Hi Kaylee,

All is well! Once again – good to see you’re alive! Your posts are usually so good, I hope you’ll start writing regularly again.

Ecstasy for all! The more ecstasy the better! But don’t gobble those cookies at once… If I had a container right next to me, I wouldn’t be able to resist.

Some happiness advice can be counter-intuitive. It seems this fellow isn’t.

Get a worse car next time, but more earrings and blooming tea. Happy happy joy joy 🙂

As always, I really enjoyed this post… Especially the graph of “# of cookies” versus “total pleasure” – something about cookies + ecstacyecstacyecstacy just tickled me. Perhaps because there’s a container of small cookies sitting behind me, and I know how much I’d enjoy eating them…

lol. ANYway… What an interesting idea! But it totally makes sense to regularly indulge in small pleasures intead of buying one big thing. Like when I bought my car – that made me happy for a little bit, but now it’s just as messy as my old car, and my sound system doesn’t amaze me nearly as much. But my once-in-a-while coffee indulgences? Blooming tea in the morning? A new pair of earrings? Happy happy joy joy. =) And because they’re cheaper, I can indulge more. Makes sense.

I’m looking forward to catching up on your posts, my friend. Hope all is well!!

Siesta Key, FL. The way you describe it, it certainly sounds like it was heavenly 🙂

Your description got me all excited for my upcoming trip to India. Thank you!

I love the quote too! I wish I could claim if for myself 🙂

I didn’t realize that most people increase their debt load as they make more money. That’s a shocker for me. I would think it’s the opposite. I guess I need to start hanging out with some older folks.

Yes, let’s stop being average together!

I completely agree with the concept that double the money, doesn’t necessarily mean double the happiness. Sometimes I wonder if it doesn’t decrease your happiness by 50%. Most people will increase their debt loan when they make more. So even if you make twice as much, you are in twice as much debt, which is absolutely no further ahead. And in my mind is twice the stress. although I would like to change that mindset!

Totally love the Quote “If money doesn’t make you happy, then you probably aren’t spending it right.”

I am looking forward to reading the entire series!

Thanks Bobbi! I’m looking forward to your book! Would I be correct if I guessed that it’s about resilience and bouncing back 😉 ?

Regarding your suggestion – sorta.

There are 2 levels of adaption going on. The first is to having a computer (vs. no computer), and the second is to having an awesome computer (vs. a bad computer).

I could counter the first level of adaption by not using my computer every other day; however, this would work for any type of computer. In other words, the only way to appreciate the awesomeness of my computer, is to use a bad computer every other day as well.

Hm…. that’s an idea so absurd that perhaps I should try it. Thanks for the idea!

But based on this post, you’d enjoy it. Nice work, Amit.

P.S. – For future reference, I am a two cookie guy for sure.

Regarding your computer example, would it bring you more ecstasy if you used it every other day? Like when they interrupted people listening to the songs? Just curious.

Cool research and I love all of your graphics!

Hi Super! Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment!

You are absolutely right – splitting up consumption increases anticipation as well as reminiscing, both of which increase enjoyment. Are you perhaps a scientist or armchair thinker?

I will be talking about this topic more in one of the future posts in this series. However, I don’t believe anticipation and satisfaction have a direct correlation. I believe adaption also plays an important role.

The why behind adaption is that it increases the salience of novel stimuli and increases power seeking behavior.

Power seeking behavior – without adaption, we would be quickly satisfied with our life circumstances. In that case, we might stop seeking out salary raises, bigger homes, etc… From a modern perspective, that may be good, but from an evolutionary perspective, it is best if we seek out as much ‘stuff’ as possible (we get tired of our current circumstances, desire more, and so on).

Novel stimuli – our baseline level of comfort is several dozens of times higher than a thousand years ago, but we are only some much smaller amount happier. Much of what makes us happy is relative – to others, but also to our pasts (e.g. being rich vs. everyone else, and being rich vs. a few months ago). Because of this, we are much more attuned to small opportunities (e.g. a small opportunity to increase our salary), as well as small threats.

This explanation is, of course, too brief. As a “why” person myself, you can expect a full reckoning of the science at some point in the future!