"But when you're happy, don't."

I realized a number of very interesting things about myself in the last few weeks. But, all in all, the most important one is that I have been doing a lot of this HTR stuff to clear out some mental junk that I've collected over the last several years. I realized that I've been thinking about all of that a lot less lately. Apparently I've reached a place where my mental version of Clean Sweep has freed me up enough to do what I want and/or need to be doing now. So, while I will be starting to talk about what I am doing, I thought I should explain why I'm moving from the introspective HTR-Phase 2 work to a lot of doing/being out in the world activities. I am fortunate enough to have found just the thing to do that.

Most of you know about HTH and Feynman. I'm sure that you all remember hearing how I knew that HTH had really read all of that crazy physics stuff because he mispronounced his name, right? So, I always keep an eye out for Feynman related books to add to our collection. The most recent addition is called Feynman's Rainbow. HTH handed it to me earlier this week with instructions to read a short section that made him think of me. And, not surprisingly, there was a quote in there that I needed. So, without further ado, here is a little wisdom from Richard Feynman, via Leonard Mlodinow. [Bibliography note: This quote picks up a paragraph that starts the bottom of page 158.]

"I'm not going to psychoanalyze myself. Sometimes it is good to know yourself, but sometimes it isn't. When you laugh at a joke, if you think about why you laughed, you might realize that, after all, it wasn't funny, it was silly, so you stop laughing. My rule is, when you are unhappy, think about it. But when you're happy, don't. Why spoil it? You're probably happy for some ridiculous reason and you'd just spoil it to know it."

Now I'll confess that I'm not happy with the job this week, but I'm really happy with everything else! So, I'm not thinking about it. I'm just doing. And I'm having a ball! I'll tell ya'll all about it as time permits.

Happiness projects

It turns out that we are all perpetually involved in our own little versions of happiness projects. There are blogs and books and forums all about the subject. I'm reading a very psychologically objective work on the subject at the moment - thanks to CRS.

She handed it to me saying that she wanted it back, but that she bought it thinking of me. I don't talk about happiness projects much, so I was not sure what to think until I flipped the book over and looked at the back.

The first paragraph on the back of the book asks a lot of questions that I would be interested in exploring. But they aren't the point of the book. The last sentence says "...Gilbert explaines why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become."

I'm 50 pages in, so I don't know if he pulls it off, but the premise has already started my mind reeling. In the introduction, he describes the concept of prospection - that humans use our frontal lobe almost entirely to think about the future. He explains that we do this in order to predict what will happen next so that we have some feeling of control over the future. The point of control is to give ourselves a chance to choose the best possible future, BUT it doesn't work. No matter how much control we have and how wisely we choose in the present, "...the future is fundamentally different that it appears through the prospectiscope." (p25)

This is so obvious. I could come up with dozens of examples from today alone. But, at the same time, it strikes me as fairly profound. There are obvious cause and effect relationships between present actions and future results, but there really is no way to know how I will feel tomorrow about the best laid plans of today.

I'm still sorting through his ideas in my head, particularly in relation to a number of current discussions with my Council of Advisors (you ladies know who you are, don't you?) and in my household, so I'm not sure where my reaction to this will go over the next few days. For me, though, where this idea ends up is not really the point.

My subjective version of happiness requires regular introduction and exploration of new ideas. It feels like they wake my brain up to new connections and perspective. This book, therefore, has already contributed to my happiness. But, at the same time, I'm fairly sure that I would not have picked it up at the store. Oddly enough, I think that just proved his point.