The Five Tools of Hedonic Design - by Adam Mastroianni

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Hacking the happiness treadmill

Photo cred: my dad Two truths (no lies): 1. Once you are moderately happy, it’s very hard to get any happier. 2. Everybody secretly believes they can be the exception to this rule. Psychologists have known for fifty years that people tend to adjust to the good things that happen to them, ending up about as happy as they ever were. It’s called the hedonic treadmill: chase after happiness and the treadmill speeds up just enough to keep you right where you are. The hypothesis has undergone some fine-tuning over the years––escaping poverty really does make people happier, for example––but…

The Five Tools of Hedonic Design - by Adam Mastroianni

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