Don't look now, but happiness has become a theme around which design, science and business are increasingly interested, and for good reason.
What if happiness can be hacked?
Game designer Jane McGonigal has said that while looking for design direction in 2007 she connected game design and contentment in a very powerful way:
I think a lot about human suffering, and how we don't suffer when we're immersed in games. There's clearly a lot of benevolent power there waiting to be tapped in everyday life and society.
In other words, if happiness is connected to what it means to be at our best, understanding those moments and making them more likely would seem to be important to personal fulfillment and success.
It's a thought that medicine seems to have missed. In a Harvard Magazine article, Science of Happiness, professor of psychiatry George Vaillant doesn't mince words:
...[T]he Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, the clinical 'bible' of psychiatry and clinical psychology, 'has 500,000 lines of text. There are thousands of lines on anxiety and depression, and hundreds of lines on terror, shame, guilt, anger, and fear. But there are only five lines on hope, one line on joy, and not a single line on compassion, forgiveness, or love. Everything I’ve been taught encouraged me to focus on the painful emotions.... My discipline taught me that positive thinking was simply denial, and that Pangloss and Pollyanna should be taken out and shot. But working with people’s strengths instead of their weaknesses made a difference. Psychoanalysis doesn’t get anybody sober. AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] gets people sober.'
Similarly, how might business be changed if possibility rather than constraints were the focus of business management and research? I think a recent issue of the magazine from the Rotman School of Management totally gets that idea.
Wayne
Thanks for this. It's so difficult to explain positive psychology without sounding whacky. Possibilities rather than constraints.
Posted by: Jo | 01/28/2008 at 04:24 AM
Thanks for this. It's so difficult to explain positive psychology without sounding whacky. Possibilities rather than constraints.
Posted by: Jo | 01/28/2008 at 04:24 AM
"Similarly, how might business be changed if possibility rather than constraints were the focus of business management and research? "
You are clearly not a project manager, or at least not a successful project manager. I used to work at a very creative place I likened to a big sandbox...we were all encouraged to play and to do our best, joyous work. Problem was, everyone fought over the toys, no one wanted to leave, and heaven forbid anyone should try to actually clean out the sandbox. Did we get anything done? Sure, begrudgingly. I bailed before the funder report was due; I hear they're behind on deliverables.
I'm generally disheartened by this whimsical stream of thought that if we could all just PLAY more, more would get done. Positive psychology is a different animal altogether, engendering good will and effort towards a collective goal. The best, creative output comes out when thoughts are focused on a goal...The rest is the tattered remnants of an unresolved childhood.
Posted by: JR | 03/18/2008 at 03:14 PM