Do This to Experience
More Happiness

What’s the meaning of life?

Well, from an existential standpoint, the meaning life is whatever meaning you attribute to it. It’s a subjective thing.

A more objective way to look at it is the meaning of life is the experience of living itself. While we ruminate about the past or fret about the future, profound experiential meaning is right in front of us at this very moment.

So when our experience of life becomes routine, and we’re stuck in a familiar never-ending loop of existence, are we living a meaningful life? At minimum, odds are you’re not overflowing with the kind of joy you might want, and you may feel like life is quickly slipping away from you.

If that’s how you feel, it’s not just your imagination. Pursuing new experiences (or psychological novelty) tends to spark happiness more than a life of familiarity and routine:

“There is a connection between novelty and happiness,” Dr. Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist who teaches the wildly popular “Psychology and the Good Life” course at Yale, told me. “Novel stimuli tend to activate regions of our brain that are associated with rewards.” There’s more than just the dopamine rush, though. “Novel things also capture our attention … you’re more likely to notice things and be present,” Santos continued. “There’s lots of evidence that simply being more present can improve our mood and happiness.”

And what about your sense of time? When we were kids, summers seemed to last forever, and you may even remember them that way to this day. Meanwhile in 2021, it’s somehow already June … how did that happen?

Research on perception reveals that novel experiences make your experience of time go more slowly. This can make your life feel longer and less fleeting as you age. When we were young, everything was new. Now, we have to work at it to experience novelty and slow time down.

Plentiful new experiences also make us more resilient. As we age our brains are in a state of degeneration unless we work to intentionally put ourselves in new situations. According to neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman:

“There’s generally a drive, especially as people get older and have less energy, to make things more predictable,” he said. “But it is the most important thing that you can do for your brain, always put it in novel situations, give it novel challenges.”

But aren’t there activities that are good for us that involve the opposite of novelty? Developing a new habit, such as exercise, literally requires us to follow a routine. As an avid novelty seeker, this is why I can always happily go hiking but find it tough to stick with a strength training regime for more than a few months.

When you can’t seek out novelty in traditional ways, the key is to make your everyday experiences new to you. Mindfulness allows us to see the “same ol’ things” in a new and different light, because we’re often not fully present in familiar surroundings. Mindfulness also allows you to unlock gratitude for what you have by seeing things in a whole new light.

“The simple act of being grateful for the things that you have means that you’re paying attention to the features of them,” Santos said. “I’ve, in some sense, used gratitude to bring novelty to an experience that was boring a few seconds ago: when you’re thinking gratefully, it can all of a sudden seem new.”

My work provides me with purpose, but the new experiences that come with travel are my reason for being. Even if you remain stuck in one place, though, you can always meet new people, try new things, and see your world in novel ways.

The Brain-Changing Magic of New Experiences (GQ)

Breaking Better

Powering though work without taking breaks? Seems stoic, but new research reveals you’re actually hurting your productivity. Breaks are a good thing, so embrace them.

How Breaks Change Our Brain for the Better (The Growth EQ)

Office Revolt

The drive to get people back into offices is clashing with workers who’ve embraced remote work as the new normal. The past year has proved that lots of work can be done from anywhere, without lengthy commutes and all the other inconveniences of going to the office. Some employees are just saying no.

Employees Are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Working From Home (Bloomberg)

Social Media Mayhem

Some argue that social media isn’t the problem, people are. While true, that doesn’t mean you should ignore what being algorithmically exposed to people in a vast networked environment does to your mental well-being if not moderated. It’s not good.

The Warped Self (Aeon)

Real Retirement Funds

Investment properties have the potential to generate monthly income and appreciation as part of a diversified portfolio. But you don’t have to be a hands-on landlord. You can make passive real estate investments and avoid the 3 a.m. calls about clogged toilets.

Retirement Planning? Don’t Forget About Investment Real Estate (Kiplinger)
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What the heck is meta-rationality and how does it help? Trudi has the answer below. And in the Flashback, my kids got a questionable French lesson from this Talking Heads tune at a young age. Hey, it was better than what we had to listen to in the backseat as kids.

Keep going-

Brian Clark

P.S. There’s a plastic surgery boom going on right now. Why? People were forced to look at themselves on Zoom. You can’t make this stuff up.

New to Further? Join us here.

Expand Your Potential by Embracing Your Limitations

By Trudi Roth

We’re emerging from the pandemic’s master class in uncertainty. So it’s time to make hay with our newfound knowledge of being okay with not knowing.

That’s fertile ground to practice unlearning, for example. Unlocking a fixed mindset and questioning your beliefs and biases fuels personal growth.

It’s also the ticket to future-proofing yourself, according to economist and author Tyler Cowen:

I think the future belongs to people who are what I call meta-rational. That is, people who realize their own limitations.

In other words, your awareness of your capacity for reason and logic can be the secret to your success.

Love Your Limitations

It’s understandable to worry about letting constraints shape your future. After all, we’re constantly told limitations are mostly in our heads. Just do it, right?

According to Cowen, that can be a trap, particularly in our “world of algorithms.” As he points out:

Not all the skills that you think are so valuable actually will matter in the future. Don’t just feel good about yourself, but think critically: What am I actually good at that will complement emerging sectors and emerging technologies?

Better to know when to defer to an expert (even if it’s AI, which it will be). That’s meta-rationality and a sign of higher intelligence.

For example, in scientific experiments with monkeys and dolphins, both demonstrated awareness of when they couldn’t answer a question. Monkeys had to judge a dot-filled screen as dense or sparse. Similarly, dolphins were tasked with identifying low vs. high tones. When researchers presented unclear scenarios, both species indicated their uncertainty.

So, don’t be afraid to make like a monkey, dolphin, or even Jeff Spicoli. Then see what you can do to change things.

Meta-Rational Minds Prevail

Of all of the types of rationality, Cowen states meta-rationality is the rarest. That’s why he says good judgment is increasingly more important than plain ol’ smarts.

Luckily, even in our era of deep fakes and conflicting realities, becoming better at finding and following trustworthy advice is a learnable skill.

Cowen counsels seeking reputable mentors and pursuing “intense online experimentation.” That includes things like consuming well-researched podcasts or blogs and taking advantage of online education. By combining in-person and virtual learning opportunities, you can better make informed decisions and overcome limitations.

And through it all, be humble. As Cowen points out, you can always go online and find someone who’s doing better than you. Skip the cycle of “compare and despair” by dropping your ego. Instead, use what others offer to energize and inspire your evolution.

Ultimately, it’s not just about what you know. It’s what you know about what you don’t know that helps you grow.

Thinking About Thinking with Tyler Cowen (The Knowledge Project)