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!