But wait... there's less!

I've learnt some surprising and shocking things in this Yale University course on The Science of Wellbeing . The professor gave the class the warning "Everything you thought was important for being happy is not" . Miswanting We want the wrong things. Typically people think happiness comes from a good job, money, cool stuff, good grades, good looks etc. A range of studies show the effect of these things on our well-being to be either negligible, non-existent or even negative. It reminds me of that quote "People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall" . 4 ways our thoughts trick us Our intuitions are often wrong - much like the way our eyes are tricked by optical illusions. Even if we know the trick, our eyes still get tricked by the illusion. We judge things in relative terms rather than absolute. Bizarrely, many people would prefer a lower pay...

We're wealthier than ever - so why don't we feel like it? Australia has gone almost three decades without recession. The stock market recently hit a record high. Our wages are record highs. Home loan rates are at record lows. We live in one of the richest countries in the world at the richest point in history. So what's wrong? Comparison Wealth is relative. So what do we compare to? Where we expect to be? "When your wages growth is only 2 or 3 per cent, you don't feel as well-off as when it's going up 10 per cent. That's that nominal distortion that people often suffer from" , says economist Shane Oliver, and that "expectations have grown a lot faster than reality." We're earning more than last year, but we want even more. So compared to our imaginary situation, we see ourselves as worse off. What we see around us? Shane Oliver again. "If you think about it - Australians today are a lot wealthier. They're living far ric...

Yes! A movie about minimalism. Well, yes and no... I was immediately interested by a movie called Downsizing . It's not exactly about reducing material possessions. At least not in the normal way. Synopsis In an attempt to solve the problems of population and global warming, a Norwegian scientist invents the process of downsizing - where humans are shrunk to a height of 13 cm. Paul Safranek (played by Matt Damon) and his wife have financial problems and look to downsize as a way to solve their financial problems. Obviously, life is cheaper when you can live in a doll's house and a biscuit could feed you for a month. What interests me? The movie received mixed reviews, based on performance, but the premise (described as "profound") is what interests me most. There is an obvious comparison to my type of downsizing - consuming less and having fewer possessions, both for the planet's sake and for my own. Take the pressure down At the school reunion Paul meets...

We live in one of the richest countries but even the 'rich' feel poor. That's what Richard Denniss calls affluenza. Here are some of my highlights from his book. "Just as a fish can't taste the water it swims in" , it is hard for us to notice how weird our culture has become. "We have built a culture where buying things is increasingly unrelated to using things." Each year we "throw away mountains of perfectly edible food, perfectly wearable clothes and fitness equipment that has never been used." Advertising is a big infector He points out that advertising's aim is to make us feel insecure. While there are truth-in-advertising laws, they don't stop the big lie that "a new car, a new soft drink or a new credit card will make you relaxed, popular or sexy." We cure it by changing culture Culture decides the desirable options. This is why we pay through the nose ($14 billion in the USA in 2015) for bottled water (whic...