is now well-established as a powerful way to enhance happiness, its links to decision-making are much less clear.
Many people feel that emotions tend to get in the way of decision-making: that we should be ‘cold’ and ‘calculating’ to make the right choices.
For example, when we’re faced with a tempting choice to spend (or waste) a whole load of money, we usually call on our powers of self-control to resist temptation.
The new research, though, finds that the emotions can also be harnessed to rein in desire.
In the study, conducted by Northeastern University’s David DeSteno and colleagues, 75 participants were given a classic test of their financial self-control (DeSteno et al., 2014).
They were told they could have $54 right now or $80 in 30 days.
Before they made their decision, though, they were put into one of three emotional states:
Grateful.
Happy.
Neutral.
The results demonstrated that people who were either happy or neutral showed a strong preference for having less money but getting it now.
This is the usual situation: most people don’t want to wait.
The people in the gratitude condition, though, showed much more restraint and were willing to wait for a larger gain.
And, the more gratitude they felt, the greater their patience for the larger reward.
One of the study’s authors, Professor Ye Li, said:
“Showing that emotion can foster self-control and discovering a way to reduce impatience with a simple gratitude exercise opens up tremendous possibilities for reducing a wide range of societal ills from impulse buying and insufficient saving to obesity and smoking.”
We don’t know exactly why gratitude has this effect, but it may be because it makes us feel more social, co-operative and altruistic.
In other words: gratitude may make us feel less selfish, which gives us more patience.
Why the ‘local-ladder effect’ is so important for happiness.
Why the ‘local-ladder effect’ is so important for happiness.
Happiness comes from respect and admiration from others, not the size of your bank account, according to psychological research.
The conclusion comes from a study published in the journal Psychological Science of how different types of status are related to well-being (Anderson et al., 2012).
The study’s lead author, Cameron Anderson, from the University of California, Berkeley, said:
“We got interested in this idea because there is abundant evidence that higher socioeconomic status — higher income or wealth, higher education — does not boost subjective well-being (or happiness) much at all.
Yet at the same time, many theories suggest that higher status should boost happiness.”
Perhaps, they thought, it comes down to the type of social status that you have.
To investigate, in one study they gathered three bits of data about 80 college students:
Their income,
their social status as measured by themselves and their peers and how active they were socially,
and how happy they were.
It turned out that students who had a better social standing were happier, but those who were richer were no happier.
The ‘local-ladder’ effect
Dubbing these findings the ‘local-ladder effect’, the psychologists argue that what matters is how you are viewed by those in your local community.
The researchers replicated these findings in three other ways and each time reached the same conclusion.
In another study, a group of MBA students were followed over the period of their course.
Once again, the results suggested that happiness doesn’t come from money but from greater respect from those around you: whether it’s an athletic team or neighbours and friends.
Anderson commented:
“I was surprised at how fluid these effects were — if someone’s standing in their local ladder went up or down, so did their happiness, even over the course of 9 months.”
Anderson speculated on why social status is so important for happiness, whereas money makes much less difference:
“One of the reasons why money doesn’t buy happiness is that people quickly adapt to the new level of income or wealth.
Lottery winners, for example, are initially happy but then return to their original level of happiness quickly.”
As for social status:
“It’s possible that being respected, having influence, and being socially integrated just never gets old.”
Take control, fight little hassles, get fair pay, receive feedback and more…
Take control, fight little hassles, get fair pay, receive feedback and more…
Lists of how to be happy at work often implicitly blame workers themselves.
If you’re not happy, they imply, it’s because you’re not prioritising properly or you need to smile more, or some other trite rubbish.
Don’t accept this: organisations are mostly to blame for unhappy employees.
Psychological research has shown what makes people unhappy at work, and it’s not lack of smiling.
Here are ten factors truly associated with being happy at work.
1. Get control
Psychologists have consistently found that people who work in jobs where they have little control find their work very stressful and consequently unsatisfying.
The more control people perceive in how they carry out their job, the more satisfaction they experience.
Look for ways of taking control of your job.
Even exerting relatively small amounts of control can make you feel happier with your work.
2. Fight little hassles
Coffee machine doesn’t work? That same information needs to be put into two forms?
People’s job satisfaction is surprisingly sensitive to daily hassles.
Those little hassles all add up.
People don’t mind working hard when the task is difficult, but when it seems like a pointless inconvenience, they get unhappy. Quickly.
Talk to your manager about getting rid of these little hassles.
Also, build a consensus with your colleagues that the little hassles are worth addressing.
3. Fair pay
The bigger the difference between what you think you should earn and what you do earn, the less happy you’ll be.
The question is, who do you compare yourself to: the other people in the office or other people with your job?
Both comparisons will likely affect how happy you are with your job.
It’s perceptions that are very important here, along with the absolute levels of pay.
You may be able to live with small differences, but big disparities tend to eat away at you.
If this is the case, it could be time to move on.
4. Address family problems
Having a child may be wonderful, but it’s also very stressful.
According to a study of almost 10,000 people in the UK, those who had children became significantly less satisfied with their jobs afterwards (Georgellis et al., 2012).
Professor Georgellis explained:
“People are less happy at work for up to five years after their first baby is born, though the effect seems to be stronger for women, especially those in the public sector.”
It’s a reminder that outside events affect how happy people are with their jobs, not just aspects of their jobs.
Are you sure it’s really your job that is getting you down? Perhaps there is a situation at home that needs dealing with.
5. Feeling of achievement
To feel happy in their jobs, people have to feel they are making some progress.
In some jobs achievement is obvious, but in others it’s not.
As smaller cogs in larger machines, it may be difficult to tell what we’re contributing.
That’s why the next factor can be so important…
6. Feedback
When it comes to job satisfaction, no news is bad news.
Getting negative feedback can be painful, but at least it tells you where improvements can be made.
On the other hand, positive feedback can make all the difference to how satisfied people feel.
If you’re not getting feedback, then ask for it.
The right feedback can help satisfy the need for achievement.
7. Seek complexity and variety
People generally find jobs more satisfying if they are more complex and offer more variety.
People seem to like complex (but not impossible) jobs, perhaps because it pushes them more.
Too easy and people get bored.
This won’t be possible for all employees, but look for ways to add complexity and variety to your job.
You might think more complex work is best avoided, but the challenge will likely make you happier.
8. Ask for support
Workers often complain that the big bosses communicate little about the overall direction of the company.
People want to know their organisation cares about them, that they are getting something back for what they are putting in.
We get this message from how the boss treats us, the kinds of fringe benefits we get and other subtle messages.
If people perceive more organisational support, they are happier with their job.
If this area is lacking, try asking your manager for more information and support, and point out why it is needed.
9. Honeymoons and hangovers
People experience honeymoon periods after a month or two in a new job when their satisfaction shoots up.
But then it normally begins to tail off after six months or so.
The honeymoon period at the start of a new job tends to be stronger when people are particularly dissatisfied with their previous job (Boswell et al., 2009).
But what about when the honeymoon period is long gone and you’ve entered a long hangover?
Sometimes the only way to be happier at work is to find new work.
10. Happy in life, happy at work
People who are generally happy find it easier to find happiness at work.
That’s according to an analysis of 223 studies on the connection between job satisfaction and life satisfaction (Bowling et al., 2010).
Lead author, Nathan Bowling said:
“…if people are, or are predisposed to be, happy and satisfied in life generally, then they will be likely to be happy and satisfied in their work.
However, the flipside of this finding could be that those people who are dissatisfied generally and who seek happiness through their work, may not find job satisfaction.
Nor might they increase their levels of overall happiness by pursuing it.”
This is worth remembering for those people who never seem to be happy with whatever job they are doing.
Sometimes the kind of happiness you are looking for cannot be achieved through work.
The six domains of human growth that are vital to well-being.
The six domains of human growth that are vital to well-being.
Relationships have stronger associations with happiness than academic achievement, according to a recent study.
Whilst strong social relationships in childhood and adolescence were associated with happier adults, the associations with academic achievement were much lower.
The study used data from 804 New Zealanders who had been followed over 32 years to compare the relative importance of social connectedness and academic success (Olsson et al., 2012).
The researchers traced the pathways of both academic achievement and social relationships down the years.
Participants were assessed at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 32 and then again at 38.
They found that children who developed language early were more likely to achieve academic success, but this wasn’t particularly associated with adult well-being.
In contrast, those who were socially confident, rarely alone and socially connected through clubs and youth groups were more likely to grow up into happier adults.
What is happiness?
Central to studies like this one is the question: what is happiness?
The ancient Greeks came up with two approaches:
Happiness is a feeling of pleasure; it’s an emotion.
Happiness is about values like generosity, honesty and kindness. In other words: happiness is less an emotion and more of an idea.
Of course happiness is both, and modern theories try to encompass both.
In this study, the measures attempted to cover both ‘types’ of happiness: happiness as an emotion and an idea.
This is important because some people think of happiness mainly as an emotion, when really it is more than that.
One theory, put forward by Professor Carol Ryff, suggests there are six domains of human growth important to well-being:
self-acceptance,
the establishment of quality ties to other,
a sense of autonomy in thought and action,
the ability to manage complex environments to suit personal needs and values,
the pursuit of meaningful goals and a sense of purpose in life,
continued growth and development as a person.
So, in this study, when the authors find a connection between social relationships and happiness, it isn’t just that more socially connected people are out partying all the time and enjoying themselves, it goes much deeper than that.
On the other hand, it seems that all the education in the world won’t necessarily teach you much about what it means to be happy, in either the emotional or philosophical sense.
