Happiness Formula Wiki

A helpful reader of The Dilbert Blog set up a wiki for The Happiness Formula I recently talked about.

http://happinessformula.pbwiki.com/

The password to edit it is "happy." Have at it. If you’re not familiar with the wiki concept, it allows anyone to edit the information. So if you know a lot about, for example, a good diet, you could contribute what you know to that branch of the tree. Please stick to information that has some basis in science.

One Dilbert Blog reader noted that current research shows that happiness causes success more than success causes happiness. That makes sense to me. There’s plenty of research about people having a baseline of happiness that doesn’t vary much with circumstances. And given that happy people are typically optimistic, energetic, and fun to work with, I can see how happiness would lead to success.

My experience has been that circumstances in my life will move me about 10% in either direction from my baseline of happiness. That can be the difference between happy and unhappy. On any given day, the swing might be much greater, but I always revert to the baseline – give or take 10% – once the unusual good or bad luck passes.

I think it’s fair to say that the Happiness Formula describes a way to get you to your own best happiness potential. I know people who are giggle-happy all day long, and I’m sure that’s beyond my genetic happiness potential.

Many of you pointed out that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is similar to the Happiness Formula. There’s a big overlap, but happiness is different from needs, and the Happiness Formula is more of a practical map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

One of the great things about my job is that I never know when I might wake up and be part of something that changes the world. I doubt the Happiness Formula wiki will change the world, but you have to admit that it has the potential to change some individuals.

That’s why today is a good day.

Comments

[Judith is feeling pain and suffering...]

Please allow me to add something:

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation,[1] which he subsequently extended to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.

Maslow studied exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."[2] Maslow also studied the healthiest one percent of the college student population. This subjectivity troubled even Maslow himself. In his book, "The Farther Reaches of Human Nature", Maslow writes, "By ordinary standards of laboratory research...this simply was not research at all. My generalizations grew out of my selection of certain kinds of people. Obviously, other judges are needed."

While Maslow's theory was regarded as an improvement over previous theories of personality and motivation, it had its detractors. For example, in their extensive review of research that is dependent on Maslow's theory, Wahba and Bridgewell [3] found little evidence for the ranking of needs that Maslow described, or even for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all. Chilean economist and philosopher Manfred Max Neef has also argued that fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical, and are ontologically universal and invariant in nature - part of the condition of being human; poverty, he argues, is the result of any one of these needs being frustrated, denied or unfulfilled.

[Roger]

You should check out the AIR Equation: The 3-Part Formula for Happiness. Great take on this formula debate. Says happiness comes from Acceptance + Inspiration + Respect, hence the AIR acronym.

http://www.airequation.org

[attract wealth]

I found your post really interesting and it has really improved my knowledge on the matter. Thank you!

[Sir]

The page on meaning is entirely wrong. It is when you accomplish something that life starts to go downhill. Accomplishment is like a drug; it can only make your life worse in the long term, which providing you with a quick boost. The key to meaning is to find something you can do and enjoy for as long as it takes to find the next meaningful task. It is the idea that you must add value to society to be happy (which is true for most comfortably surviving people), and it depends on ADDING value, not HAVING ADDED value.

[Withheld in Fear of Punishment]

Happiness causes success. That's why my employer spends so much time making people unhappy. If the peons were happy, they would be successful, then they would ask for more money and clean carpet.

[Gretchen Rubin]

This is a fascinating formula. I want to digest it, to see how it fits with my working formua for happiness, which tackles the question from a different angle. What do you think of my attempt?

"To think about being happy, you need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth."

I.e., work to have more fun, joy, love, etc. -- work to have less anger, guilt, remorse, etc. -- work to live the life you feel is "right" for you -- and work to create an atmosphere of growth, progress, and learning.

Clunky, I know, but gets in all the important ideas.

Be happy! Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project blog

[Torry]

Life's good! Always remember that!

[John R. Ingrisano]

Happiness causes success, not the other way around. That's a quality point to ponder off and on for a day or so. I also think it is true. I've been more or less successful without being happy. But I've always been successful when I've been happy.

JRIngrisano
The Freestyle Entrepreneur

[Christa Bedwin]

One of my friends, to whom I forwarded the suggestion to read your splendid blog, has said this:

If success depends on happiness, how am I to succeed? I need to do some serious consideration of my future, and meanwhile I need to be planning for next year as well. what gives. Tell Scott Adams he should write a blog telling me exactly what to do, because I'm feeling incapable and terrified of making a decision.

So I'm telling you, Scott Adams, can you please tell my friend exactly what to do? Maybe me, too.

I learned at a high price that, in fact, contrary to what I believed before, other people CAN take away your happiness, unless you're the most detached and zen-like zombie in the world, and so -- how does one succeed out of the hole of despair, eh?

Could you write us a formula for the ladder for that?

Thanks,

Loyally,

[MarcusB]

I was just wondering... if you add all the personal happinesses (regardless of how they are quantified) in any given country into one huge ball of extreme happiness, will you then get a GNH as described here:

Gross national happiness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness

[Bill]

I like your Wiki idea. Let's hope the "money" section is developed to the point where we all learn to successfully evade taxes. That would be the beginning of true happiness.

[joe]

ugh. Scott, please write more about your happiness formula yourself, rather than let the monkeys destroy it...

[Paul O]

Already the wiki page is showing the weakness of the medium: a few "bullies" (for want of a better word) have decided what the output will be, but still lay claim to this being an "open, collaborative" work.

Which it most emphatically is not.

[Roger]

A fine example of your theory is the one explained by one of the founders of Greenpeace. He quit his own organization when the wacko socialists flooded in when the Berlin wall fell. He claims that these angry assholes couldn't work up a good hate boner anymore by bashing capitalism so they needed a new windmill to spear. They somehow blended their bullshit and ruined the original Greenpeace concept. These are people who need to maintain a certain level of unhappiness by clumping together with equally vicious people and squashing anyone who does that glass half-full shit.
I live in an affluent area where I constantly see tiny little kept women driving rolling aircraft carriers while talking on a cell phone and yelling at urchins. Money and success alone doesn't do it maybe its that ignorance is bliss thing.

[Billy B]

You monkeys are very interesting. I would be happier if about half of you died and stopped screwing up and over populating this world.
Billy B

[jeqp]

I love the way you try and find meaning for your ultimately meaningless lifel

[Two Unicycles]

In response to:

Let me lend yet another voice, though, Scott, to the "please make comments posting-order rather than reverse-chron" chorus?

Try scrolling to the bottom of the comments and read from bottom to top. A little less convenient but 100% effective.

So life is about "the pursuit of happiness" - oh dear. Put the kettle on, let's have a nice cup of tea.

[Saj]

Scott,

You rock :) . I saw pursuit of happyness. It was wonderful. You may like it too.

- Saj

[Shailesh]

Formula for Happiness. Nice Concept :)

- Shailesh
http://theignorant.blogspot.com

[Peter Payne]

To Steve, if you read Scott's books you see that > 50% of his material is ideas he's had or used before, which he's developing, as anyone would. He's revisited affirmations (which always seem to work in reverse for me, hence I treat them as anti-affirmations) several times in the Dilbert Future (his best book IMHO), God's Debris and here.

It's true what Obi Wan Kenobi said, that your point of view determine's your reality. My neice went through a very negative time as a teen-ager, and did the opposite of whatever we asked her to do. She met a guy off the Internet, gave up all her dreams and married him, and now lives on Oregon. She's now a very negative person, and *literally* has a constant stream of bad news for me every day, like "Grandma Linda was told by the doctor that she's dying" or "Aunt Whatever has skin cancer." Every day it's something new, which can't possibly be based on actual reality. I'm sure that if she could change her attitude, her approach to life, she could have much more happiness.

[CosmicTrance]

A quote of Sri Sri
"Happiness is a quality of consciousness. It does depend on matter, but to a far greater degree, it depends on attitude and understanding… Living the spiritual values makes your personality solid and strong"

[Adam]

I've never met an unhappy optimist. Your formula creates an environment conducive to happiness, like good soil for a tree, but one of the biggest oak trees I've ever seen was rooted in the middle of a huge rock. While all of these elements can contribute to happiness, none of them are essential in any way. Except maybe Meaning.

[carrie]

today is a good day because you managed to work a pun into the today's strip. Thank you :)

[Joshua Scheid]

This is entirely unrelated to your happiness formula, but I think I just solved global warming with one of two options:

(1)To appease environmentalists, let's stop producing toilet paper. Gross, you might say, but we can use bidets instead. Besides, bidets are cooler and supposedly cleaner. Once everyone is using bidets, we will be using so much extra water that the ocean levels will drop. That way when the ice caps melt and the sea levels rise, our net effect will be zero. If we get really smart scientists on the issue we could coordinate the two rates of bidet water usage and ice cap melting to be equal so that we will never notice a difference in the ocean level.

(2)When the ice caps melt, why can't we just store the excess water and ship it to the moon or mars. Either one gives us a good incentive to build a space colony.

[Billy B]

I was happy with the world, more or less, until I started paying attention to it. Before that fucking George Bush started fucking with the world.
Billy B

[Brian]

Oh, Jeff... the contents of your face resemble an oft-censored word...
Sarcasm aside, lmao.

[Jennifer]

Hi Scott,

Your Happiness Formula reminded me of another blog I ran across recently, Marketing for Good - http://marketingforgood.net/. I liked it for the basic simplicity of improving the world (and, selfishly, it also covered a campaign my TV show was running).

I thought I'd pass it along.
Thanks for the entertainment!
Jen

[Janine]

I can't remember what "self-help" book I was reading, but one time I found an "Unhappiness" formula that made sense to me.

Unhappiness = Image - Reality. Or unhappiness is what is left over when you compare the Image of the life you thought you'd have to the Reality of the one you do.

As that old Image is usually based on something useful like what you were told as a child (or in my case some wedding vows), it's probably not a bad idea to take it out and give it a look once in a while to see whether it could use some updating based on who you actually turned out to be.

[tord]

I read with interest the wiki entry regarding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It strikes me that it's a very anglo-centric way of viewing the world with a sort of inbuilt selfishness, i.e. that self awareness and actualisation are the key.

During trips to the middle east and asia I've found that other societies focus much more on a sort of a "how you fit in" approach. To the Arabic mind for example, family is all, development of a "transendant self" just doesn't rate. I found a real illustration of the differneces in thinking when working on an archealogical dig in northern Syria.

Us Australians were working on the site of an anchient Greek citadel because we wanted to learn more about ourselves, I.e. increase our level of self awareness and knowledge. The arab diggers I had working for me thought this was a crazy notion. In essence they said they didn't need to know any more, all of their knowledge of who they were and where they came from was contained in the oral family histories every member knew off by heart. They thought we were crazy for losing our family history in the dirt as it were. For them, the family fulfilled all the needs cited by Maslow. They appeared happy, but not I guiess what we would describe as successful.

Personally I would suggest that if you're happy you're actually already viewing yourself as successful, and that therefore your personal level of success is a moot point. If you have to run around telling everyone you're successful, you're not really happy are you?

[Free William]

I disagree Scott,

Today is in fact a great day...

I fear that the wiki project will ultimatly drain the simplicity out of the Happiness formula and it will all come crashing down, but for now :)))

[Tim Shepard]

I always confuse Abraham Maslow with Melinda Masglow.

[Steve]

I have heard that having lots of money and great sex is not true happiness, but it is so close you won't know the difference.

[Charlette]

Have you ever thought of collating all your blog entries and publishing them in a book? I read your blog everyday - I read it while I'm waiting for all my emails to come in and I really enjoy it. I haven't posted a comment before, but I personally would buy a book with all the blog entries in. Although I guess they'd have to be changed slightly as some of them have links.

[Adonai Elohim]

I would like to complain about the wiki participant who removed my inclusion of incontinence from the formula.

The level of urine leakage DOES have a major impact on the day to day perceived level of happiness.

[MSL]

I thought happiness is a warm gun.

[rd]

ooh, looks like a very serious project
don't see any humorous part
except 'reading dilbert blog everyday'

i called off the sad song
wouldn't fit into the joy and happiness categories even under the neutral like meditation tag

[Squiggy]

Wow. So far, this Wiki has turned into one of the worst pieces of crap ever. Every moron in the world is hacking and slashing the 'formula' with their own ill-advised turds of wisdom. Some genius has even inserted calculus on the front page. Supposedly, it's not enough to be happy anymore; now, you must ever-increasingly strive to be happier. (Sounds more like a way to guarantee UNhappiness.)

It's a good thing the whole endeavor will be forgotten tomorrow... save for a few Nimrods slogging it out.

[daydreamer]

I dunno, Scott. I think there's a serious incoherency between your equation and your philosophy. How the hell can a sentient being find meaning in life if it is aware that it is merely a moist robot? While ignorance prevailed, fine. A moist robot that doesn't KNOW it's a moist robot is, for the purposes of its personal life-view, NOT a moist robot. You see the catch? So you've blown it, Scott. If you wanted to preach 'meaning', then you shouldn't have gone and spilled the beans on the 'moist robot' thing.

[Floyd C]

Scott...

A very cool idea. The elements are simple and elegant, which is the way they should be.

I am disappointed, however, that the Wiki has already attracted someone has seen fit to get pissy about the definition of Happiness -- of all things -- and who deleted a bunch of comments...

At the risk of making something that should be a simple, gathering point for ideas into a chore for the kind soul who volunteered to create it, it might be better to restrict the ability of people to delete comments or to post anonymously...

Too bad that maturity and manners are so easily forgotten, even in something as benign as this...

[Chris @ Martial Development]

A wiki is the worst tool for educating the uneducated.

48 hours from now, the secret to happiness will be "an elephant", and this secret will bear your implicit stamp of approval!

P.S. Hope you will give your opinion on "The Secret" and LoA. I've given mine here:
http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/boxing-and-the-law-of-attraction/

[Sky]

What's the point of having a "happiness formula" if there's no free will do to anything about it?

You need to make up your mind if your a predeterminationist or not.

[Bruce Mackey]

From Monty Python's Meaning of Life:

'Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.'

[MorpheousMarty]

Admit it, how hard was it not to write in-duh-vidual at the end of that blog?

[Jordy]

"There’s plenty of research about people having a baseline of happiness that doesn’t vary much with circumstances"

I'm forming the opinion that this has a lot to do with brain chemistry. Last week my naturopath recommended a test that measures the level of different neurotransmitters in the brain throughout the day. These can supposedly have a profound effect on one's general feeling of well being (and/or anxiety etc.). Based on the results they may recommend various supplements that support proper neurotransmitter development and healthy brain function. I'll have my results next week. We'll see if it works.

[JShope]

I am involved with a volunteer program to talk to high school students about their decisions and how they impact their future. The 2 hour program is called 'Choices' and was started by a father who developed it for his own children.

You could easily organize your formula into a similar program for schools or assistance organizations. When people have an understanding of their options, they are less likely to make desperate or stupid decisions.

[Shelly]

I feel like it doesn't help a lot to break down the "exercise" component so drastically. In my experience, it's more important that one _gets_ exercise than worries about target heart rates and types of exercise, and in fact all of that can bog you down and keep you from exercising at all ("if it's pointless if I don't hit my target heart rate, why do it at all?"). There needs to be something about how to get exercise, here, and I think it's more important to optimize exercise for joy and whether it's doable or not than for maximum bodily efficiency.

[Squiggy]

Scott's idea for a book reminds me of Bertrand Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness". I read it, it's short and can be fairly illuminating, depending on your existing disposition. Also, you won't find it in the Self-Help section, which is a good sign.

[WCE]

Since there's a connection between health and happiness, I guess I can contribute this much: It seems from a lot of research being performed is indicating that most people who don't get Vitamin D from sunshine aren't getting enough, and this Vitamin D deficiency is contributing to people getting cancer. Medical research published in Lancet recommended that the current RDA of 400IU/day for Vitamin D should be increased, possibly as high as 2400IU. You've probably read the reports that Vitamin D supplements increase lung cancer survival from 29% to 72%, but similar research for other cancers has shown a similar benefit.

Vitamin D, aside from helping the body manipulate calcium, is used by cells as a "meta-hormone" signalling to other cells when they should stop dividing, that they're starting to crowd neighboring cells. Without sufficient Vitamin D, this signal doesn't get through, and tumors develop, which at some point can turn malignant.

Since most people have heard the dangers of sunlight and aging/skin cancer, many have started using sunblock on a daily basis, which reduces the body's natural production of Vitamin D. It's my concern that people who don't get enough Vitamin D from their diets may be inadvertently causing themselves to become deficient in Vitamin D, leading to increased likelihood of getting cancer.

Bottom line: If you don't get sun, take Vitamin D supplements.

[Rich T.]

I've been following the "happiness formula" discussion with interest. I'll contribute a longer post, knowing that people don't like to read long posts.

Some have mentioned Maslow. First off, his needs hierarchy is flawed. There are only two levels: physiological and safety needs are lower-order, then belongingness and love, self-esteem and recognition, and self-actualization are higher order needs, but not hierarchical.

Lawler went beyond Maslow with this categorization:

1) A number of existence needs – primarily sex, hunger, thirst, and oxygen.
2) A security need.
3) A social need.
4) A need for esteem and reputation.
5) An autonomy or freedom need.
6) A need for competence and self-actualization.

Lawler summarizes:

1) Needs can be thought of as groups of outcomes that people seek.

2) Man’s needs are arranged in a two-level hierarchy. At the lowest level are existence and security needs; at the other level are social, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization needs.

3) The higher-level needs will appear only when the lower-level ones are satisfied.

4) All needs except self-actualization are satiable, and as needs become satisfied they decrease in importance.

5) A person can be motivated by more than one need at a given point in time and will continue to be motivated by a need until either it is satisfied or satisfaction of the lower-order needs is threatened.

I do think "needs" and "happiness" are related, i.e. happiness as the fulfillment of needs. I do like the simplicity of Scott's formula: health + money + social life + meaning. This adequately captures enough of the above concepts.

Scott is a late-wave member of the Boomer generation - a generation especially preoccupied with meaning, and with creating "big picture" formulas of all kinds. Boomers used to look inward, and have since started looking outward as they have aged.

I am slightly younger than Scott (I am age 46), and have done my share of "self-actualization" and "happiness" categorizing. At the risk of being ignored, I will post my categories here. I arrived at these long ago, before I had ever heard of Maslow et al. Here they are:

I include one general prerequisite, which encompasses Scott's "health" and "money" and then some:

- maintenance: a broad category including health and fitness (physical health, nutrition, exercise, rest and relaxation, freedom from pain), safety (avoiding harm), financial security, and daily administration and maintenance tasks.

This is not too different from the security and hygiene category of Maslow, Lawler, and Herzberg. Maintenance consumes a large part of waking time when work is viewed only as a means of financial support; hence the importance that work offer more than mere security.

Beyond maintenance are a number of activities and needs, many of which are interrelated, and not all of which are attainable in the work setting. Some, maybe all, of these can be placed into Scott's "social life" and "meaning" categories, but give greater nuance.

- experiencing: actively partaking in a variety of activities and situations, with different people in different places

- observing: passively taking in the physical world, human behavior, and societal interactions, without judgment or reflection

- exploring: actively seeking knowledge and adventure by studying, reading, traveling, and otherwise doing, in an insatiable quest for gaining knowledge and satisfying curiosity

- contemplating: reflecting on the active experiences and passive observations; processing and synthesizing those inputs, and projecting the results of their interconnections, thereby forming one’s philosophy and world view (Weltanschauung)

- creating: generating creative output in some form, such as music, writing, art, handicrafts, or through business or occupational pursuits

- achieving: either reaching defined goals (whatever the original source), or otherwise completing discretely perceived accomplishments; achieving differs from creating in that the latter focuses on the creative act itself, without a required link to any goal or accomplishment; frequently, however, achieving is related to creating

- validation: the need to be recognized, respected, and acknowledged by others, so that the above categories do not occur in isolation, and to instill a sense of self-worth

- recreation: the pursuit of playful indoor and outdoor activities purely for enjoyment and entertainment; recreation is not entirely separable from some other categories, including maintenance, yet merits its own distinct classification; recreation is a healthy component of life balance

- activity: the simple need to do something, even when the above needs are not being met

- social: the human need for a wide range of interpersonal relationships and a sense of community, including love, sex, family, friendship, and societal interaction; it also includes helping, serving, teaching, strengthening, and developing others

- spiritual and surreal: the need to link oneself to intangible forces, including the eternal; this classification includes religious belief, any awareness of unexplained phenomena, and the dream world; when combined with contemplating, it represents the never-ending quest to understand oneself and the universe, and to generate a sense of meaning and purpose.

Taken together, these categories comprise the “input, process, output” functions of the mind. Some include stimulation, challenge, and personal growth; others meet social and spiritual needs; at the most banal level, the need is addressed to at least be doing something. People can and do reinforce each category for one another, as they exercise the full range of emotions and instincts. They share thoughts and jointly participate in life’s activities. I believe that persisting "happiness" is that state in which none of these things is lacking.

I further advocate two overarching forces in the pursuit of the above areas:

- faith (hope): the multi-faceted, driving force that supplies purpose to life

I'm not sure you can have ultimate meaning without some degree of faith in something unprovable.

- humor: the force that carries us through our daily life, and allows us to overcome the solemnity of our mortal existence; humor makes life flow smoothly, as oil to a machine.

No humor, no happiness. I don't know where Scott would place this - part of "social life", perhaps, though you can rely on humor all by yourself, too.

Finally, one important note: all these classifications seem to be obsessed with what makes the individual happy. Although "social life" is mentioned, and understood to encompass others, I think it needs to be stressed more that real happiness is found as a family, not as an individual. Who of those among us with children can imagine individual happiness without first considering the happiness of our children? Call this "social life" if you want, as long as you understand the point.

[neolifeforever]

I'LL JUST SAY THIS - THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST THING YOU HAVE EVER PUT OUT INTO THE WORLD.

YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE NEARS COMPLETION.

THAT IS IF YOU DONT DIE FIRST.

ALL THE BEST WITH THAT, I SHALL MONITOR YOUR PROGRESS CLOSELY AND WITH INTEREST.

[Jonathan Marcantel]

"That's why today is a good day"

Very nice way to close. It brings to mind pictures of Klingons, prepared for battle. "Today is a good day to die." I think that is a part of happiness. Living each and every day to its fullest, knowing that tomorrow may never come. I personally believe living a full life leads to happiness. Yes, there is the stress of the job, but hey, put it all behind you at the end of the day. If it gets too stressful, take an IDGAFAI pill and relax. Read the Dilbert Comics that you've saved in your inbox or rss feed. read the Dilbert Blog and laugh...it'll do ya a world of good to relax for a couple of minutes.

Well, my relaxation time is up. Gotta tie up some loose ends here in the office.

~Jonathan

P.S. Scott- Since you've now done "the human ashtray" How about a Klingon-ish character in the strip...maybe as the PHB's new boss...

[Mike]

I especially like how the wiki authors worked in the Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe and Everything

[TheFool]

What I like about the 'formula' is that it uses (some) of the principles of Ockhams Razor. Get rid of everything that is uneeded, or complicates things unecessarily. I realize that the razor is more aligned with theory and explanation of phenomena. But there it is.

Maybe Thomas Aquinas said it better:
"If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments where one suffices". (wikpedia reference when looking up the razor).

If nothing else, at least we get to the bare bones of the matter before it gets muddied up with 'stuff'.

I hope the project is a success.

[Gavin]

"Please stick to information that has some basis in science."

Like that's going to happen..! I've not looked yet, but I'm expecting it to slowly fill with stuff about religious books and bizarre and unproven dietary claims...

Good luck, though, it sounds like an interesting idea.

[bob]

In college, we had a similar concept taught to freshman to help them adjust to life on their own. The idea communicated was that health, intellegence, social, and spiritual made up the four spokes of the wheel. If you keep the four in balance, you will have general success at school. If you let one take over the other, then your wheel is out of balance, and you will find yourself struggling. Shortly after leaving school, they added a fifth spoke: cultural. I'm not sure about that one as culture should just be part of social.

[T.G.]

I understand that you say that aside from things we can't deal with, as accidents or disease, the first important thing is money, the kind of money that gives you time and more than reasonable material things, well i mostly agree, but, it doesn't matter much what do you achieve if you fail on get descendency, thats the basic meaning of life and we cant avoid it as we are what we are despite how we lie to ourselves. So, i would include to raise successfull offsprings of your own as a requirement for long term happiness and success.

[lump]

Wow! Totally cool. I am a diabetic and have basically been "winging it". The only instrumentation I use is my sugar meter and "the way I feel" based on my activity level.

I never had it "spelled out" to me in the way it is presented in the Diet section... that my dietary intake/coloric requirement could be so freekin mathematical!

Thanks Scott! and big kudos to the guy who did the wiki. You both have "made a difference".

Time to crack open Excell and start crunching some numbers!

[One of many]

[I might wake up and be part of something that changes the world]

And we never know when we wake up in the morning if something we say on the blog will influence a semi-famous cartoonist to do something that might change the world. ;)

[CLB]

[I know people who are giggle-happy all day long, and I’m sure that’s beyond my genetic happiness potential.]

That’s why Oscar the grouch was always my favorite character on Sesame Street. He seemed the most “real”. ;)

The wiki is a cool idea that should be fun to check back on from time to time. And I laughed my ash off at today's Dilbert.

[Jimmy]

Laughing at the bad advice in the Wiki has pushed me to 20% over baseline happiness. Maybe I'll stab an overly smiley person today. Just to even things out.

[Steve]

Scott, I would contribute to your Wiki entry but I don't know where my 2-cents would factor into your equation...

Where does self-esteem or self-worth fit into the equation? I believe that happiness is directly related to how a person feels about himself/herself and that it is an important factor that should be added. Also, I think "meaning" is also affected by self-esteem/worth.

[Rachel Life]

I love the happiness formula. But I do have a question. Once you 'fix yourself' do you think (or has this been true for you) that it is a static status? Or do you need to monitor yourself and make adjustments? The latter seems more biologically relevant (and mechanically relevant, come to think of it). Do you think this needs to be added to the formula? Personally I am constantly changing and seeking new things. I could be described as a high stimulus seeker, so I probably have more adjustments to make than a low stimulus seeker, but it still seems relevant.

[DrDork]

I don't know how to edit the Wiki thingamajig.

Good idea tho.

As a physician, versed in evidence based medicine, had some ideas but unable to edit some rubbish already on there - d'oh!

[jakesdad]

"but happiness is different from needs"

surely a philosophical mechanist such as your self realizes that the difference is that "happiness" is just your brain releasing chemicals in response to needs being met.

simply stated:

"good brain! have some endorphins!"

the good/bad/scary/all of above part is that modern drugs* let you skip the needs meeting part and go straight to happy...

*the legal kind: SSRIs, buprion, etc.

[Joshua]

One day its terrorists giving oral sex, the next is a happy feely post. My equilibrium is off now, thanks.

Either way, its actually beautiful in New Jersey in March, just got a raise, buying a house, that's why today is a good day. Time to look outward now.

[jeff]

two points:

i've read that some people can't just "be happy", it's just not that simple.

your money instructions seem a bit lofty to remain practical for a large slice of the population. i don't think i'm suffering at all, and i can't meet some of your percentage goals.

[Mason]

Your comic today was awesome. I can't remember the last time I woke up and got such a good laugh - and this from a regular comics-section reader. Good job :)

[j_c]

I think that flexibility should be added to exercise - too many people can't touch their toes, but flexibility can help enormously when it comes to overall health. Less tension = less strain = lower frequency of injury. Just a thought :)

[Matthew Kovich]

RE: Maslow:

I don't think that THF (The Happiness Formula) is very similar to Maslow, but I do think that Maslow is a good work to cite.

Maslow putting Self-Actualization as the final stage to achieve after all other stages can be used to validate THF's putting "Meaning" as something that can't be achieved until you've achieve the first parts of the formula.

very interesting

[JD]

OT, but I love your strip today.

"I can't tell the difference between my ash and a hole in the ground."

Got that one by the censors, didn't you?

[Randy Hare]

From the Wiki:

Relative Happiness = ( Health + Money + SocialLife + Meaning ) / Love

Now, is it just me being old fashioned? I'm not sure I agree that if I have love my happiness level drops as the formula above would indicate?

[Tora]

hmmm... that sort of research is why I recommended a book precisely on the science of happiness in my late comment to the now old post you made. You might find it interesting if you think about happiness a lot, it's not really a self-help book. It's more of a scholarly scientific look at the study of happiness from an evolutionary psychology viewpoint, written for the layman. A great read.

Just to push it more, it's Happiness: The Science behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle, amazon.com listing:
http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Science-behind-Your-Smile/dp/0192805592/ref=pd_bbs_10/002-8019241-5892836?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175005850&sr=8-10

[burnout]

"Happy causes success more than success causes happiness."

Amazingly simple words and yet so profound. Where were you 30 years ago when I needed you?

[Rod Costa]

I couldn't find "tappig a dead dear" anywhere in your happiness formula. It won't work.

[Diana W]

Someone has already completely rewritten the formula rather than just elaborating on components, so it's no longer Scott's formula. Thanks moron.

[rd]

i'd enter this into 'meditation' part of 'techniques' part of 'joy' part of 'meaning' part
if to create those tags

http://music.mymongol.com/lists/artist.asp?page=artist&offset=0&mmarg=performerID&mmvalue=myagmarsuren&sort=IDsong&play=7&IDsong=610

later

[Real Live Girl]

It would be nice if this was discussed in school as well so kids could get the heads up earlier instead of wading through some unnecessary angst and bullshit.

Get ready for a call from Oprah. I think between the two of you, you've changed quite a few individuals. Good work!

[Adam]

Wow. People are already editing it beyond recognition. This will be an interesting social experiment.

[Baylink]

Well, it will be interesting to see how *this* works out.

In a good way. :-)

I would have suggested Wikia and MediaWiki, myself, but you take what you can get...

Let me lend yet another voice, though, Scott, to the "please make comments posting-order rather than reverse-chron" chorus?

[Capt. Pike]

Beep.

[Puneet]

Boy, is today's strip naughty!

[ory]

I'm happy usually because I don't care about anything enough to be worried.

[Gabriel]

Bingo, Neep!

[jerry w]

"That’s why today is a good day."

For me, every day above ground is a good day, but then maybe my standards are a little lower.

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[niCk(mem beth)]

Why is it that some people, like me, are not satisified if we're happy, and we must destroy the source of our happiness. Happens every time.

I try to become happier, and only make my life worse, because I was not satisfied with my success, always thinking there has to be something more. But there never is, and everything I do when I'm already happy ends up making me depressed.

I hate laughter. I want to punch giggle-happy people. I'm bi-polar and facing south today.

[OldUgly]

Scott - so your whole life has been one big setup to deliver the punch line "I can't tell the difference between my ash and a hole in the ground"... hmmm. Free will is a myth.

[billf]

I feel better already...

Let's hope we can put all those "Self-Help" book writers out of business.

[Neep]

"That’s why today is a good day."

Someone's added a little more meaning to his personal happiness formula now hasn't he?