Jan 15 2007
Recent Economist article on measuring ‘Happiness’
The December edition of the Economist has a neat article on how economists have traditionally measured ‘happiness’ and how that measurement has evolved over the years. Invoking references from Thomas Carlyle to Mihali Csikszentmihalyi, the article argues that all is indeed well and good in the free market world, and that having a good experience, a discerning audience that is ready to pay for that experience, and a clear mechanism to both get paid and be able to spend that money works better than any other alternative system. It also states interestingly how people’s common perceptions of what causes happiness (or pain) is remarkably subjective and skewed.
If you havent’ yet read it, Mihali’s book ‘Flow - the Psychology of Optimal Experience‘ is a delightful and statistically grounded account of what causes ‘flow’ or ‘peak experience’ in people. Turns out that activities such as driving, spending time in your garden, and enjoying hobbies give a much greater sense of flow or of being in the moment as compared to watching TV or eating out!
