Concept
The happiness formula
The happiness formula is Haidt's H = S + C + V: happiness is a set point, substantially inherited, plus conditions, the facts of your life, plus voluntary activities, what you choose to do. Its point is that C and V leave real room once you know which conditions and activities do not fade.
The adaptation research seems to say that only S matters and that circumstances wash out. Haidt's formula is a correction. S is real and large: twins raised apart have similar happiness. But C includes conditions people never adapt to, noise, a long commute, lack of control, conflict in close relationships, and changing those pays permanently. And V includes activities that resist adaptation because they have variety and engagement built in: exercise, learning, time with people you love, work and hobbies that produce flow. The formula also says what not to spend on: possessions and money above sufficiency fade fastest of all. Used as a worksheet, it asks two questions of a life: which conditions have I not adapted to and could change, and which voluntary activities have kept paying? Then it says to move hours from the fading items to the durable ones.
A real-life example
A couple in Istanbul write the formula: the bigger flat faded, the commute never did, the football and the Sunday dinners they gave up were the items that kept paying. The worksheet sends them back to a smaller flat near the metro and to Thursday football.
How to use it
- 1Write your own C and V: the conditions you have not adapted to and could change, and the activities that have kept paying.
- 2Move one hour a week from a fading item to a durable one.
- 3Treat purchases as S-neutral: they will not move the number for long.