Comments on: Urban Tourists (i.e., you and me) Lured By Call of the Countryside

By: Patrick McGuire

Patrick McGuire — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 22:16:55 +0000

I read Stumbling on Happiness, the book mentioned in the WSJ article. It was an interesting book. His claim is that we make decisions now based on what we think we’ll want in the future. But whatever choice we make, we’ll always wonder what life would have been like if we had gone the other way. It’s just a consequence of free-will. We have the blessing of making choices, but the curse of wondering whether it was the right one.

By: Stacey Westenberger

Stacey Westenberger — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:40:58 +0000

I would agree with Katie that it is more of an issue of we want what we don’t have. For many of us, including myself, it is the challenge of achieving something that interests me more than the actual attainment of the goal at the end. Once you have something you do take it for granted and it takes a lot of self-awareness to continue to be grateful for these things and recognize how they contribute to one’s happiness.
I would not fully agree with either theory listed above. I think humans are built with the ability to be happy (ruling out theory 1), and I don’t think it is an issue of forecasting but rather identifying what makes us happy (modifying theory 2). In identifying what makes us happy, we must also prioritize these issues in order to determine what choices to make in our lives. As Kerry brought up, the Chinese visiting the countryside for short trips return to urban comforts, which reflects there are parts of the countryside which elicit happiness, but the advances within the cities also provide items which add to happiness and therefore these issues must rule as more important to these countryside tourists.
I am not ruling out that some decisions are made as necessary sacrifices, but merely arguing for the point that happiness is not an unobtainable goal.

By: Kerry Huang

Kerry Huang — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 04:54:27 +0000

I think we forecast what will make us happy but then once it is attained, it is “part of life” and then we look to newer, bigger, better things to trade up to. With so much social pressures to “have everything” I see younger Americans with much more expensive “it” items. I remember that it was a big deal to have a Coach or Dooney purse in middle school but these days I see middle schoolers with Louis Vuittons. Americans just “can’t get no satisfaction.”

The urban Chinese visiting the countryside take weekend or day trips and return to urban comforts. I have been to the countryside tourist villages, which are picturesque, but the villages lack decent heating and plumbing. It is understandable why they migrate to the city–I would too!

By: Chris Carr

Chris Carr — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:34:29 +0000

My wife is from a culture that often has little (monetarily) yet they are some of the happiest, most joyous people I have ever met, and, they love to party like rock stars to boot — Filipinos.

I have learned much from them.

I come from the stoic German Lutheran tradition, where we are brainwashed into believing that salvation on any level “must/only” comes through hard work and effort, and sometimes even pain and defeat … so while that can make you a lot of money, overall, it may not be the healthiest approach to life.

Both have their pros and cons.

By: Felipe

Felipe — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:20:47 +0000

I am certainly a person that has trouble finding more than 5 minutes of contentment in life - I am constantly thinking about how I can trade-up or make my position better. I think a lot of it is cultural - I often hear of studies that assert that the population of rich countries, such as America, is far unhappier than those of certain poor countries, such as India. By definition, it seems that the ‘American Dream’ is about constant improvement and doing better (financially) than those around you and those who came before you.

I once had a wise professor who used to sum up a major cultural difference as those countries that look at a problem and say “things could be better” and those who look at a problem and think “things could be worse.” One of these attitudes is certainly more conducive to production and efficiency but, is it more conducive to happiness?

By: Katie Hofman

Katie Hofman — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:23:35 +0000

I loved this blog post because it is something I struggle with constantly. In general, I am very happy with my life and how things are, but I easily fall victim to the “other side of the fence” mentality.

I tend to lean more towards the latter theory that we are bad at forecasting. I’m not sure that it is a total lack of forecasting skills that is the problem, or if it is the ease at which humans become complacent. Anywhere you look you’ll see that shift in mindset as things become comfortable. Think of how easily we all become lackadaisical at work, school or in relationships the moment it become “old-hat.”

Yes, it is a bit of the forecasting issue, but I also think it is about wanting what we can’t/don’t have. That is why I think we see so many people moving to the city only to return to the country to vacation. It’s not just a “China” thing, it happens everywhere. No matter where we are, the other place looks better.

The element of forecasting comes up because we should be able to remember what things were actually like, or one would hope that we would at least be intelligent enough to take off the rose colored glasses for a moment. That proves to not be the case, though. Still, I shy away from the theory that we are not built to be happy. I think that, in general, we are happy or at least have the capability to be so. The problem is that we are not trained to recognize happiness. Once the shine wears off of anything, we tend to start looking for the new shiny object.