Speaker 1: Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Forward Thinking, either everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the
Speaker 1: podcast that looks at the future and says, what the
Speaker 1: heck doesn't mean to feel like a room without a roof.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Volcabon, and we're going
Speaker 1: to get happy in this episode. We are not only
Speaker 1: because our third co host, Joe is out on vacation. No, No,
Speaker 1: we're upset that he's out on vacation and terrible. We're
Speaker 1: upset because he's on vacation in an amazing landscape, having
Speaker 1: wonderful adventures and we're in a podcast studio. But that's
Speaker 1: all right, Joe. We look forward to hearing about your
Speaker 1: saga when you come back. Yes, he's an Iceland, by
Speaker 1: the way, Yeah, that's that's the saga. And so we're
Speaker 1: going to take the opportunity to really look at happiness
Speaker 1: as everything from a biological function or a collection of function,
Speaker 1: to how we might try and pursue happiness in the future,
Speaker 1: and really to understand where we're coming from. I thought
Speaker 1: it'd be fun to look back in the past, because,
Speaker 1: as it turns out, the English word happy in its
Speaker 1: original context meant lucky or favored by fortune. So it
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily mean that you were filled with joy and
Speaker 1: contentment and you had great life satisfaction. It meant that
Speaker 1: you had fortune smiling on you, and good things were happening,
Speaker 1: and you were less likely to die. Right, right, Because
Speaker 1: for a lot of history, it wasn't really about finding happiness.
Speaker 1: It was about getting a bye. Yeah exactly. Yeah. You
Speaker 1: might be that your crop has come in uh more
Speaker 1: plentiful than you had expected, and so it was a
Speaker 1: happy accident. It was lucky fortune that smiled on you. Uh.
Speaker 1: And in fact, according to at least one source, I've
Speaker 1: looked at almost every European language, the word for happy
Speaker 1: traces its roots back to the word for lucky in
Speaker 1: that particular culture, except with one exception. The Welsh. Their
Speaker 1: word for happy traces back to their word for wise.
Speaker 1: That's that's very sweet. It's cool, isn't it. I thought
Speaker 1: it was so neat. Uh So if you, if you
Speaker 1: are Welsh and you think it's wise to be happy,
Speaker 1: I agree, yeah I I. However, of course, being English,
Speaker 1: I think it's just lucky to be happy. But no,
Speaker 1: one of the things that has changed over time is
Speaker 1: that we have as a species gotten better and better
Speaker 1: at achieving our basic needs, particularly in the developed world
Speaker 1: when we saw the various revolutions, the agricultural revolution, the
Speaker 1: industrial revolution. These things allowed us to get those those
Speaker 1: necessities more easily, and as we were able to get
Speaker 1: better access to them, we could spend more time seeking
Speaker 1: There's gotta be more to life than this, right, Where's
Speaker 1: got to be something that will make me content and
Speaker 1: joyful and feel fulfilled with my life. Now now that
Speaker 1: I no longer have to spend nearly every waking hour
Speaker 1: making sure I don't die, what can I do with
Speaker 1: all this time? And that's where we kind of get
Speaker 1: our modern concept of happiness, this idea of being content
Speaker 1: and joyful and fulfilled. And uh so we wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of concentrate on what it is that's going on
Speaker 1: when we have this this feeling, right, because it's more
Speaker 1: than just an emotion. It's there, there's a biology to this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we aren't like a hollow shell with various emotions
Speaker 1: that once sometimes one of them rises to the top
Speaker 1: and that's our dominant emotion. We're not We're not that,
Speaker 1: We're not a collection of humors, although that was certainly
Speaker 1: an idea that held sway for a very long time time.
Speaker 1: We are very complicated electrochemical machines and meating meating machines. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and part of that means that we we there's a
Speaker 1: lot of complex chemical processes that are going on for
Speaker 1: any given state of being, not just happiness, but anything, right,
Speaker 1: if you're stressed, or if you're afraid, or if you
Speaker 1: are feeling hungry. I mean, all of these different things
Speaker 1: have different um biological processes that are associated with them,
Speaker 1: and we don't understand all of them for any given
Speaker 1: state of being. We're we're in the learning phase, yes,
Speaker 1: especially where I mean we've said this on the show
Speaker 1: a million times. At this juncture. Um anything having to
Speaker 1: do with the brain is very complicated, and we are
Speaker 1: really only beginning to figure out how it does. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you're hoping that we're going to tell you
Speaker 1: where the happy switches, we don't have that information. We
Speaker 1: can talk a lot about some of the areas of
Speaker 1: the brain that are important. Yes, there are many happy switches. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with our question mark at the end. In fact, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of scientists who don't really like to
Speaker 1: talk about happiness as a concept because it's it's so broad,
Speaker 1: it's also vague in encompasses so much that two people
Speaker 1: can talk about happiness and have very different ideas about
Speaker 1: what they're saying, and they're trying to have a common conversation. So,
Speaker 1: for example, there's a psychologist named Martin Seligman who authored
Speaker 1: Authentic Happiness, who wrote this book, and he says, I
Speaker 1: don't really like the word happiness. I wrote this book
Speaker 1: called Authentic Happiness. Don't really care for that that I
Speaker 1: I like to think in terms of things like well
Speaker 1: being or love, or growth or meaning or flourishing satisfaction.
Speaker 1: These are concepts that are easier to define. You could
Speaker 1: say they play a part in the overall concept achievement.
Speaker 1: It's the happiness umbrella, which I like to think has
Speaker 1: smiley faces on it, but doesn't necessarily have to. I
Speaker 1: like to think it's lined with cupcakes, a cupcake lined umbrella.
Speaker 1: I didn't have enough for lunch today, so um yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's difficult to even deal with this concept
Speaker 1: on a scientific basis, because again, if you have a
Speaker 1: large term that is not not precisely defined, it's hard
Speaker 1: to get really empirical with it. Oh sure, and anything
Speaker 1: emotional is necessarily going to be a little bit difficult
Speaker 1: to empirically defined. Right. By breaking it down into these
Speaker 1: kind of subcategories of happiness, you can really start isolating
Speaker 1: chemicals and brain bits that have more to do with them. Yea.
Speaker 1: So we're going to look at some, uh, some of
Speaker 1: the neurotransmitters and hormones as well as some of the
Speaker 1: regions of the brain that are associated with happiness. So
Speaker 1: let's start off with some of these neurotransmitters and hormones
Speaker 1: that we're talking about, because these are the chemicals that
Speaker 1: we associate with various responses that are part of feeling happy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we're launching off with dopamine and nora pa nephrin uh. Now,
Speaker 1: these are hormones that do lots of things. Actually, in fact,
Speaker 1: all the ones we're gonna be talking about have more.
Speaker 1: They pull multi job duty, as at most everything does.
Speaker 1: The body is not filled with unitaskers exactly, so a
Speaker 1: lot of these hormones are not even just regulating stuff
Speaker 1: in the brain. They may have important roles throughout the
Speaker 1: entire body. And one of those happens to be something
Speaker 1: that goes on inside our noggins, but not necessarily the
Speaker 1: only thing. So umin and Nora beneffn are important in
Speaker 1: the reward center of the brain. So rewards are reinforcers
Speaker 1: which indicate that the thing you just did was a
Speaker 1: good thing and you should do more of that. So,
Speaker 1: in other words, like if you were to uh do
Speaker 1: a physical task that ends up achieving the goal that
Speaker 1: you were aiming at. Let's say that you were throwing
Speaker 1: a spear at a wooly mammoth and you hit it
Speaker 1: just the right spot and the wooly mammoth dies. The
Speaker 1: reward center in your brain is gonna go, that was awesome, dude,
Speaker 1: you rule. You know, We're gonna eat for days on this.
Speaker 1: Make sure you do that again. At the situation ever
Speaker 1: pops up. It's like a chemical high five. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: so it's something that is certainly associated with happiness, particularly
Speaker 1: as far as it goes as being fulfilled or satisfaction.
Speaker 1: This idea that our own brain rewards us. It's it's intrinsic.
Speaker 1: It's not dependent upon any kind of external gift. Um.
Speaker 1: It can be associated with an external gift. If you
Speaker 1: get that promotion that you've been hoping for you might
Speaker 1: have that reward feeling. But it may also just just
Speaker 1: by doing something nice for someone, you may have that
Speaker 1: reward feeling as you see that the actions you have
Speaker 1: taken have benefited someone else. Yeah, or getting an answer
Speaker 1: correct on a test, or any number of stimuli, so
Speaker 1: very important. Yes, then we've got endorphins, these things we
Speaker 1: all do, their hormones that act as pain killers when
Speaker 1: we're injured and can also induce a kind of sense
Speaker 1: of euphoria. Yeah. So if you if you're a runner
Speaker 1: and you've heard of the runners hide, Yeah, the runner side,
Speaker 1: that's endorphins. That's a that's a big part of it,
Speaker 1: where you know, you you just kind of get this
Speaker 1: this happy sensation, this this pleasant, pleasant sensation, even though
Speaker 1: just moments ago your body was saying, for for goodness
Speaker 1: sakes to stop. Yeah. Yeah, it's because you've you've pushed
Speaker 1: yourself to a point where ear body is like, noah,
Speaker 1: we need some pain killers. Yea, we have got to.
Speaker 1: We got to jump to action because otherwise, uh, this
Speaker 1: person's own spleen is going to rush up to their
Speaker 1: neck and strangle them. So I might be getting a
Speaker 1: little loose with the medical technology and terminology here. But
Speaker 1: you know this is my own personal understanding. I don't
Speaker 1: run unless something's chasing me. Yeah, I feel about the
Speaker 1: same way about it personally. Then we have serotonin, which
Speaker 1: is a neurotransmitter that is biochemically derived from trip to fan.
Speaker 1: You may have heard that eating turkey makes you sleepy.
Speaker 1: That's not really true technically true. Well, I mean you'd
Speaker 1: have to have a lot of turkey, like a crazy
Speaker 1: overdose level of turkey. I'm pretty sure you would make
Speaker 1: yourself sick with turkey before you would actually get sleepy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you would probably end up being at least thirty turkey
Speaker 1: by that time right now. But trip to fan is
Speaker 1: in fact where we derive uh saratonin. And again we
Speaker 1: don't fully understand all of serotonin's functions within the body,
Speaker 1: but we do believe it contributes to feeling of happiness
Speaker 1: and well being and it helps regulate our sleep cycles.
Speaker 1: So it also plays a very important role in regulating
Speaker 1: our gastro intestinal tract, which again shows how these hormones
Speaker 1: do lots of different stuff in our bodies. And serotonin
Speaker 1: also plays a role in our appetites, so when we
Speaker 1: feel hungry, so like I said, it does a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, but again we're not We're just getting started.
Speaker 1: We still have more to go through. There's melotonin, so
Speaker 1: we got serotonin than melatonin. These are two different things. Melantonin, though,
Speaker 1: also helps regulate our sleep wake cycle and establishes the
Speaker 1: daily cycle of various systems are circadian rhythm, if you will.
Speaker 1: So it's largely in charge of making sure that our
Speaker 1: our various rhythms throughout the day coincide with our when
Speaker 1: we're awake and when we're asleep. This is the stuff
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, you you kind of need to
Speaker 1: be in a dark place to really start generating the melotonin.
Speaker 1: You don't want to have lots of around you all
Speaker 1: the time. It can really mess with your sleep wake cycle.
Speaker 1: Uh So people who have insomnia can have issues with
Speaker 1: that as well. So anyway, very important obviously if you
Speaker 1: don't get enough sleep, that's going to affect your satisfaction,
Speaker 1: your happiness, as well as your health in general. And generally, Yes,
Speaker 1: and all of these systems are very much tied into
Speaker 1: each other. Um, there's also cortisol, and this is a
Speaker 1: stress hormone. Actually it makes you feel unhappy relatively, it's
Speaker 1: really it's a hormone that is released in response to
Speaker 1: stressors by the adrenal gland. And it's important because increases
Speaker 1: the amount of sugar in your blood and makes more
Speaker 1: available to your brain. Plus makes more like tissue repair
Speaker 1: stuff available to your cells. So basically it primes your
Speaker 1: body to get stuff done. Um and along with adrenaline,
Speaker 1: it makes you ready for fight or flight, but it
Speaker 1: can also decrease the functions of your other systems. Uh
Speaker 1: and basically says to your brain like be afraid, be
Speaker 1: very afraid. Um. These these mnicles are your body's equivalent
Speaker 1: of like red alert, divert full power to the engines,
Speaker 1: um and and you know, so that's really good in
Speaker 1: some circumstances, but overall, that's not a great feeling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want to have that be your your baseline,
Speaker 1: right No, no, no, no, not not at all. The
Speaker 1: amount of stress. And we've talked in the past about
Speaker 1: how stress can have an actual effect on your health.
Speaker 1: It's not just you know, you're feeling tense and you're
Speaker 1: you're not feeling great. I mean it can really have
Speaker 1: a really uh negative impact absolutely, yeah. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: not just the happy inducing chemicals but also the sad
Speaker 1: or stress inducing chemicals can have a big impact on
Speaker 1: how happy your overall being is. Right, and there are
Speaker 1: there are those who argue, obviously that the negative ones
Speaker 1: do play an important rock part because it it alerts
Speaker 1: you to potential danger, helps you stay out of that
Speaker 1: kind of danger, get out of a danger situation. But
Speaker 1: then a lot of people also point out that we're
Speaker 1: many of us are now living in a world where those, um,
Speaker 1: realistically dangerous situations are few and far between, and yet
Speaker 1: our body will still react in a negative way when
Speaker 1: it perceives danger, even if there's no physical threat that's
Speaker 1: facing us. Oh absolutely, you know, like like when you
Speaker 1: get nervous about going on a date um, which you know,
Speaker 1: historically speaking, is slightly less useful than getting nervous about,
Speaker 1: you know, a bear chasing you, right exactly, but you
Speaker 1: end up having the same sort of physiological response because
Speaker 1: your body doesn't have Oh, let's initiate the date hormone.
Speaker 1: It's it's not like that, No, it's more like, well, uh,
Speaker 1: you know this this the thought processes. This is scary,
Speaker 1: so let's enact the scary stuff. Uh So, anyway, that
Speaker 1: the balance here is really important, and again we don't
Speaker 1: understand all of them in which all of these things work. Now,
Speaker 1: let's move on to some some brain anatomy. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of the hardware. Where so we talked about reward system
Speaker 1: and the hormones like dopamine that play a part in it.
Speaker 1: There are reward pathways in the brain. They involved the
Speaker 1: frontal cortex, which has the highest concentration of dopamine sensitive neurons.
Speaker 1: Then you have the nucleus accumbus, which plays an important
Speaker 1: part in our sense of pleasure as well as other emotions.
Speaker 1: It can also play a part with things like fear
Speaker 1: and aggression. You can kind of think of that as
Speaker 1: almost like the reptile brain in a way. And then
Speaker 1: you've got the ventral tegmental area, which is the release
Speaker 1: site for dopamine. Yeah, the left prefrontal cortex in particular
Speaker 1: is more active when you're happy, as opposed to the
Speaker 1: right prefrontal cortex, which is more active when you're unhappy
Speaker 1: or stressed out. Interesting, and that's really cool. I did
Speaker 1: not realize that. Then you have the neo cortex, which
Speaker 1: is the part of our brain that's responsible for a
Speaker 1: lot of the the higher thinking functions like conscious thought.
Speaker 1: That's the mammalian brain. Yes, sometimes here uh here it
Speaker 1: referred to in literature, right, because it is not something
Speaker 1: that is found in all animals. In fact, the reason
Speaker 1: why it's called neo cortex is because it's a relatively
Speaker 1: new development, as in late in the evolutionary uh pathway
Speaker 1: of animals in general. I mean, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: only a few million years ago as opposed to a
Speaker 1: few Is that correct? Is it only a million? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it's I mean, you know, things have a
Speaker 1: longer shelf life in the evolutionary time scale. So, uh.
Speaker 1: One of the important things about happiness is consciousness. It's
Speaker 1: the ability to be aware that you are happy. It's
Speaker 1: the ability to be aware of the difference between happiness
Speaker 1: and unhappiness. And there are many who argue that if
Speaker 1: we did not have that ability, this would be largely Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we wouldn't be having this conversation, be incapable of it.
Speaker 1: But but the the consciousness is in fact a necessary
Speaker 1: item as far as being able to to be happy.
Speaker 1: And I like Shakespeare's take on this. He was not
Speaker 1: saying anything new, and this was in fact something that
Speaker 1: character Hamlet said. And you always have to remember. A
Speaker 1: character saying something does not necessarily mean the author means it. No,
Speaker 1: but he says there's nothing good or bad, but thinking
Speaker 1: makes it so, which of course is to say there's
Speaker 1: nothing innately good or bad in anything that's going on.
Speaker 1: It's our interpretation of it that makes it good or bad. Uh.
Speaker 1: Thus the consciousness is the thing that allows us to
Speaker 1: differentiate happy versus unhappy. This becomes more important in a
Speaker 1: later part of our discussion in this episode, but it
Speaker 1: just shows that these ideas have been around, and again,
Speaker 1: Shakespeare didn't come up with that. He was voicing something
Speaker 1: that the ancient Greeks had talked about ages before Shakespeare
Speaker 1: came along. Uh. Then there's the hippocampus, which helps us
Speaker 1: attach context to memories um. And furthermore, it gets damaged
Speaker 1: by the release of large amounts of cortisol. So that's
Speaker 1: really interesting as well, because that means that in a
Speaker 1: in a heightened situation where cortisol is being released because
Speaker 1: you are getting ready for fight or flight type of thing,
Speaker 1: then presumably you might have difficulty recalling that situation well
Speaker 1: in the future. Thus, or while it's going on, you
Speaker 1: might have difficulty contextualizing what is what's really going on?
Speaker 1: You might have it. It's part of why you sort
Speaker 1: of freak out a little bit in those situations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's also it's another good example of why eyewitness testimony
Speaker 1: is something that we should be careful about, because memories
Speaker 1: are weird things. A lot of times we end up
Speaker 1: forming what we think was the actual memory of the
Speaker 1: event that happened while it was happening afterward. Our brains
Speaker 1: are not digital cameras, and every time we recall a memory,
Speaker 1: we are changing it. Yeah. So I think that's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a tangent, but important, I think Jonathan
Speaker 1: rant time, Yes, exactly. So. Yeah, and it gets even
Speaker 1: more complicated, right, This is just a tiny glimpse of
Speaker 1: parts of the brain that are involved with our our
Speaker 1: concept at least our modern concepts. These are kind of
Speaker 1: referred to as the big ones, I think. But but
Speaker 1: we don't know, Yeah, we don't. We don't even know
Speaker 1: what we don't know, right, That's the that's the crazy
Speaker 1: part of it, is that we don't know how far
Speaker 1: away we are from getting a full understanding of the
Speaker 1: workings of the brain. We know that it's far more
Speaker 1: complex than what we are capable of explaining right now.
Speaker 1: And when I say we, I mean humans as a whole,
Speaker 1: not just not just two of us sitting at this
Speaker 1: podcast table. That's already been clear from our previous episodes.
Speaker 1: But no, people as a whole. We don't really know everything.
Speaker 1: And so since we're just fearing all this out, uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's impossible for us to say right now that
Speaker 1: we could come up with a system that could manufacture
Speaker 1: synthetic happiness on demand. But that is something that we've
Speaker 1: you know, thought about. It's something that's in science fiction.
Speaker 1: It's something that's there's their experiments with uh stimulating the
Speaker 1: pleasure centers of the brain, granted, and we're about to
Speaker 1: just talk about specific ways of doing that with humans.
Speaker 1: But you know, we don't have that that ability, And
Speaker 1: the question is if we ever come up with it,
Speaker 1: would it really be meaningful. So in order to get
Speaker 1: to that question, we should look at some ways that
Speaker 1: we've kind of explored stimulating different parts of the brain
Speaker 1: that are associated at least in some part with happiness.
Speaker 1: UM so far, because this is absolutely a science that
Speaker 1: is going on right now. In fact, in fact, there's
Speaker 1: the first one we're talking about is the science that's
Speaker 1: been around for a while in various formats, and we've
Speaker 1: talked about on this show before, electrical stimulation of the brain.
Speaker 1: You know, like we said, the brain is an electrochemical
Speaker 1: organ and so the electro part means that if you
Speaker 1: use some electricity, yeah, yeah, don't touch that, you never
Speaker 1: know what's attached to. But uh so, we we are
Speaker 1: seeing some people use electricity to treat depression. This is
Speaker 1: not a new idea. It is the basis for electro
Speaker 1: convulsive therapy, which is actually used for multiple types of therapy,
Speaker 1: not just for depression. Um. And there's also deep brain stimulation,
Speaker 1: which uses electrodes to deliver electricity to areas in the
Speaker 1: brain believed to be associated with moods, specifically for depression. Again,
Speaker 1: it can also be used for other types of treatments. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: the big difference between the two is that deep brain stimulation,
Speaker 1: as you would imagine, is invasive involve surgery. So you're
Speaker 1: talking about drilling holes into a person's head, inserting wires
Speaker 1: into their brain so that the wires terminate at the
Speaker 1: point near the neurons you want to stimulate, and then
Speaker 1: directing a charge at that specific area. All right, but
Speaker 1: that's obviously a pretty high buy in for treating something. Ye.
Speaker 1: Usually it's for people who are suffering from very serious ailments.
Speaker 1: I mean, it might be something like Parkinson's. It's not
Speaker 1: for treating moods. But I did read a study where
Speaker 1: it was used to treat UM, someone who had a
Speaker 1: very serious case of depression, to the point where, uh,
Speaker 1: of course this could have been hyperbole, but it was
Speaker 1: in popular science, and the author mentioned that after they
Speaker 1: turned on the electrodes and delivered electricity to the um
Speaker 1: two specific neurons in this woman's brain, she smiled. She
Speaker 1: said that the room got brighter and that she could
Speaker 1: actually recognize emotions on faces, and she said it was
Speaker 1: the first time she had smiled in twenty years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty powerful story. Whether or not there was
Speaker 1: any embellishment there, I cannot say. But you know, again,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that says, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: there is this this power in electricity to have a
Speaker 1: fundamental effect on our brains. Yeah, and right, we we
Speaker 1: have talked a little bit about the other one electric
Speaker 1: convulsive therapy before that episode was augmenting the brain part
Speaker 1: to the tech, and it published an aug if you'd
Speaker 1: like to check it out. But just to summarize real quick,
Speaker 1: it's currently considered a really a safe and effective way
Speaker 1: to manage cases of severe depression where drugs haven't helped.
Speaker 1: And it's it's not like in the movies. Okay, your
Speaker 1: ear doc is gonna put you under general anesthesia and
Speaker 1: give you muscle relaxers, So it's not traumatic the way
Speaker 1: that you've probably seen it portray. It's not like such
Speaker 1: or where it's used as the threatening American horror story.
Speaker 1: Nothing like that. No. Um, I mean, you know, the
Speaker 1: thing is is that we're not even sure why it
Speaker 1: works like this. Theories range from that it changes blood
Speaker 1: flow or or changes the brain's metabolism, to changing the
Speaker 1: chemical release and uptake of stuff to the stimulation of
Speaker 1: nerve cells and pathway growth. Um. But but but right,
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely a therapy that is good in these
Speaker 1: extreme cases. It does tend to affect patients memory, so
Speaker 1: it's really only a last sorts, right. We are talking
Speaker 1: about really severe cases here. But it shows that there
Speaker 1: may be a way for us to find a means
Speaker 1: of electrically stimulating the brain in a safe manner that
Speaker 1: can dramatically change someone's life who might be suffering from depression. Now,
Speaker 1: this is not the same as saying we're going to
Speaker 1: end up with chips in our heads that will make
Speaker 1: us perpetually happy. I don't know, i'd kind of take that. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean there's there's always the story about the the
Speaker 1: experiment where uh, scientists hooked up electrodes to the pleasure
Speaker 1: center of monkey's brains and gave him access to a
Speaker 1: button and they just kept on pressing the until they
Speaker 1: basically died. Yeah, but we'll we'll get into a little
Speaker 1: bit more of the science fiction ee kind of uh
Speaker 1: philosophy behind the idea of synthetic happiness. But there is
Speaker 1: another way of getting synthetic happiness, right, Yeah, we just
Speaker 1: talked about the electro portion of electrochemicals, So let's talk
Speaker 1: about the chemical Yeah, we're talking drugs. So drugs, doesn't
Speaker 1: we we don't just mean illicit drugs, although clearly those
Speaker 1: leap to mind when you're talking about mind altering or
Speaker 1: mood altering substances. Uh So, some of them they alter
Speaker 1: moods by stimulating dopamine production, like cocaine. I looked at
Speaker 1: a chart that showed dopamine production from something like having
Speaker 1: seeing an old relative for the first time in ages,
Speaker 1: someone you really love, and then comparing that to the
Speaker 1: amount of dopamine someone on cocaine would experience, and it
Speaker 1: was a dramatic difference, I would imagine. So otherwise we
Speaker 1: would just look at pictures of our loved ones whenever
Speaker 1: wanted to get high. Right, yeah, that would be like that.
Speaker 1: That's what all the SNL writers were doing back in
Speaker 1: the seventies, is just flipping through photo books. But they
Speaker 1: also there are drugs that introduced the sense of euphoria,
Speaker 1: like endorphins, right right, Ope, it's like morphine do this
Speaker 1: by connecting to the same receptors that accept your body's
Speaker 1: natural endorphins, so they just work along the same Pathwaysically speaking,
Speaker 1: these these effects are real. I mean, they really will
Speaker 1: have these mood altering effects on people, but they also
Speaker 1: are temporary, meaning that when the drug wears off, then
Speaker 1: you're back to where you were. Uh. They can be addictive,
Speaker 1: and I didn't mention this in the in the note,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's something that we all know. And
Speaker 1: not only can they be addictive, but you can build
Speaker 1: up resistance to them. And thus you end up having
Speaker 1: to take more and probably getting more of those negative
Speaker 1: side effects and possibly reaching levels of toxicity. Uh. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of reasons why it's not the best
Speaker 1: way of trying to achieve happiness. UH. Correct, it could
Speaker 1: be very important for treating very serious illnesses. Oh, certainly, certainly. UM.
Speaker 1: Also note that really any substances you take into your body,
Speaker 1: including foods, contain chemicals that can impact your brain. UM.
Speaker 1: Some foods help your body produce more of these happy chemicals,
Speaker 1: like spinach turkey we mentioned earlier, or bananas um, because
Speaker 1: stuff like follate and tripped to fan go into creating seratonin. UM.
Speaker 1: Also caffeine contain an alcohol, which are a relatively common use.
Speaker 1: Drugs all do have effects on a the central nervous system,
Speaker 1: and be can stimulate the release of stuff like serotonin
Speaker 1: and dopamine. Right. And then we have psychiatric drugs right right.
Speaker 1: These are the regulated chemicals that usually require prescription from
Speaker 1: a certified health professional of one kind or another, and
Speaker 1: they're used to treat diagnosed conditions like depression and anxiety. Uh.
Speaker 1: They're going to be interacting with your brain and its chemicals,
Speaker 1: sometimes frequently in ways that we haven't really figured out
Speaker 1: yet to basically just improve your mood. Yeah, Um, lots
Speaker 1: of them, like tricyclics and s s r s that
Speaker 1: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors will help serotonin find the post
Speaker 1: snaptic receptors where they'll help you feel happy. Um, at
Speaker 1: least partially by preventing the serotonin from being absorbed by
Speaker 1: other cells. So again, these are really useful tools for
Speaker 1: patients who are suffering from depression. Not meant to be
Speaker 1: something too like a happy pill. It's still not an
Speaker 1: on switch, I mean, you know, they although they do.
Speaker 1: Recent research is indicated that even a single dose of
Speaker 1: some of these drugs can start affecting the way that
Speaker 1: your brain works, but usually it takes a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks to build them up in your system. They're usually
Speaker 1: recommended along with a course of therapy of one kind
Speaker 1: or another, more emotional behavioral therapy, and and they're they're
Speaker 1: absolutely not a cure all for unhappiness, right. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: always makes me think of um, the Kids in the Hall.
Speaker 1: They had a feature length film called Brain Candy, where
Speaker 1: the main part of the story is the development of
Speaker 1: an antidepressant called gleiman necks, which just induces happiness, eventually
Speaker 1: inducing catatonia. So not exactly a perfect example. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it actually does play into the same warning that we're giving,
Speaker 1: is that that this is something that is important, but
Speaker 1: isn't the the happy hill. Uh well, then then there's
Speaker 1: other stuff that can actually make a real improvement to
Speaker 1: your mood that doesn't involve shocking your brain or taking drugs.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, just exercise, I mean, okay, of course it's
Speaker 1: good for you. We all learned that at the Apple
Speaker 1: six Apple iPhone six releases. Um, now that I know
Speaker 1: I can strap an Apple product to my wrist and
Speaker 1: move around, I'll be happy. Uh huh um No, No,
Speaker 1: but exercise does genuinely help make you happier in a
Speaker 1: few different ways. Um. First of all, it increases your
Speaker 1: body's production of antibodies and t cells, which help fight
Speaker 1: off bodily invaders like bacteria viruses that can make you sick. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not being sick is pretty cool. Yeah, being sick is
Speaker 1: a real detriment to happiness. Yes. Um, it lowers the
Speaker 1: levels of cortisol in your bloodstream, that stress hormone that
Speaker 1: we've mentioned a couple of times. Before here um. And
Speaker 1: also it stimulates the production of endorphins, as we talked
Speaker 1: about at the top of the show. Right, So, out
Speaker 1: of the three of these, the exercise is the one
Speaker 1: that I can heartily recommend because it certainly has a
Speaker 1: suite of benefits and so it's one of those things
Speaker 1: that can contribute to your overall happiness without having the
Speaker 1: detriment of requiring surgery, I mean, or or your memory
Speaker 1: or eating a lot of spinach. Right, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I love spinach, but yeah, yeah, no, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: no Popeye, but at any rate, So with these synthetic ways,
Speaker 1: not not the exercise one, but the drugs and electricity,
Speaker 1: where we're artificially introducing happiness, would they work. And this
Speaker 1: kind of ends up getting to the question of what
Speaker 1: is happiness? Right? So in the video I mentioned we
Speaker 1: could talk about a world where let's say you have
Speaker 1: a very tough existence. Uh, you know, day to day
Speaker 1: life is hard, and maybe there's very few things that
Speaker 1: are rewarding to you in your life, but you have
Speaker 1: access to the happy switch and you can turn on
Speaker 1: the switch and you feel genuine joy and euphoria, but
Speaker 1: your life doesn't change at all. So you still have
Speaker 1: this tough existence. Does is that true happiness? And that's
Speaker 1: a question that I think is subjective. It depends upon
Speaker 1: someone's view of what happiness really is. Yeah. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: ranging into the slightly less scientific concept philosophy and morality
Speaker 1: and all of that. So for me, this is my
Speaker 1: own personal point of view. I would want to try
Speaker 1: and have a life where I am putting all the
Speaker 1: things I can in order so that I can pursue
Speaker 1: a happy lifestyle as opposed to having a switch that
Speaker 1: just makes me feel happy. Even if objectively, if I
Speaker 1: were able to remove myself from that situation, I would think, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's one miserable guide down there. But that's me personally,
Speaker 1: because it goes beyond the chemical. For me, I tend
Speaker 1: to be very pragmatic in most cases, and this one case,
Speaker 1: I think, now I kind of want the what would
Speaker 1: feel like genuine happiness to me because to me, this
Speaker 1: does not feel like it would be genuine. Um. But again,
Speaker 1: it's all depends on your definition. Well. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: you know, there there are everyone I think on the
Speaker 1: planet is going to have a slightly different answer to
Speaker 1: that question. Um. But there are certainly many people who
Speaker 1: are pursuing that kind of thought, especially through the field
Speaker 1: of positive psychology. Yeah, this is an interesting approach to psychology.
Speaker 1: It is an attempt to have an empirical study of happiness,
Speaker 1: but not the biological side that we've already talked about,
Speaker 1: rather the elements of life that would make someone feel
Speaker 1: happy by kicking into gear those biological processes. So the
Speaker 1: biological processes are important, but really what the positive psychology
Speaker 1: is looking at is what are the things in life
Speaker 1: that give us these feelings? Um, you know, what sort
Speaker 1: of activities do we need to do, what sort of
Speaker 1: experiences do we need to have? What kind of life
Speaker 1: can we sue to have a happier existence? Sure? So, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, for for example, I'm sure that
Speaker 1: that exercise plays a part in positive psychology. I mean,
Speaker 1: even though it is a chemical process in your body,
Speaker 1: but it's it's ranging into that well, help your help,
Speaker 1: help your brain help itself exactly. Yeah, it's it's one
Speaker 1: of the things identified as this makes you feel better, right,
Speaker 1: So that falls right into the sort of stuff they
Speaker 1: You know that the studies look at people who have
Speaker 1: different lifestyles and kind of judge happiness, not obviously Taking
Speaker 1: an empirical approach to any kind of social science is difficult.
Speaker 1: It's challenging. It's not impossible, but it is really challenging
Speaker 1: because it largely relies upon things like surveys, which require
Speaker 1: people to give honest answers and generally cooperate. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a little it's a little trickier than saying, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, what is the force of gravity on this planet? Well,
Speaker 1: we dropped this thing. It felt at this rate the
Speaker 1: acceleration was such. Thus it is this Like, that's something
Speaker 1: you can pirically described through an observation. Uh, what makes
Speaker 1: people happy gets a little more fuzzy, and it is
Speaker 1: by a large subjective. Now, there are large broad categories
Speaker 1: that some researchers in positive psychology have identified as being
Speaker 1: important for the pursuit of happiness. And I should say
Speaker 1: that I'm going to talk about three different types of uh,
Speaker 1: lifestyles or life pursuits that some people in positive psychology. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course, as in any scientific field, especially the softer
Speaker 1: scientific fields, there is disagreement on on exactly what these
Speaker 1: should be and what they mean. But but but what
Speaker 1: are these basic three things? Okay, you've got the pleasant life. Now,
Speaker 1: this is the idea that you are spending your time
Speaker 1: seeking experiences and relationships to trigger your sense of satisfaction.
Speaker 1: So this would be the people who, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they go on an adventure holiday so they can go
Speaker 1: to someplace they've never been before and experience the the
Speaker 1: local wildlife, for the local cultures, to really immerse themselves
Speaker 1: in something new, and they get satisfaction from that. Or
Speaker 1: they like to go out and make friends. They take
Speaker 1: time to get to know people, and they gain satisfaction
Speaker 1: from forming these sort of relationships. It also falls into
Speaker 1: the same category as people who buy stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: the retail therapy where they they see something really cool
Speaker 1: and they buy it, and there's that reward center again,
Speaker 1: the fact that you get something cool that you think
Speaker 1: is really neat. You do feel a sense of pleasure
Speaker 1: from this. Uh, this tends to be the one that
Speaker 1: most people are Most of the researchers I've read have
Speaker 1: said is the most fleeting. The idea that once you
Speaker 1: do achieve whatever it is you're doing, whether it's buying
Speaker 1: a brand new toy or going on that great vacation
Speaker 1: or getting that achievement unlocked. Yes, yeah, the gradually it
Speaker 1: wears off and you have to do it again in
Speaker 1: order to you know, you can't just do one amazing
Speaker 1: thing and then you're happy all the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: You have to continue with. So then it becomes your
Speaker 1: life becomes Forrest Gump, where you're just constantly of course
Speaker 1: with him. It just happened by luck, which goes back
Speaker 1: to that earlier definition of happy. But you know, you
Speaker 1: would be pursuing this all right, or your your level
Speaker 1: grinding basically, and and also beyond that, there are people
Speaker 1: who have said, well, and it's it's not even as
Speaker 1: simple as this, because you would need to seek out
Speaker 1: experiences that, uh, that reflect who you are as a person.
Speaker 1: So Lauren, for example, let's say that you despise travel.
Speaker 1: Let's just say that you hate the idea of travel.
Speaker 1: Then pushing yourself to go and travel and have these
Speaker 1: experiences might not result in you being happy, even if
Speaker 1: the experience is legitimately amazing. Your feelings about travel might
Speaker 1: be so negative, right, I might be so stressed out
Speaker 1: about flying or about um, you know, getting places on time,
Speaker 1: or about interacting with a new environment I'm unfamiliar, or
Speaker 1: leaving behind people that you really like and you know
Speaker 1: that's that's where you really place or exactly. So that
Speaker 1: sort of thing could mean that you don't come away
Speaker 1: with this happy feeling. However, if you indulge in things
Speaker 1: that you really do enjoy. Let's say that you just
Speaker 1: love reading a new book as often as possible, then
Speaker 1: something as simple as going out and finding a book
Speaker 1: you haven't read before could bring you true joy. So
Speaker 1: you're petting kittens, just going on a quest to pet
Speaker 1: every pet all the kittens that could be that could
Speaker 1: be it. And that's the thing is that it all
Speaker 1: depends upon you picking the right sort of experiences. It's
Speaker 1: not just to have experiences, it's to have the right
Speaker 1: kind based upon who you are. Then you have the
Speaker 1: good life. Now, the good life is a great song
Speaker 1: by Wheezer, but it's also when you are feeling really
Speaker 1: engaged in the activities that you're doing. Oh, I'm serious,
Speaker 1: it's a great song, shaking booty, it's a great song anyway.
Speaker 1: So good life is all about being really engaged with
Speaker 1: the things you do, whether that's hobbies you do or
Speaker 1: if it's your job. It's fantastic because it means you
Speaker 1: get real satisfaction and you feel a sense of well
Speaker 1: being about the work you do. So for those of
Speaker 1: us who are fortunate to have jobs that give us
Speaker 1: a lot of this, I mean, I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: my job is free of stress, y'all, because because it
Speaker 1: comes with a whole, big old pile of it, but
Speaker 1: it does. Know what, our amazing dream jobs are are amazing, amazing,
Speaker 1: and the fact that we're able to do it is
Speaker 1: something that gives me a real sense of satisfaction. This
Speaker 1: tends to be viewed as being more sustainable than the
Speaker 1: pleasant life because if you land something or you find
Speaker 1: something that gives you pleasure whenever you engage in it,
Speaker 1: whether it's a hobby or a job or whatever, then
Speaker 1: that tends to be something. Unless it's something that is
Speaker 1: reliant upon a depleted resource, it's something that you can
Speaker 1: repeatedly continue to doing. Right, um, you know, maybe being
Speaker 1: part of an improv group or gardening or other activities
Speaker 1: like that that that have a larger arc of work
Speaker 1: to pay off. Yeah, and that's one of those things
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, it's it's easy to say is attainable,
Speaker 1: but I realized that, I mean, I worked for seven
Speaker 1: years in a job that did not give me that
Speaker 1: kind of reward. So it's it's something that again tends
Speaker 1: to you know, you might go back to that lucky
Speaker 1: definition of happy, sure, but it's it's also highly individual
Speaker 1: and and a thing that you can work towards. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: so certainly don't take any discouragement from what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear that all of our listeners
Speaker 1: have found amazing either hobbies or jobs or both that
Speaker 1: really give them that kind of satisfaction. The third life
Speaker 1: is the meaningful life. And all of these names sound
Speaker 1: pretty pretentious. I will admit a meaningful life is all
Speaker 1: about participating in and contributing to something larger than yourself.
Speaker 1: So that might be your community, or it might be
Speaker 1: a cause that you really believe in. Maybe you get
Speaker 1: involved in, like a nonprofit organization that you really feel
Speaker 1: is doing good work, and you gain satisfaction and well
Speaker 1: being from that. Sure, maybe raising children or adopting those
Speaker 1: kittens that you like petting so well, yeah, although there
Speaker 1: are some studies that suggests that the whole raising of
Speaker 1: children thing contributes more to unhappiness than happiness, I'm serious.
Speaker 1: I think that the two singles well, that the two
Speaker 1: childless people sending in front of these microphones should maybe
Speaker 1: not comment to I'm just saying what the studies say.
Speaker 1: I don't make any I don't make any guesses on
Speaker 1: my own. Um. They do say that marriage married people
Speaker 1: tend to be happier than single people, but people without
Speaker 1: kids tend to be less unhappy than people with kids.
Speaker 1: And I think a large part of that is just
Speaker 1: that when you're a parent, you have a lot of
Speaker 1: responsibilities and things to that that weigh on you. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that children can't be a joy. Obviously they
Speaker 1: can be, but there are a lot of I take
Speaker 1: a lot of joy from other people's children. I do too,
Speaker 1: especially when they take their children away. I take a
Speaker 1: lot of joy at that point. No, no, no, you
Speaker 1: hang out, you have a great time, and then you
Speaker 1: give them back, right, yeah, You load them up on
Speaker 1: sugar and give them some loud toys, and then you
Speaker 1: hand them back to mom and dad. Uh uh yeah.
Speaker 1: I hope my sister is not listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1: She knows what my plans are. It's okay, so at
Speaker 1: any rate, Um, there these are three broad categories, and again,
Speaker 1: not all positive psychology researchers and scientists really fall into
Speaker 1: the saying that these are like the three big ones.
Speaker 1: In fact, some of them break it down into more
Speaker 1: some of them dismiss the idea entirely, but thought it
Speaker 1: was an interesting approach because it does kind of help
Speaker 1: define happiness uh and the the things that give us
Speaker 1: pleasure into different uh, different categories that we can easily
Speaker 1: talk about. So again, it's really hard to talk about
Speaker 1: happiness in an empirical, scientific way. What gives me a
Speaker 1: meaningful experience may not apply to anyone else. Maybe when
Speaker 1: I travel to a destination that seems completely mundane to
Speaker 1: everyone else, for some reason, it has an attachment to me.
Speaker 1: Maybe it reminds me of something from my childhood, or
Speaker 1: there's just something there that I really get attached to.
Speaker 1: But someone else could go to that same location and
Speaker 1: feel nothing. There's nothing wrong with either of those scenarios,
Speaker 1: but it does make it hard to talk about empirically.
Speaker 1: We can't say, like, if you go to this place
Speaker 1: on the map, you'll be happy. And that's another one
Speaker 1: of the issues, right, is that everyone wants to know
Speaker 1: the answer of what will make me happy, and that
Speaker 1: unfortunately the answer lies inside you. Yes, and don't. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that, you know, you have to go all
Speaker 1: Temple a doom and do the whole callieba thing. That's
Speaker 1: I know, it's not not necessarily recommended, although you know,
Speaker 1: if you feel like that's your true I'm not going
Speaker 1: to tell you. But no, philosophically, we're saying inside of you.
Speaker 1: But it's also interesting that a lot of the positive
Speaker 1: psychology findings seem to reinforce some folk wisdom like money
Speaker 1: can't buy happiness. This is where things get even more complicated.
Speaker 1: So money can't buy happiness? What's that about? So again
Speaker 1: getting into the idea of using money to buy things
Speaker 1: to make you happy, that sort of stuff. It's high. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you have to keep on doing it, and that's
Speaker 1: settled for most of us. The limited resource uh and
Speaker 1: is not a game you can play indefinitely. Uh. But
Speaker 1: it is interesting that money can in fact help stave
Speaker 1: off unhappiness, which not a huge surprise. Right. If you're
Speaker 1: if you're, if you're, if you can't provide for yourself
Speaker 1: and your loved ones, then of course that's going to
Speaker 1: make you less happy. Absolutely, you're going to be under
Speaker 1: an intense amount of anxiety and stress. Uh, it is
Speaker 1: very difficult, difficult to pursue a happy lifestyle when you
Speaker 1: cannot provide for yourself or your end or your loved ones.
Speaker 1: Um So. Daniel Kaneman wrote that in the United States,
Speaker 1: happiness levels off though incomes around seventy dollars per year,
Speaker 1: because at that income range, you can pretty much meet
Speaker 1: your basic needs that you would. With that you can
Speaker 1: buy happiness past. You can at least stave off unhappiness
Speaker 1: or stave off the things that would require you to
Speaker 1: be worried on a day to day basis about your existence.
Speaker 1: Right you you have enough money to provide food, uh,
Speaker 1: medical treatment if necessary, house, that kind of thing, or
Speaker 1: at least a shelter of some sort. But then found
Speaker 1: that if you go beyond the seventy five dollars, it
Speaker 1: doesn't contribute to more happiness. It's not that, you know,
Speaker 1: the scale continues to go up. So if you add
Speaker 1: another hundred thousand to that and you're making a hundred
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars a year, you're not suddenly a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars happier than the seventy in person. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure that there's other studies that would argue with
Speaker 1: that finding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it depends upon how you frame the question. And
Speaker 1: this is again going back to that fuzzy soft science approach.
Speaker 1: It It all really is dependent upon your methodology. And
Speaker 1: if you ask a question one way in one study
Speaker 1: in another way in another study, you could ask the
Speaker 1: same people and get questions different enough to jump to
Speaker 1: opposite conclusions. So you can say, we surveyed some of
Speaker 1: the wealthiest people in the world, and they are happier
Speaker 1: than anyone's. Well, we surveyed those same happiest are met
Speaker 1: wealthiest people in the world, and they say they're no
Speaker 1: happier one day to the next. And then you get
Speaker 1: into this oh yeah yeah. And and there there is,
Speaker 1: by the way, an entire branch of scientific study devoted
Speaker 1: to figuring out how to ask questions as empirically as
Speaker 1: possible in all of these wibbly wobbly kind of fields. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there's a study that Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolfers
Speaker 1: did that suggests that the wealthy are more satisfied with
Speaker 1: their lives than the rest of us. And when we
Speaker 1: say the wealthy, they were talking about people who are
Speaker 1: making like, you know, millions of dollars or at least
Speaker 1: several hundred thousand dollars. Uh. Then you have Coneman's approach
Speaker 1: where he said that it leveled off after seventy five dollars. Uh.
Speaker 1: They said the discrepancy may come down to the nature
Speaker 1: of those questions. Knomen was focusing on everyday events like
Speaker 1: how do you feel from one day to the next,
Speaker 1: Are you happier? Are you are you consistently happy? Do
Speaker 1: you have your ups and downs? Whereas Stevenson and Wolfers
Speaker 1: were looking at broader questions about life satisfaction. Do you
Speaker 1: have the ability to pursue the things you want to do? Uh?
Speaker 1: And that ability to pursue things that you want to
Speaker 1: do is both a blessing and a curse. So researcher
Speaker 1: Robert Kenney did a study on really wealthy people. He
Speaker 1: has cut off was twenty million dollars of assets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're talking about people who have got some cash
Speaker 1: to burn, and he found that they had greater temporal
Speaker 1: and spatial freedom, meaning that they had the time and
Speaker 1: ability to pretty much do whatever they wanted to where
Speaker 1: they wanted to. They had the money where they could
Speaker 1: if they wanted to travel the world for a full
Speaker 1: year without ever you know, eating at the same place
Speaker 1: or sleeping at the same place twice. They could totally
Speaker 1: do that. But with this freedom came so many options
Speaker 1: that a lot of people would become paralyzed by all
Speaker 1: the options. They wouldn't know what to do. They the
Speaker 1: world was open to them, and with all of that
Speaker 1: unending possibility came the intense pressure of well, if I
Speaker 1: do this one thing, then I'm not doing all these
Speaker 1: other things. So it's the same sort of argument you
Speaker 1: get when you have uh Like, let's say that you
Speaker 1: are given a choice between three options or a choice
Speaker 1: between ten options. It maybe that the people who are
Speaker 1: given the choice between three options are happier with their
Speaker 1: decision even though they had less variability, because they're only
Speaker 1: missing out on two other things and they can feel
Speaker 1: reasonably certain that the thing they picked is yes, the
Speaker 1: best friend. The more options you have, the more you
Speaker 1: start that doubt starts to creep in, like, well what
Speaker 1: if I had picked this other thing. I had a
Speaker 1: discussion with how Stuff Works editor Scott Benjamin this morning,
Speaker 1: where we use the specific example of menus, and that
Speaker 1: the more menu items you have, the more you start
Speaker 1: to doubt whatever it was you chose. Even if what
Speaker 1: you ate was delicious to you, you're still going to
Speaker 1: be doubting it. We ended up settling on the Cheesecake
Speaker 1: Factory as being the chief. I was about to say,
Speaker 1: I sometimes the Cheesecake Factory feels like a circle of
Speaker 1: hell to me because I just look at the menu
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I can't I can't even handle that.
Speaker 1: I brought it up, and Scott immediately said, that's what
Speaker 1: I was going to say too, because I we're I
Speaker 1: think we're all in agreement. And Scott said that he
Speaker 1: had read or he had talked to us server and
Speaker 1: was told that if you look at all the items
Speaker 1: on the menu, and I think that includes everything, there
Speaker 1: are two d choices I don't even understand, right, which
Speaker 1: means that anything you pick like even when you're thinking
Speaker 1: about drink, appetizer, meal, and dessert, there's still a huge
Speaker 1: number of things you weren't able to try. Well. Apparently
Speaker 1: the wealthy suffer this terrible hell that you speak of
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis because they have the
Speaker 1: freedom to do whatever they want, and that paralyzes them
Speaker 1: into not doing anything or to choose something and doubt
Speaker 1: their choice. So it's a different type of stress that
Speaker 1: they go under, very different from what those of us
Speaker 1: who cannot afford this kind of lifestyle. But but that
Speaker 1: stress is still real and it's still impacts happiness. Oh sure,
Speaker 1: of course. So it maybe that there is a quote
Speaker 1: unquote happy medium where we can have this freedom, an
Speaker 1: enough freedom to be able to do something interesting without
Speaker 1: having all the options in the world open to us, sure,
Speaker 1: and also without potentially burning yourself out on buying stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, because there's only so much stuff you can buy.
Speaker 1: First of all, even if you're wealthy, like eventually, unless
Speaker 1: you're gonna become a hoarder, you're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to continuously buy something whenever you're feeling unhappy. Anyone
Speaker 1: who has heard of the whole retail therapy thing knows this.
Speaker 1: You know, you get this, and it's it's something that's
Speaker 1: easy to indulge in. So it's something that a lot
Speaker 1: of people turn to. I am guilty of this. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: I've gone on like, let's just see what games are
Speaker 1: available on Amazon I have I have or Steam Gosh,
Speaker 1: Steam is so boy. I've bought games that I've yet
Speaker 1: to play on Steam on multiple occasions because I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: this will be fun, and then really, what the fun
Speaker 1: part was was the acquiring of the game. I haven't
Speaker 1: even played the game. So but yeah, wears off and
Speaker 1: you can't keep doing it indefinitely. Also, I suspect that
Speaker 1: some of the discrepancy between these studies might have something
Speaker 1: to do with that that concept of happiness being a
Speaker 1: different quality for everyone, of different things making different people happy,
Speaker 1: and it being basically impossible to compare one person's idea
Speaker 1: of happy to another person. How can you empirically measure
Speaker 1: how happy a trip makes you versus a really cool
Speaker 1: new Matt lip gloss makes me? I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: don't discount the lip gloss for me here, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Well, how how happy that lip gloss makes you?
Speaker 1: Incus me make at my desk? Me too? So say
Speaker 1: we all that we work with a video studio and
Speaker 1: four K cameras, terrifying that stuff on, Yeah, I work
Speaker 1: with that on a regular basis. But now you're exactly right,
Speaker 1: you know, without precisely defining what element of happy this
Speaker 1: you're looking at, that alone makes the question too complicated, right,
Speaker 1: Because it may be what is your overall satisfaction with
Speaker 1: your life. For a wealthy person, that might be very high.
Speaker 1: But there may be other elements that they associate with
Speaker 1: happiness that they do not possess, and so it again.
Speaker 1: It's another reason why a lot of people don't like
Speaker 1: the term happiness to describe this, because it's it's so
Speaker 1: broad and encompassing that you could do really well in
Speaker 1: one area and really be really deficient in another, and
Speaker 1: thus you come away with it saying I am not happy,
Speaker 1: but I am this other thing, like I might be
Speaker 1: very healthy. That should be part of it. So very
Speaker 1: complicated issue. Uh. Now, the hope is that positive psychology
Speaker 1: will help us identify more and more of these factors
Speaker 1: and come to an understanding. And it may even be
Speaker 1: this one to one understanding where each person comes to
Speaker 1: his or her own conclusions about what is important for
Speaker 1: them as a person to have a satisfying, fulfilling, uh
Speaker 1: and ultimately happy life. And I hope that that is
Speaker 1: the case. It is. I actually enrolled in a mook
Speaker 1: positive psychology, so I am I'm still following it. It
Speaker 1: had just started, so I didn't have a whole lot
Speaker 1: of opportunity to read up on it very much yet,
Speaker 1: but it is really interesting. The people who teach it
Speaker 1: are uh, they are very qualified psychologists. Um, so it's
Speaker 1: not coming across as like welcome to the commune, here's
Speaker 1: your here's your patch for vegetable sort of thing. But
Speaker 1: it is really interesting to see how that that plays out.
Speaker 1: And uh uh, I'm my hope is that in the
Speaker 1: future we're going to be able to provide for the
Speaker 1: basic necessities for as many people as possible and give
Speaker 1: us the opportunity to pursue the things that make us happy.
Speaker 1: So it's it's one of those things that I think
Speaker 1: is pretty far off, and it is an idealistic, optimistic
Speaker 1: view of the future. It's kind of that Star Trek
Speaker 1: version the Federation kind of concept. But also I think
Speaker 1: it'll get easier to mitigate people's unhappiness once we work
Speaker 1: out that that science angle of figuring out how the
Speaker 1: brain is interacting with the body and all of the
Speaker 1: chemicals and all the electricity, and see what we can
Speaker 1: do to at the very least in in in the
Speaker 1: cases of of diagnosable conditions, really help people out in
Speaker 1: the in the best gentlest, least side effective ways possible. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this idea of of when we have distilled the things
Speaker 1: that really cause distress in people who who should not
Speaker 1: be feeling right exactly, the people who are are are
Speaker 1: feeling more cute distressed than they otherwise might, right, and
Speaker 1: being able to alleviate that. But I absolutely do look
Speaker 1: forward to that future as well that I think anything
Speaker 1: where we're talking about helping people that always is the
Speaker 1: future that I think that is. That's the one I
Speaker 1: want to see and it is what keeps me being
Speaker 1: an optimist even though you know, again I say being
Speaker 1: an optimist doesn't mean that you put blinders on. Being
Speaker 1: an optimist to me means that you look out for
Speaker 1: the challenges, you acknowledge that they exist, and then you
Speaker 1: figure out how to meet them and get beyond them.
Speaker 1: So I encourage everyone out there to really critically think
Speaker 1: about the things that make you happy, the things that
Speaker 1: give you satisfaction, the things that provide for you joy,
Speaker 1: and to really you know, embrace that. Yeah. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know, if if you have any any really great
Speaker 1: ones are or any very particular ones that that you
Speaker 1: think are are pretty unique to you, then we want
Speaker 1: to hear about them and maybe maybe you say nothing
Speaker 1: in the world makes me happier than racing my pet
Speaker 1: box turtle I want to hear it. Yeah, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: Or or if you have any life hacks about that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, yeah, I mean maybe not relating to
Speaker 1: box turtles, right right, just happiness in general. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that clarification is appreciated. Although if you have any
Speaker 1: life hacks of box turtle racing out here, that too, definitely.
Speaker 1: So in order to get in touch with us, since
Speaker 1: you're coming up with all these great ideas for you,
Speaker 1: should let us know what you think on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: Google Plus. We have the handle FW thinking over at
Speaker 1: Twitter and Google Plus. Just search FW thinking over at Facebook.
Speaker 1: Our page will pop right up. Join the conversation, tell
Speaker 1: us what makes you happy, and we will be happy
Speaker 1: to read every single email. I think you have any
Speaker 1: suggestions for future episodes that would also make us happy.
Speaker 1: This means we don't have to come up with them.
Speaker 1: Let us know your thoughts and we will talk to
Speaker 1: you again really sooner. For more on this topic in
Speaker 1: the future of technology, visit forward thinking dot com, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Toyota. Let's go places