Crickets Chirping

The other day I ran across a research paper about modeling happiness as a System Dynamics problem. As an engineer, I often think about how machines work, and when I want to know how something works in order to fix it, I tend to think in terms of machines. Therefore when I think about ways to become happy and stay that way for as long as possible, I think of my own emotional state as part of a machine. So the concepts in this paper resonate with me. In System Dynamics terms, my mood is a “Stock”, and life is a series of changes in “Flows” into and out of that “Stock.”

From Happiness – Cracking the Equilibrium State of People’s Well-Being:

Understanding the mechanisms producing happiness is crucial not only for individuals and psychological research but also for management science and political economy. It is widely accepted in positive psychology that good and bad events temporarily affect happiness. Yet, individuals quickly adapt back to hedonic neutrality. This is known as the hedonic treadmill (Brickman and Campbell, 1971), the dynamic equilibrium theory, or the set point theory (Headey, 2006). In this paper, we develop a System Dynamics model to analyze mechanisms creating happiness. It allows a better understanding of the formerly vaguely proposed con- nections between ‘external’ life events and individual well-being by qualitatively estimating a person’s happiness over time. We model a hedonic treadmill by assuming that people’s expectations and aspiration levels adapt to the actual stock levels of happiness drivers, such as income, health, and social networks. With different scenario runs we support propositions by the Dynamic Equilibrium Theory. In addition, we show that applying a holistic view and doing quantitative analysis enables us to enhance the current Dynamic Equilibrium Theory. It is capable to provide an explanation for lasting changes in the individual equilibrium level of happiness.

Surprise, surprise they conclude that you can become happier by adjusting your internal outlook rather than by depending on external factors like winning the lottery or finding a mate. The “Lower Your Expectations” solution seems to be in vogue. (Okay, that’s cynical. It really should be the “Adjust Your Expectations” solution.)

Speaking of SD, I remember reading about the Beer Game years ago while working on a system to model embedded options in supply chain contracts. I wonder how one would go about combining the Beer Game with this Happiness model and what that would tell us :)

via angry robots:

I’m sure other directors share this sentiment, but I fear they will drown in the inevitable flood of idiocritization.

Related: An interview with product placement expert Jennifer Bydwell.

I’ve been making lists of stuff to pack/sell/donate (did I mention that I’m moving to CA?) today. That led me to think about the list of things I’ve wanted to do in Austin, and how many of them I’ve actually done.

ACL Fest
SXSW
Date a girl who works at Whole Foods
Adopt a dog from Town Lake Animal Shelter
Climb the steps at Mt. Bonnell
Black out on 6th street
‘Accidentally’ turn left into Hippy Hollow on the way to Windy Point
Enchanted Rock
Play Disc Golf
Swim at Barton Springs
O’Henry Pun-off
Canoe Town Lake
Zilker Kite Festival
Eyeore’s Birthday
Walk the 360 Bridge
Bike the greenbelt
Sculpture Falls
Campbell’s Hole
Salt Lick
Start a .com
Play in a band
Burning Flipside
East Austin Studio Tour
First Thursday
Cliff dive at Pace Bend
Live Oak Brewery
Hang out at the San Jose
LaLa’s
Pay waaaay too much property tax
Disco Karaoke at Seoul Sushi
Watch the bats fly out
Climb a moonlight tower
Hook up with a Rollergirl
Hamilton Pool
Chicken Shit Bingo at Ginny’s Little Longhorn

I think that’s most of it.

Josh: I figured out how I’m going to keep you in Texas.
Me: Oh yeah? How?
Josh: I’m going to frame you for murder.
Me: How are you going to do that … if you’re dead?
Josh: You’re going to muder me to prevent me from framing you for murder?
Me: …

Linkiness, meet AideRSS.

I’ve been interviewing for jobs out in The Bay Area.

Some reflection on the last couple of weeks:

I tend to refer to Austin as the high tech “Kiddie Pool,” but I sure talked to a lot of kids during my interviews. At the Advanced Age of 32, I was often several years older than the people who interviewed me.

I wish I had photos of all the facial expressions I get when I say that Pluck is built on .Net.

An example of Conway’s Law: One company’s interview process looked (to me at least) a lot like MapReduce. They process a lot of applicants, and have to do so in parallel, so it kinda makes sense.

• Younger interviewers: “Wow, you sure have a lot of experience.”
• Older interviewers: “Wow, you sure hop around a lot.”

No one out there is doing anything interesting with MS/.Net- if it’s large scale, the stack is fully open source.

CalTrain heading north into San Francisco on a friday at 6pm reminded me more of a nightclub or a keg party than public transportation.

Mandi Squeak alerted me to WaPo Acticle about some guys who ripped off one of my favorite recipes:

The iPhone camera isn’t half bad. Then again, it’s hard to take a bad photo from this angle.

777 is a three part song in 7/4 time. It may have been better in concept than in execution, but I felt compelled to follow through after I told a couple of people “hey it would be funny to make a three part song in 7, on 07/07/07.”