Today

Mostly, I studied today. Then in the evening Dhaval gave me an awesome present! He put a new hard drive in my netbook, and he uploaded both Ubuntu and Windows with all the software I use. :) It was extremely thoughtful (as usual, but I keep being surprised by these things).

I still need to review my terms and ratios once, and hopefully do a practice exam (or most of one) before my exam tomorrow. Plus eating a great breakfast of course.

Imagining

I've been listening to music instead of studying, and just imagining the world as it could be. Sometimes I use sadness as a way of thinking about beauty, strange as it may seem. Tonight I was thinking of a world where the only problem is that language isn't sufficient enough to express how beautiful everything is. And I was overcome for a moment by sad longing, because language really isn't good enough to express that.

For a moment, not being able to say anything was my only problem. For that I'm pretty lucky.

Back to studying financial accounting. :)

Two More Interviews

Today, I asked two more people what makes them happy. Since my conversations are still informal, I am paraphrasing each person's comments to the best of my ability, not quoting. However, here are the most relevant parts of today's conversations:

First Interview: (Conclusion: Food is important!)
For some context on this conversation, the MIT administration has been working recently on revamping dining to reduce costs to the university. I spoke with someone involved in the process.

Me: I have become very interested in happiness recently; I want to make people happy, but I don't know how. Could I ask you some questions about that?
Interviewee: Welcome to my life.

Me: Your job is to make people happy?
Interviewee: Yes, or rather, to make sure no one is incredibly angry. It's very stressful. Right now, it is not too bad, though.

Me: So, right now, is the MIT student body pretty happy?
Interviewee: They are doing okay, but students are upset about dining plans. People care a lot about their food.

This person was pretty helpful, and the main conclusion we were able to draw is the food is a very important topic to people, along with having a voice in decision-making.

An Article on Happiness--Could Life Uncertainty be a Defining Factor?
After this, I read a bit more about happiness to help guide future conversations. A Washington Post article on the economics of happiness provided some interesting insights on this. The article said that people in countries with high crime rates, lower incomes, and other problems, have levels of happiness higher than one might expect in comparison with richer, more peaceful countries. The author suggested this may be due to adapting to certain conditions that people come to expect. Many people lowered their standards and became cheerful again, except for one thing: Uncertainty was very difficult to adapt to.

So I decided to ask about this when talking with another engineering student. I've omitted some pieces of the conversation to limit identifying comments, but tried to keep the main points intact.

Second Interview: (Conclusion: Shared values & trust might be most important.)
Me: I've been thinking recently about how engineers are supposed to ask a lot of questions to their prospective customers before designing something. I've decided that more than any product, though, I want to create happiness. But I don't know at all what people want! I've decided to start asking about it. Could I ask you a bit about what makes you happy?
Interviewee: Certainly! But that's a really hard question. I'm not sure I can pinpoint it for you.

Me: Hmm, you're certainly right. Perhaps the opposite would be easiest to ask. Could you tell me about what stresses you out the most?
Interviewee: Sure. That is a lot easier to answer. One thing that has been bothering me recently is my work. I don't do things nearly as efficiently as I would like to. I wish I could remember more information at once--that would save me a lot of writing.

Me: That's really interesting! Is there anything else particularly bothersome?
Interviewee: Yes. One thing that has been bothering me recently is my living situation. I find myself frequently cleaning up other people's messes.

Me: That sounds pretty inconvenient. Do you think the uncertainty of sometimes needing to clean up a surprise mess before you can use areas is most bothersome? Or is it something else?
Interviewee: I don't think the uncertainty b0thers me so much. What is worse is that I would expect other people I am around to clean up after themselves. I don't know who is causing the problems, but I know I would be upset at someone I care about if I found out.

After some follow-up discussion, it seemed like living around people with similar values and trusting others is a big component of happiness. This may even trump the uncertainty factor mentioned in Washington Post!

Next Time:
One topic I will focus on in future interviews is the impact life uncertainty has on people. I will also try to understand better the impact of trust and shared values in making people happy.

Thanks for reading!

Happiness

I decided recently that I want to make as big a difference as I can in the world, and I want to focus on making people happy. But then I realized I have no idea what people really want! This is a big problem. So I've decided to start asking people. Here is the first time I asked:

Me: What do you want most right now?
Interviewee: There are lots of things I want right now. I'd like a hug! All the very important things, I can wait for, though.

Me: What do you want in the future? What would make you happiest?
Interviewee: I'd like for there more peace in the world. I think people should love each other more.

Me: What is the biggest challenge in getting there?
Interviewee: For me, or for the world?
Me: Both.
interviewee: Well, I think to be at peace, people really need to understand themselves better. The same is true for me. I am still learning a lot about myself.

Me: Thank you for talking with me about what makes you happy.

(In case anyone is wondering, I know this person well, hence the hug-related answer! I don't want to reveal anyone's identities, though, because I think the questions I am asking are actually very personal.)

That is my first conversation about happiness! I am really excited. I wonder if answers like this one will be common. It seems like this person's happiness depends a lot on there being peace in the world. I am wondering if this is true for everyone. Would this person be fulfilled by creating peace, or would it be just as satisfying if peace happened spontaneously? Does this answer mean the other person also wants to be at peace? Is self-understanding necessary for being at peace?

I have many questions to ask in the future. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment! I would love to know what you want most, or what makes you happy. Your answer will help me a lot in deciding what to focus on in making people happy.

Projects

Stay tuned for changes to the site...I'm hoping to add a section on projects I'm working on, and follow-up I've been working on. Project updates will include information about how I became involved and who else is still working on either the same project or related ones. If you are interested in any of them, feel free to contact me for more info!

On Music

I'm sitting at a concert inMIT's Kresge Auditorium, on the side of the violins and French horns. Shadle's Symphony #2 plays; something about the music is striking, as if it has a hidden meaning, is a foreign language I cannot quite decipher.

As my mind wanders, I think back to the time when orchestra was a larger part of my life, when I played viola. What did the music mean to me then? Now I can hear the notes, but not understand them. Could I ever?

Many times playing music had seemed to me a way of relating to other people. Others it was just something I did, the exctracurricular I picked up so I wouldn't have to take fifth grade choir. The last year I played formally, it was a way of giving voice to fantasy.

Now the melody seems so far away, the rationality and spirit of it only in others' minds. Yet still I wonder, as this piece reaches a point of tension, what was Charles Shadle trying to say? What keeps the players' eyes and fingers moving so tirelessly onward?

Winter Vacation

My vacation so far hasn't been as restful as I thought it might be. I woke up to tutor this morning at 6am, worked for about an hour, had breakfast, and cleaned until 10am. (Cleaning the house for my mom is her Christmas present this year.) Then my mom took my sister and myself, along with three kids who were visiting, to the Fort Worth Museum of Natural Science and history. It is an interactive children's museum. We had a great time! The museum only recently reopened after major remodeling, so all the exhibits were new to me. We stayed until 5pm, closing time, and then took pictures with the dinosaurs outside.

I only just arrived home. Now I have to edit a couple of essays before tutoring again, this time in writing! The essays are pretty good, and fun to read as usual. I am concerned that I will seem exhausted (which I am) over the camera, though. Hopefully this next hour of rest will alleviate that. Whew!