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How to be happy
The utterly charming Seth Roberts, best-selling author and paragon of scientific self-experimentation, visited GMU last week.
Seth told us how to be happy. "See other people's faces in the morning." Faces on TV work as well as real faces. Conversational distance is ideal. In his view, seeing faces at night makes people unhappy.
The best way to sleep better is to stand all day. Also you should stop eating breakfast. Seth claims we are programmed to wake about three hours before our usual breakfast time. (Oddly this started happening to me about two weeks before his visit.)
Most college professors have too few skills to be useful teachers and we should reward diverse kinds of achievement. Given the importance of division of labor in modern economies, there should be many ways get an "A." Students should receive more individualized attention.
Here is Alex's earlier post on Seth, and here. Here is Seth's blog.
On the bottom of Seth's home page is some fascinating Powerpoint on economics: "In the beginning, hobbies. Diversify expertise: procrastination."
Here are three things statistics textbooks don't tell you.
Seth is a true American original and his work deserves the attention of every thinking person.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 20, 2006 at 11:27 AM in Science | Permalink
Comments
It's great to see Seth's work get noticed. He does unconventional work, and perhaps it took the unconventional medium of blogging to bring it to the world's attention. For more thoughts on Seth's ideas, I recommend checking out
these links.
Posted by: Andrew Gelman at Sep 20, 2006 11:27:49 AM
"Also you should stop eating breakfast. Seth claims we are programmed to wake about three hours before our usual breakfast time. "
My take away from his claim is the exact opposite of his advice. I don't eat breakfast and I struggle every morning to wake up. Perhaps I should start eating breakfast to make waking easier?
Posted by: Rob at Sep 20, 2006 11:46:21 AM
I agree with Rob -- a new way to become an early riser and get things done in the morning!
Posted by: DK at Sep 20, 2006 11:56:02 AM
I'm on the same page as Rob.
Posted by: dan at Sep 20, 2006 12:05:44 PM
Hell, I eat breakfast and then go back to sleep for three hours.
Posted by: bhauth@gmail.com at Sep 21, 2006 1:39:52 AM
Recommending that one stops eating breakfast is garbage. Having a heavy breakfast is the best meal of the day. It is what sets the tone of the day. Protein and carbs will allow you to concentrate on your work rather than pay attention to your growling tummy. Bad advice.
Posted by: sanjay at Sep 21, 2006 9:54:02 PM
"Stop having breakfast" is terrible advice. If you should be awake three hours before breakfast, you should wake up earlier.
As for me, I'm starving when I wake up. My body is definitely not programmed to hang around for another three hours before getting some food down me.
Posted by: Mike at Sep 22, 2006 11:26:37 AM
I know that I personally have to eat breakfast in the morning or I can not get going. It is very hard for me to concentrate on anything when I am hungry. People have told you all your life to always eat a good meal before a big test or something important. It starts your day better and gets you more awake. I know that when I wake up in the morning, it is true that seeing other people does wake me up. I have 8:00 AM classes everyday and on tuesday and thrusday, my roommate wakes up at 7:30 to go to her 8:00 class and I feel much more refreshed on those days to have someone to talk to in order to wake me up.
Posted by: Christine at Sep 26, 2006 7:18:35 PM
I do not fully agree with the study how to be happy because it is only a mere imgaine of our popular culture
and our popular culture is very limited because we live inside our own "matrix". Happiness is when one
connects the unconcious to the conciousness of their being. Happiness is a pure emotion and ones being is notnot
based on emotions because emotions are not ones true self. No study can tell us what makes an individual happy
truly this study only represents our popular culture which sadly is rather limited because of our preconcieved
notions.
Posted by: Brandon at Sep 27, 2006 11:15:37 AM
I have no legs. My thermometer is high. We live darkly aged. You gone home too early.
Posted by: Buttplug at Feb 12, 2007 3:56:31 AM
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