Danny ChaiGregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback column this week is a great read. Runs a whole gamut of topics, from the MIT Cheerleaders to analyses that show that over the past 10 years, hedge funds as a whole have performed worse than the S&P 500, to statistically, why teams should punt less on 4th down.
One interesting digression he has involves the organs involved in superhero powers. They have to come from somewhere, right? Where? What organ makes Superman fly? What organ makes Shadowcat walk through walls? He also argues that the X-Men are an argument for intelligent design. Absurd discussion, but entertaining.
He also has a great passage about happiness:
“The Progress Paradox” [Easterbrook’s book] first argues that nearly every aspects of Western life is improving, then speculates about why “life gets better but people feel worse.” A recent study by researchers including Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, and Alan Kruger, one of the leading names in behavior economics, adds new detail on that question. The study found that the well-off are no happier than others; that as income rises, so does tension and anger; that “people exaggerate the contribution of income to happiness.”
Kahneman, Krueger and their collaborators also offer a vital insight — that happiness comes from choosing time over money, but most Americans choose money over time. “Leisure is better for happiness than increased income,” they argue, supposing that time spent in travel, having new experiences, relaxing, hiking, reading, or simply looking up at the stars is more important to our sense of well-being than a new car or impressive house. Unless you are in a bad financial situation, Kahneman and Krueger recommend you spend less time working, accept somewhat lower income, and use your freed hours to experience life. Barbara Bush memorably said that no one on his or her deathbed has ever regretted not staying later at the office, while many regret failing to spend more time with family and friends.
I’ll add another suggestion on why time is more important to happiness than money: Because time is far more precious. Money that has been used up can be replaced; you can always get at least some additional money, and in principle can get huge amounts of additional money. Your time on Earth, on the other hand, is limited and irreplaceable. You might add somewhat to your time on Earth by taking care of your health — and that’s an excellent idea, but there are no guarantees you won’t be hit by a bus anyway. We all must surrender some of our time for work to acquire income. But those who obsessively chase maximum material possessions give up something precious and fleeting, namely time, in order to acquire something that cannot make them happy, namely money.
I think this is something we all kind of know, but the older we get, and as people around us ascend the success ladder, we tend to forget it and get caught in the trap of long working hours. It’s a great reminder for me, and I need to commit to never working long hours. I’d amend what he’s saying a bit, just to clarify that I don’t think spending your time in leisure makes you any happier than working a lot. We should work less not to goof around more but so that we can serve God and other people more. I think that’s where maximum happiness is to be found.