Happily Find Where You’re Going

This TED talk is all about modifying maps so that you can find the most joyous route to your destination!

Mapping apps help us find the fastest route to where we’re going. But what if we’d rather wander? Researcher Daniele Quercia demos “happy maps” that take into account not only the route you want to take, but how you want to feel along the way.

Smart People Trust Others

Oxford University researchers have concluded that the more intelligent a person is the more likely they are to trust other people. This is assumed to be the case because smarter people have a better at determining what sort of people they want to be around and self-select to be around people who can indeed be trusted. The study also points out the benefits of trust for society at large (including not intelligent people).

The Oxford researchers found, however, that the links between trust and health, and between trust and happiness, are not explained by intelligence. For example, individuals who trust others might have only reported better health and greater happiness because they were more intelligent. But this turns out not to be the case. The finding confirms that trust is a valuable resource for an individual, and is not simply a proxy for intelligence.

Read more.

Get Cultured for a Happier Life

People who play an instrument, go to museums, or are otherwise involved in culture are happier than those who don’t according to a new study. This is great news for people who want to feel happier or generally improve your life because all you have to do is essentially go and be entertained!

Researchers led by Koenraad Cuypers of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology analysed information culled from 50,797 adults living in Norway’s Nord-Trondelag County.

The participants were asked detailed questions about their leisure habits and how they perceived their own state of health, satisfaction with life and levels of depression and anxiety.

The results were unambiguous and somewhat unexpected: not only was the correlation strong between cultural activities and happiness, but men felt better when they were spectators while women clearly preferred doing rather than watching.

Even more surprising was that wealth and education were not an issue.

Read the full article at MNN.

Dan Gilbert Reminds Us What Makes Us Happy

Dan Gilbert has a great TED talk about what makes us happy and provides a great overview of how we examine stats. Basically we are horrible at understanding statistics and we ought to be aware of this to help us understand what makes us happy. He also brings up that more often than not our fears are misplaced.

Be Happy by Working and Spending Less

We first looked at curbing consumerism for better living theme back in 2007 and now the idea is spreading. Now, thanks to the ongoing recession, people are learning that all the stuff they bought didn’t really make them happy so they are getting rid of all their stuff.

When you start buying less you have more disposable income to spend on experiences, and that, my friends, is the key to happiness. What are you going to talk about and remember fondly in ten years, the concert you went to or the new shoes you bought?

Here’s a story about a person who downsized their junk and upsized their fun!

Tammy Strobel wasn’t happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, Calif., and making about $40,000 a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the “work-spend treadmill.”

Today, three years after Ms. Strobel and Mr. Smith began downsizing, they live in Portland, Ore., in a spare, 400-square-foot studio with a nice-sized kitchen. Mr. Smith is completing a doctorate in physiology; Ms. Strobel happily works from home as a Web designer and freelance writer. She owns four plates, three pairs of shoes and two pots. With Mr. Smith in his final weeks of school, Ms. Strobel’s income of about $24,000 a year covers their bills. They are still car-free but have bikes. One other thing they no longer have: $30,000 of debt.

Keep reading at the New York Times.

Here’s some info on how to stop shopping.

Scroll To Top