Here’s an intriguing new psychology paper about appreciating hedonism:
Relaxing on the sofa or savoring a delicious meal: Enjoying short-term pleasurable activities that don’t lead to long-term goals contributes at least as much to a happy life as self-control.
(Link found over at long-running economics/philosophy blog Marginal Revolution.)
In a nutshell:
Self-control to achieve long-term goals creates happiness, as do non-long-term pleasurable activities.
HOWEVER, lots of people feel guilt, for instance not being able to truly enjoy lying on the sofa because they feel they should be going out for a run instead.
If you’re able to indulge in the pleasure WITHOUT intrusive guilt, the short-term hedonism contributes as much to your happiness as the self-control.
Learning this, there’s a wonderful positive feedback effect in that it makes guilt-free self-indulgent short-term hedonism more allowable, as now I know it contributes to long-term happiness. (I hope that knowing about this research opens some doors for you, too.)
And also it gets me thinking about my own hedonistic activities…
There’s opera and there’s incredible food at incredible restaurants and there’s hiking in the desert. When I’m at the ENO and the first few bars of a Philip Glass starts up, I’m already in tears. But these moments don’t happen very often.
So there are also the day-to-day micro-hedonisms. Picking up a great coffee, passing a second-hand bookshop and popping in to buy something, going out for a long run, etc.
a.k.a. self care. My mental model tells me that:
There’s an optimum time budget for self care. Like, maybe you need 15 minutes of self care daily and beyond that there’s diminishing returns – plus the mental energy required to suppress intrusive guilt is depleted.
Each day, we stick with our go-to self-care practices. It’s tricky to discover new practices, and given the time budget, there’s a cost associated with shifting away from our regular set. So we reach a local maximum and stay there.
But then… lockdown. I’ve not had access to great coffee or second-hand bookshops. Lockdown itself and then scheduling has meant I haven’t been running. I had to find other routines.
Two of my newly discovered/resumed micro-hedonisms:
Baking.
Writing here.
Can I see myself going back to my old indulgences?
Some yes, others not. As it happens, I did pick up a fancy coffee the other day and it was… okay I guess? Perhaps I’d already hit my micro-hedonism daily threshold of diminishing returns.
Two thoughts as a consequence of the above.
First: scale this up. How much of the economy was dependent on particular micro-hedonisms of the population, and now they’ve changed and won’t go back? “Retail therapy.” Like, maybe retail will be permanently down 5% (and that time budget distributed over other activities) simply because self care habits were forced to change and now won’t go back. Who knows. I’m curious.
Second, it has been an absolute joy to read the blogs of my friends over the last few months and see them pick up new hobbies.
And, reflecting on that unexpected benefit of the last few months, I wonder how to - in the future - deliberately include some kind of regular micro-hedonism-discovery spike so that I can escape any local maximum and continue to find new and delightful self care practices.
Perhaps, once every two years, on 23 March, the anniversary of lockdown starting in the UK, I’ll start my own 60 day lockdown re-enactment, a carnival where I fast from all my old daily micro-hedonisms and instead audit whole new vices - activities I’m terrible at or currently don’t enjoy - sewing, tap-dancing, writing poetry, watching TV, drinking rum - and at the end of the festival, keep the best.
‘Yes, we’ll see them together some Saturday afternoon then,’ she said. ‘I won’t have any hand in your not going to Cathedral on Sunday morning. I suppose we must be getting back. What time was it when you looked at your watch just now?’ "In China and some other countries it is not considered necessary to give the girls any education; but in Japan it is not so. The girls are educated here, though not so much as the boys; and of late years they have established schools where they receive what we call the higher branches of instruction. Every year new schools for girls are opened; and a great many of the Japanese who formerly would not be seen in public with their wives have adopted the Western idea, and bring their wives into society. The marriage laws have been arranged so as to allow the different classes to marry among[Pg 258] each other, and the government is doing all it can to improve the condition of the women. They were better off before than the women of any other Eastern country; and if things go on as they are now going, they will be still better in a few years. The world moves. "Frank and Fred." She whispered something to herself in horrified dismay; but then she looked at me with her eyes very blue and said "You'll see him about it, won't you? You must help unravel this tangle, Richard; and if you do I'll--I'll dance at your wedding; yours and--somebody's we know!" Her eyes began forewith. Lawrence laughed silently. He seemed to be intensely amused about something. He took a flat brown paper parcel from his pocket. making a notable addition to American literature. I did truly. "Surely," said the minister, "surely." There might have been men who would have remembered that Mrs. Lawton was a tough woman, even for a mining town, and who would in the names of their own wives have refused to let her cross the threshold of their homes. But he saw that she was ill, and he did not so much as hesitate. "I feel awful sorry for you sir," said the Lieutenant, much moved. "And if I had it in my power you should go. But I have got my orders, and I must obey them. I musn't allow anybody not actually be longing to the army to pass on across the river on the train." "Throw a piece o' that fat pine on the fire. Shorty," said the Deacon, "and let's see what I've got." "Further admonitions," continued the Lieutenant, "had the same result, and I was about to call a guard to put him under arrest, when I happened to notice a pair of field-glasses that the prisoner had picked up, and was evidently intending to appropriate to his own use, and not account for them. This was confirmed by his approaching me in a menacing manner, insolently demanding their return, and threatening me in a loud voice if I did not give them up, which I properly refused to do, and ordered a Sergeant who had come up to seize and buck-and-gag him. The Sergeant, against whom I shall appear later, did not obey my orders, but seemed to abet his companion's gross insubordination. The scene finally culminated, in the presence of a number of enlisted men, in the prisoner's wrenching the field-glasses away from me by main force, and would have struck me had not the Sergeant prevented this. It was such an act as in any other army in the world would have subjected the offender to instant execution. It was only possible in—" "Don't soft-soap me," the old woman snapped. "I'm too old for it and I'm too tough for it. I want to look at some facts, and I want you to look at them, too." She paused, and nobody said a word. "I want to start with a simple statement. We're in trouble." RE: Fruyling's World "MACDONALD'S GATE" "Read me some of it." "Well, I want something better than that." HoME大香蕉第一时间
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Here’s an intriguing new psychology paper about appreciating hedonism:
(Link found over at long-running economics/philosophy blog Marginal Revolution.)
In a nutshell:
Learning this, there’s a wonderful positive feedback effect in that it makes guilt-free self-indulgent short-term hedonism more allowable, as now I know it contributes to long-term happiness. (I hope that knowing about this research opens some doors for you, too.)
And also it gets me thinking about my own hedonistic activities…
There’s opera and there’s incredible food at incredible restaurants and there’s hiking in the desert. When I’m at the ENO and the first few bars of a Philip Glass starts up, I’m already in tears. But these moments don’t happen very often.
So there are also the day-to-day micro-hedonisms. Picking up a great coffee, passing a second-hand bookshop and popping in to buy something, going out for a long run, etc.
a.k.a. self care. My mental model tells me that:
But then… lockdown. I’ve not had access to great coffee or second-hand bookshops. Lockdown itself and then scheduling has meant I haven’t been running. I had to find other routines.
Two of my newly discovered/resumed micro-hedonisms:
Can I see myself going back to my old indulgences?
Some yes, others not. As it happens, I did pick up a fancy coffee the other day and it was… okay I guess? Perhaps I’d already hit my micro-hedonism daily threshold of diminishing returns.
Two thoughts as a consequence of the above.
First: scale this up. How much of the economy was dependent on particular micro-hedonisms of the population, and now they’ve changed and won’t go back? “Retail therapy.” Like, maybe retail will be permanently down 5% (and that time budget distributed over other activities) simply because self care habits were forced to change and now won’t go back. Who knows. I’m curious.
Second, it has been an absolute joy to read the blogs of my friends over the last few months and see them pick up new hobbies.
And, reflecting on that unexpected benefit of the last few months, I wonder how to - in the future - deliberately include some kind of regular micro-hedonism-discovery spike so that I can escape any local maximum and continue to find new and delightful self care practices.
Perhaps, once every two years, on 23 March, the anniversary of lockdown starting in the UK, I’ll start my own 60 day lockdown re-enactment, a carnival where I fast from all my old daily micro-hedonisms and instead audit whole new vices - activities I’m terrible at or currently don’t enjoy - sewing, tap-dancing, writing poetry, watching TV, drinking rum - and at the end of the festival, keep the best.