Today’s post includes the second half of my comments about Don’t Trust Your Gut. This time I will start with Stephens-Davidowitz’s interpretations of research into careers, entrepreneurship, appearance, and happiness. From there, I’ll use the process to explore the importance of diminishing returns and the dangers of over-reliance on short-term feedback.
Agree with mostly everything, and you somehow managed to critique almost all parts of the book while remaining complimentary to the author.
Not sure I agree with you that most people would be happier engaging in more family-oriented and long-termist endeavours. My experience growing up around normal (not middle-class) people is that they are either unable or unwilling to take the long view in most situations, and that short-term pleasures can be the only things that can bring any joy to their lives at all. The worst part is, this is probably rational for large swathes of the population. Most people simply aren't gonna have great career because some combination of their cognitive toolkit and temperament won't allow it.
Relatedly, while the long-termists are definitely more successful in almost every endeavour I'm not sure they are happier. Now, you're more successful than me and have had a much longer career so I'm willing to take your word for it. Can only say my experience with the kinds of people who put in the extra hours, make efforts to build and learn new things, meet new people, and make time for their kids is that very little of it makes them happy in the long or short term. They don't even have time to feel happy about it because they are too hung-up on failing at this one small thing, or because some goal hasn't been reached yet. Maybe this retrospective satisfaction kicks in after retirement(?), but not sure it passes any kind of utilitarian calculus over the lifecourse-even if we weight delayed gratification-type utility much higher than everything else.
Don't get me wrong, I still think these people are 'happy', just in some masochistic Sisyphean type of way.
I believe the data for immigrants also misses one key component of growth mindset: Post Traumatic Stress Growth. Or, Post Traumatic Growth (PTG for short).
Many immigrants came from traumatized pasts. (I have a few refugee friends from Eritrea and you should hear their horrible stories and what it took to get here - crossing the border into Ethiopia with the risk of death). And when we have trauma we can go through PTSD or PTG - they are opposites but both caused by trauma. The difference in outcomes is usually swayed by attitude- which anyone migrating to the USA for a a better life probably has an optimistic attitude. Well if these immigrants experience PTG that is a massive motivator for positive growth, and explains their excellent outcomes. Jane McGongical talks about PTG in this Ted Talk. I also experienced it.
Agree with mostly everything, and you somehow managed to critique almost all parts of the book while remaining complimentary to the author.
Not sure I agree with you that most people would be happier engaging in more family-oriented and long-termist endeavours. My experience growing up around normal (not middle-class) people is that they are either unable or unwilling to take the long view in most situations, and that short-term pleasures can be the only things that can bring any joy to their lives at all. The worst part is, this is probably rational for large swathes of the population. Most people simply aren't gonna have great career because some combination of their cognitive toolkit and temperament won't allow it.
Relatedly, while the long-termists are definitely more successful in almost every endeavour I'm not sure they are happier. Now, you're more successful than me and have had a much longer career so I'm willing to take your word for it. Can only say my experience with the kinds of people who put in the extra hours, make efforts to build and learn new things, meet new people, and make time for their kids is that very little of it makes them happy in the long or short term. They don't even have time to feel happy about it because they are too hung-up on failing at this one small thing, or because some goal hasn't been reached yet. Maybe this retrospective satisfaction kicks in after retirement(?), but not sure it passes any kind of utilitarian calculus over the lifecourse-even if we weight delayed gratification-type utility much higher than everything else.
Don't get me wrong, I still think these people are 'happy', just in some masochistic Sisyphean type of way.
I believe the data for immigrants also misses one key component of growth mindset: Post Traumatic Stress Growth. Or, Post Traumatic Growth (PTG for short).
Many immigrants came from traumatized pasts. (I have a few refugee friends from Eritrea and you should hear their horrible stories and what it took to get here - crossing the border into Ethiopia with the risk of death). And when we have trauma we can go through PTSD or PTG - they are opposites but both caused by trauma. The difference in outcomes is usually swayed by attitude- which anyone migrating to the USA for a a better life probably has an optimistic attitude. Well if these immigrants experience PTG that is a massive motivator for positive growth, and explains their excellent outcomes. Jane McGongical talks about PTG in this Ted Talk. I also experienced it.
https://youtu.be/lfBpsV1Hwqs