11/26 (Tue) Longest Study On Happiness (Host:Wen-han)

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wenhan1122
Vice President
文章: 175
註冊時間: 週三 8月 20, 2008 3:29 pm

11/26 (Tue) Longest Study On Happiness (Host:Wen-han)

文章 wenhan1122 »

Dear All,

First of all, I understand it sounds cliche to discuss Happiness, which you may have your own deep thoughts maneuvering it toward your life. However, just as fame and money, for most of us, which we chase after for whatever reasons and regardless we take them lightly or seriously, they all shape some spheres of our lives and, in the process, forge who we are, so as for the paths we choose to pursue happiness. There are impressions that fame and money eventually bring happiness. Harvard has conducted a study lasting more than 75 years for "what makes a good life" and the results suggest otherwise

In a way, it proves that coming more often to YoYo leads you a better life, by a solid scientific stand.

For the second section, I like to discuss the happiness money can buy. Yes, you hear it right. I know this sounds odd and may not be philosophically correct, but let's first read the article and pick up a trick or two.

SESSION I

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | Robert Waldinger

"What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone – but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of 75-year-old study on adult development, Waldinger has unprecedented access to data on true happiness and satisfaction. In this talk, he shares three important lessons learned from the study as well as some practical, old-as-the-hills wisdom on how to build a fulfilling, long life."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkKuTCFvzI
(The video is only within 13 minutes)

SESSION II

You actually can buy happiness—by buying time
https://www.popsci.com/time-saving-spen ... ney-happy/

I hate cleaning the bathroom. I also always feel pressed for time. So whenever I delay cleaning duty, it just means I end up feeling more stressed than ever before.

But there may be a solution. According to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, I can buy some happiness and peace of mind...if I'm willing to pay someone else to scrub down the toilet and tub.

"People are feeling busier today than in past decades," says study lead author Ashley Whillans. It's a worldwide trade-off that has come with increased income and wealth.

But while past research has looked into how people should spend their time or their money, there has been “very little recognition that the way we spend our money can shape the way we spend our time,” she says. “This is one of the first studies to show that buying ourselves out of negative experiences in our day-to-day lives can also have positive effects above and beyond the money spent.”

The researchers arrived at this realization after surveying over 6,000 Americans, Canadians, Danes, and Dutch people about how they allocate their discretionary income. Now, you might think that only the rich would gladly part with money for the extravagance of wash-and-fold laundry service, but the research participants actually ranged from working class folks all the way to millionaires. And the psychologists actually found that among Americans, less wealthy individuals more often reported increased life satisfaction after delegating out some work. Of course, this isn't to suggest people should spend money they don't have. These findings only relate to the "miscellaneous" odds and ends people already have room for in their budgets.

The psychologists ran additional experiments on a group of 60 Canadians. They gave each participant $40 one week with which to purchase a material item, and $40 another week with the directive to buy some sort of time-saving service. The scientists found that regardless of how useful or socially desirable the material purchase was, volunteers felt less stressed and more happy with the time-saving purchase.

But apparently we aren't great at making monetary choices that make us feel good. When the researchers asked 98 other volunteers how they would spend an unexpected windfall of $40, only two percent spontaneously said they would use it on time-saving purchases.

Even among millionaires (818 Dutch ones, to be precise), only a little more than half of study subjects reported spending any money on outsourcing disliked tasks. I guess that means the rest of the millionaires spend their lives vacuuming floors and grocery shopping like the rest of us. Or at least they like to think they do.

“It even took me a while as a researcher to see enough data over time to change my own behavior,” says Whillans. “There is an intuition that people want to hold onto money because money is concrete and time is abstract.”

This reluctance to outsource undesirable tasks is understandable. There are a lot of psychological barriers to actually acting on these findings.

For one, there’s guilt. Whillans suggests that people might feel bad about paying someone else to do things that they don’t like.

I, for one, can certainly identify with that. Just thinking of having someone come over to scrape the grease off my stovetop makes me squirm. My mother would be horrified.

Another barrier is that humans are not the best at planning ahead. “We think time has more value now than it does in three months,” explains Whillans. “And if you think about time-saving purchases, we need to think forward in time to know that we’re going to be super stressed out and busy on Saturday to hire a house cleaner in advance.”

Of course, many people may look at this research and think, Oh goodness, millennials!

And Whillans agrees. “It’s never been as easy as it is now to go online, research through a social network of ratings and reviews, and find someone that you trust to come in and clean your house.”

On the whole, she notes that our economy is moving towards shift work and contract work. So if more people are taking advantage of such services, she ventures, not only could it increase consumers’ happiness, it could also provide additional revenue for people who are un- or underemployed.

And of course, while this formal economy is new, the informal economy is rather old. People have been paying the kid down the street to mow lawns since forever, notes Whillans. But now that these on-demand services are becoming more common, we must take care that the new economy isn't leaving those who do our dirty work in the dust.

“I know a lot of major companies are doing a lot to try to promote well-being, health, and financial stability for individuals who are providing these services,” says Whillan. “So I think it will be an interesting area of future research; how do these services impact personal well-being, but also how do they impact societal well-being?”

QUESTIONS:

SESSION I

1. As mentioned in the speech, for the majority of us, the life goal of people could be becoming rich or famous. When you were younger, did you set the similar life goal? Or what was it if it was a different one? What is your life goal for now?

2. Were you ever (or are you still) the person leaning in to work, pushing harder and trying to achieve more for your goal? Were you (are you) happier by reaching them?

3. Looking back from now, do you find your life interesting? Why? Or why not?

4. Social connections are good for your life, according to that Harvard research, in addition to motivating, inspiring and healthy yoyo meetings, do you frequently maintain other social connections?

5. Loneliness is toxic and it gradually undermines your physical and mental health , as mentioned in the speech. Do you agree with this statement? Why?

6. Relationships are messy and complicated and the quality ones are so hard to get and so easy to neglect. Are you a person good at keeping good relationships with others (spouse, family, friends, communities..)? Between the relationships and achievements, which one would you rather spending more time and efforts to tend to?

SESSION II

1. Did you ever hire any helps to clean the house for you? If you did, do you consider this service increases the satisfaction of your life? If you didn’t, would you consider to outsource the house cleaning jobs to helps when necessary? (say, prior to lunar new year)

2. As mentioned in the article, people like to hold on concrete money instead of saving abstract time. Did you ever purchase any time-saving services (or labor services) for the satisfaction in your daily life (for an example, Uber eats)? How do you like it/them? So you keep using the services very often? Is it a tendency that younger generations are more leaning to time-saving services than saving money?

3. Similar to material v.s. time-saving experiment, if your company is offering you two options for a performance reward worth 1 million NTD 1). Rent a very luxury car exclusively for you and your family for 3 years. 2). You and your family are allowed to spend 1 million NTD for travels within 3 years. Which option would you pick? If you are picking option 2, would travel fund reduced to 0.5 million make you switch to option 1? Why?

4. The statement “the way we spend our money can shape the way we spend our time”, do you agree? Why? Or why not?


********************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:25pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements ********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期:列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間:當天請準時於 6:45 pm 到達 ~ 約 9:30 pm 左右結束
星期二聚會地點:丹堤濟南店
地址、電話:台北市濟南路三段25號 地圖 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站:板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法:出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後,沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘,到了濟南路口,左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
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The real peace is not merely the absence of warfare, but the presence of justice
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wenhan1122
Vice President
文章: 175
註冊時間: 週三 8月 20, 2008 3:29 pm

Re: 11/26 (Tue) Longest Study On Happiness (Host:Wen-han)

文章 wenhan1122 »

Thanks for joining the meeting last night, I hope you all had some fun discussions

Attendees: Shirely, Amy, James, Wenhan, Miller, Alice (new comer), Jerry, Morris, Steve, Ken, Iris, David Jr., Chris, Kat and Christine H.
The real peace is not merely the absence of warfare, but the presence of justice
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