Metacognition In COVID19 Isolation

The mighty Peter McAsh shared a link to Yale's most popular course: The Science of Well Being, which is designed to address the psychological misconceptions we all labour under that have produced some of the worst depression in human history.  Laurie Santos, the professor running the course, describes it as a necessary response to the plunging rates of happiness in her students.  It's free on Coursera right now.

I'm only a day in and it has already raised a number of interesting questions around how I approach things.  I'm currently watching Martin Seligman's TEDtalk on positive psychology:

It's worth your time.  Seligman was a pivotal researcher into applying psychology to finding happiness rather than just treating illness.  I've since been sucked into Dan Gilbert's The Surprising Science of Happiness.  Dan's book was suggested in the course.  In his TEDtalk he's hard pitching the idea that our reflexive over estimation of outcomes to our choices makes us select things that make us less happy - we overestimate the opportunities choice gives us and it seldom makes us happy.  He gives the example of Harvard students who select a course that gives them more choice, but those choices produced a lot of unhappy students.  This has some interesting ramifications in a world where choice is considered a sacred right, whether it's choice of government, partner or anything else.  We've designed our society around choice, but choice is a mechanism that defies happiness.

If we're pre-programmed to select for choice (which I suspect is another word for control, even if it's just a false sense of it), and more choice makes us less happy, then we're pre-set to make ourselves less happy.  Our consumerist economic system and our democratic systems are designed to make us less happy - and they're working.

That I'm looking at this at a time when everyone feels hard done by due to their individual freedoms being curtailed by the COVID19 pandemic is pretty ironic.  Perhaps people will find some happiness in their lack of choice, but soon enough that'll all be forgotten as we struggle to restart all the social systems that are strangling us.


Some followup from day 2:

Materialists in college were followed up on 20 years later - there was a strong correlation between materialism and lower life satisfaction and materialism and mental health disorders.  Materialism makes you sad and ill...

The desperate grab for money defies description - people spend more on lottery tickets than they do on media and activities that are much more likely to bring them genuine and immediate joy.  Longitudinal studies showed that lottery winning doesn't produce happiness.  The more people get, the more they want.  Statistics indicate that if you're making more than $75k US/a year in the US (that's $105k a year in Canada not counting higher taxes and cost of living, so maybe $120k/year in Canada?) you don't get a statistically relevant bump in happiness if you make more money.  Instead of chasing more money, once you're at that plateau where money isn't so much of an issue, it's better to find alternative benefits rather than just asking for more money. 

Some post apocalyptic music by Sturgill Simpson helps frame the situation...

Make Art Not Friends

Lookin' out the window

At a world on fire

Flames see the end is near

Seen all the sights

Tired of the lights

So you can let me off right here

This town's getting crowded

Truth's been shrouded

Think it's time to change up the sound

Yeah, the wheels keep turning

The flames get higher

Another cycle rolls around

Face in the mirror's all skin and bone

Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone

Never again, I'd rather be alone

Think I'm gonna just stay home

And make art, not friends

I love saying "No" to all the "Yes" men

Just to see the look on their face

I love how everybody knows what's best

But nobody knows their place

Sucker every second, stack 'em up to the sky

For every winner there's a hundred that die

So you get yours, stay out of mine

Here's to the memories, where do I sign?

Face in the mirror's all skin and bone

Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone

Never again, I'd rather be alone

Think I'm gonna just stay home

And make art, not friends

Oh it's getting hard to find a good friend

So close the door behind you

Falling when more come in

Nobody writes, nobody calls

Nobody bother 'cause I'm over it all

Face in the mirror's all skin and bone

Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone

Never again, I'd rather be alone

Think I'm gonna just stay home

Think about my friends

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/s/sturgillsimpsonlyrics/soundfuryalbumlyrics.html