Analysis Of Why So Many Smart People Aren T Happy By Joe Pininsker

In the short works “Somnambulist” and “How Not to Get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation” the subjects both strive to achieve extrinsic happiness rather than enjoying themselves to achieve intrinsic happiness. Heron Jones and Alfie Kohn both try to convince people that, society puts too much emphasis on extrinsic motivators as a means for happiness; however, this pursuit of extrinsic motivators that people engage in never results in happiness, and instead produces unfulfillment. Jones and Kohn try to get this message across by explaining that facets of society—educators and corporations—emphasize the mentality that extrinsic motivators are the means of happiness; in fact, the pursuit for extrinsic happiness does not produce intrinsic

Are You as Happy as You Seem? Joshua W. Shenk had an article issued in June of 2009 called “What Makes Us Happy?” Shenk gives an efficient argument for the reasons a person can be happy with their life. Shenk article follows the lives of many different people which, in turn, in his article employs anecdotes, pathos, and rhetorical questions. In addition, Shenk shows his credibility through his use of ethos.

The conditional fee arrangement was introduced by the Access to Justice Act (AJA) 1999, as an attempt to transfer legal funding from the treasury to the private sector. This occurred as a result of an increasing and ridiculous growth in the cost of legal aid, namely from a few hundred million to well over 2.1 billion pounds from the 1980s to 2000. Moreover, it was not because demand was growing. Rather, number of cases relying on legal aid had decreased. Due to the need to control budget, Conditional fee arrangements are used to fund many civil cases which legal aid now excludes, and the issues brought about by conditional fee arrangements have been debated over the last decade. The conditional fee arrangements are sometime known as ‘no

In Tim Hume’s article for the Cable News Network, he addresses that people who are objectively successful are not always entirely happy. There was a study that was conducted in 1922 which started analyzing people when they were children and continuously studied for approximately 70 years. The more ambitious participants ended up with occupational and financial success, but “they were not successful in the terms of what might be considered the most important variables; happiness and longevity of life.” (Hume 2). Many studies have found that happiness and a stable mental health can increase a person’s life expectancy. It was found that most of the children with more ambitions were intelligent but they also had parents with highly distinguished

Authored by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Happiness Revisited” is a study on happiness and creativity. Csikszentmihalyi defines happiness in terms of how we achieve it. He suggests that people achieve happiness “not by trying to look for it directly” (609) but by looking for it directly. He also added that by “achieving control over the contents of our consciousness” (609), a circuitous path begins, thus the beginning of achieving happiness. Further, Csikszentmihalyi stated that just like happiness, success is not to be pursued but ensued. This statement is ideally illustrated by Viktor Frankl’s book on Man’s Search for meaning: “Don’t aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it”(609).

The works “Somnambulist”, “How not to get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation”, and “Enjoying the so-called "Iced cream": Mr. Burns, Satan, and Happiness” imply that in today’s society, individuals are valuing extrinsic happiness to a greater scale compared to their value of intrinsic happiness. Authors Heron Jones, Alfie Kohn, and Daniel Barwick suggest that individuals need to place a greater value on intrinsic achievements rather than extrinsic achievements within their lives as extrinsic fulfilment leads to momentary happiness, compared to the positive long-term effects of intrinsic fulfillment. The problem begins with individuals focusing and making decisions based on extrinsic rewards such as: grades or a paycheck. Secondly,

The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.

She is an “award-winning staff writer at Newsweek” and “has written scores of articles that decode the complexities of science for lay readers” (554). In addition, Begley also “wrote for the ‘Science Journal’ column for the Wall Street Journal” which “first appeared on the Newsweek-affiliated Web site the Daily Beast” (554). These credentials are evidence that allow the reader to trust her as a reliable author. Begley’s article is also trustworthy because she introduces sources that have published research on happiness, are psychologists or psychiatrists, and support her argument. For example, Begley mentions Ed Diener, a psychologist “who has studied happiness for a quarter century” (555). She also mentions the global research that has concluded that the people with “the highest levels of happiness” tend to put in less effort into improving and changing their lives (556). Begley also supports her article by mentioning several examples of well-known people who used their “negative emotions, including sadness, to direct [their] thinking” (557). For example, Begley mentions that “Beethoven composed his later works in a melancholic funk” (557). Begley believes that the negative emotions that lead famous people to their critical thinking can also help people such as, college students (557).

Robert Waldinger´s purpose is to share the lessons he has learned on what makes a happier and more fulfilling lifestyle. Most people believe that the key to a more gratifying life could only come from materialistic items and fame. However, Waldinger attempts to refute this claim by sharing the results that he has gathered from conducting a 75 year old study on happiness.

In her article “How Happy Are You and Why?,” Sonja Lyubomirsky argues that people have control over their own happiness. Lyubomirsky supports her claims with her interviews with happy people and scientific studies. Her purpose is to consider steps that people can take in order to become happier. She establishes an informal relationship with her audience of unhappy people.

The most universal goal every human has in common is the pursuit of happiness or “creation or construction of happiness” (Achor, 78). To be able to fulfill this wish of becoming happy, people often think the key to achieving happiness is success. In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he debunks this theory of success leading to happiness by illustrating the reverse theory of success. Through dozens of studies and experiments as forms of evidence, the author argues that an individual needs to achieve happiness in order to be truly successful. Achor 's argument is valid in that happiness should come before success because there is a clear advantage to being successful in an individual’s work life, personal sphere, and liveliness if they are happy first and foremost.

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

It is often said that, “Money can’t buy happiness.” In Cass R. Sunstein’s Yes, Money Can Make You Happy, Sunstein provides a summary and review of Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton’s Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending; he declares that money, when spent wisely and with the right attitude, can provide the most elusive of all human experiences: happiness. In a changing social climate with advances in technology offering unmatched convenience, and a culture in which diverse people with equally diverse sets of values come together, the study of what truly makes us happy is especially relevant now more than ever. While money can certainly be spent in a manner which will create happiness, what Sunstein neglects to address in his writing is that more money does not always equate to more happiness, regardless of how and when it is spent.

In today’s materialistic world, the phrase that ‘money can’t buy happiness’ is tending to be proved hence otherwise. Social research and surveys have shown results based on an individuals income, health and the political scenario which is dominant in his or her region. It is quite obvious that the gap between the privileged and the not so is growing into a great divide giving rise to different class and status, thus defining ones social circle. It should therefore be understood how an individuals economic status affects their personal happiness throughout all aspects of life. Many tend to refer to this age-old quote especially when they tend to belong to sector of people who can’t afford the modern day luxuries of life. What they do not

However, Myers and Wiederman also consent that wealth, achievement, and one aspect of inheritance, little voice, might be obstacles to achieve happiness. Myers writes that money cannot buy happiness or bring it. Although people in poor countries are less happy than people in rich countries, some rich people are not as satisfied as regular people in the same country, and some of them don't know happiness, whereas a few of them are happy because they know how to gain it and how to spend it. Also, he compares people in the past and the present in the U.S. He concludes that Americans in the past seems happier than Americans now though the economy has been increasing, so wealth cannot escort satisfaction. According to Wiederman, accomplishment also may not lead to well-being since people whose goal is money will not be happy. That is because after achieving their goal, they will compare themselves with those who are richer than them. Then despondency will be their feelings. Moreover, if their goal is not money, and they are strong-linkers, another two situations may occur. He discusses that strong-linkers