Happynomics: The theory and practice of a happy life

However, over time, even such an extreme activity may lose its sharpness. In pursuit of new sensations, skydivers begin to look for more risky options: jumps from lower altitudes, flights in wingsuits, or base jumping. And sometimes this escalation of risk can lead to very dangerous consequences, if you do not realize in time that true satisfaction lies not in constantly increasing the dose of adrenaline, but in improving skills and finding a balance between the pursuit of thrills and safety.

HAPPINESS IS MOVING FROM A LOW POINT TO A HIGHER ONE. Imagine you’ve been walking through a scorching desert all day without food or water, and finally, as evening approaches, you find a bottle of water. That’s likely to be one of the happiest moments of your life. Or you jumped from a bungee or with a parachute – at first it was scary, but then – pure delight of flight. Or you avoided mortal danger – a tiger jumped on you, but missed and flew with a wild roar into the abyss, which was neatly behind you. In all these cases, happiness will simply go off scale. The greater the delta between the negative and the positive, the higher the level of happiness.

Logically, this definition implies that happiness is impossible without unhappiness. No matter what level you reach, sooner or later everything gets boring. And even achieving what you want will not lead to long-term happiness (hello, the law of diminishing importance). Reaching the "next level" is always significantly more difficult than the previous one. And there is the easiest way to experience happiness is to go "down," "suffer" a little, rise to a higher level, and experience happiness again.