Is The Pursuit Of Happiness Self-Defeating?
A couple of friends asked me for my thoughts on this Vox article “America is obsessed with happiness — and it’s making us miserable” so I thought I’d blog about it.
It’s tricky to discern exactly what the author is arguing for (she makes several points), but I take the main point […]
4 Reasons Almost All Happiness Advice Sucks (But Not This Article, Obviously)
[You haven’t found the droids you were looking for]
Reading time: 3-5 minutes, 1200 words, 5 pics, only one of a topless Arnold Schwarzenegger
Realistically, I’d be surprised if there are a dozen people in the world who spend more time reading and thinking about happiness than I do. Unsurprisingly, I come across […]
The Surprising Unimportance Of Saving Lives
Reading time: 11-15 minutes
When we think about doing good, saving lives is at the top of the list. Doctors, firefighters and Batmen are regarded as heroes because they save lives. We give soldiers medals for rescuing wounded comrades. As far as I know, we don’t award medals for ‘really […]
How Socrates Can Make You Happier Than Kanye West – notes from Wilderness talk
I’ve written this post so people who attended my talk at Wilderness festival on 05/08/16 can find more info including the resources I promised.
If you want to check out the slides again, I’ve put them at the bottom of the page. Before that, there are some useful links.
If you want […]
Why Aristotle’s eudaimonia isn’t ‘A better kind of happiness’. A critical reply to the New Yorker
Writing in the New Yorker, Will Storr argues Aristotle offers us “A better kind of happiness“.
To summarise his argument, Will claims Aristotle’s ‘eudaimonic’ version of happiness, the sort you get from doing things you find meaningful or fulfilling, is better than the ‘hedonic’ version, the sort we associate with pleasure. The killer evidence […]
Four free ways to become happier you probably haven’t tried and might actually work
In this post I suggest the best resources I’ve come across so far. I think these are the most promising practical methods to become happier and everyone should try them.
As a really brief explanation of my views, I think there are three general approaches to increasing your happiness:
1. Changing your external circumstances (i.e. […]
Brexit Or Bremain? A Happiness Analysis
Reading time: 4-5 minutes
As far as I can tell, no one has tried to work out if being in or out will make us happier. This isn’t terribly surprising: if you think you know the answers to the questions surround sovereignty, the economy and immigration, you […]
If you had a billion pounds and an urge to maximise world happiness, what should you do?
What should a billionaire do to maximise human happiness?
Reading time: 11-14 minutes
[Note to reader. This is a draft 5,000-word essay that will eventually form a chapter in my thesis. I’ve cut corners on some important issues to save space and I’ve had to signpost that I would […]
