Happiness Lessons

From The Free Press by Arthur Brooks, a happiness researcher who turned his magnifying glass back on himself.  Happiness Lessons From a Miserable Wretch.  He was a statistics wonk as a professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs - you may know him from his work at the American Enterprise Institute or his several books.  I commented on Who Really Cares in 2006. 

Anger, stress, sadness, and worry have reached historic highs. Americans are increasingly “not too happy” about their lives. Young people are plagued with ever-rising rates of mental illness. We have become a whole nation of miserable, ungrateful wretches.

Why? The causes are complex. Among them: the decline of faith, marriage, childbearing, friendship, and meaningful careers; the mobile phones and apps that turned life into a simulation; the polarization fomented by political parties and exacerbated by the media; and the policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which left a generation of Americans suffering from loneliness and isolation that may, for many, prove permanent.

Spoiler alert for his weekly column. Meaning figures prominently. 

It includes reference to a few assessment and self-assessment tools, but in his teaching and journalistic like he is more focused on discussing the concepts. I find that I often rate myself higher in happiness when looked at globally, scoring something like an 8 out of 10 overall, but then rating individual aspects lower, at 6 or 7 with an occasional 9. It is likely related that in dark moods I rate myself a 5 or 6 overall, but the individual aspects remain somewhat stable with 6s or 7s punctuated by an occasional 4.