happiness archives
“Studies show that commuters are on average much less satisfied with their lives than noncommuters. A commuter who travels one hour, one way, would have to make 40% more than his current salary to be as fully satisfied with his life as a noncommuter, say economists…Quoted from a Business Week article in The Commuting Paradox on SvN this morning. Matt adds, “Who wouldn’t want a team that’s filled with folks who are less stressed and more satisfied with their lives?”
People usually overestimate the value of the things they’ll obtain by commuting – more money, more material goods, more prestige – and underestimate the benefit of what they are losing: social connections, hobbies, and health.”
How to be happy at business, a Venn diagram by Bud Caddell. From his writeup:
We can’t determine how to make enough money from the things we want to do, and do really well. I’m constantly surprised at what can be monetized. And on the web, there’s a market for almost anything. But this problem requires you to rapidly iterate your positioning and the type of clients you serve. Often, we’ll get transfixed on a single direction early on (because we’re desperate to solidify our business) and we’ll miss our chance to radically experiment with the market.
A short and sweet synopsis of what we should all be striving for, not just if you have your own business.
“The men of 1960 were no longer lost in admiration of such [technological] marvels; they exploited them quite calmly, without being any happier, for, from their hurried gait, their peremptory manner, their “American” dash, it was apparent that the demon of wealth impelled them onward without mercy or relief.”Jules Verne in a relatively newly discovered then-futuristic novel, Paris in the Twentieth Century