This writer sets out to reduce his footprint to near-zero, gets a book deal with FSG. Movie deal in the works. Supports Four Seasons-loving wife in NYC. (Where have I gone wrong?) But he does make sense quoting a "happiness writer" at UC Riverside named Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky:
"Perhaps the most common error is that we assume that positive events ... will provide much more happiness than they really do. Take materialism, the pursuit of money and possessions, as an example. Why is it so hard for us (even myself!) to believe that money really doesn't make us happy? Because the truth is that money does make us happy. But our misunderstanding, as one happiness researcher eloquently puts it, is that 'we think money will bring lots of happiness for a long time, and actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.' Meanwhile, in our effortful pursuit of such dead ends to pleasure, we end up ignoring other, more effective routes to well-being."
Along similar lines, in The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that the nature of humans is much happier with a series of small rewards (such as a monthly salary) than a lump sum of money...even if the amount of money received is the same in the end. He has numerous other arguments -- troubling ones.
More on this soon, I hope.
