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We don't want to be wired to know that we will be made happy by being generous.

It's nice to be made happy when we're generous, but better if we don't understand the process

because if we understand the process and think about it too much, we'll stop doing good

things for other people because it looks like selfishness.

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of Tan Genchely Speaking with Chris Reyn.

That's me, your host. This week's episode is pretty interesting. It's John Hellywell.

I said pretty interesting because I felt sheepish there. They're all interesting.

Otherwise, I wouldn't do the damn things, right? I'm not going to turn you on to a boring conversation.

Anyway, John Hellywell, very interesting guy. I think he teaches in the economics department at UBC,

but his focus is on happiness. What makes us happy?

How can we cultivate those things and populate our lives with things more likely to make us happy?

I'm sure you've read about some of this research that he's interested in.

For example, there's been a lot of media attention to the notion that experiences make us happier than things.

If you've got a thousand bucks burning a hole in your pocket, it's better to spend it on some sort of memorable experience than it is on a thing.

Because the fact is you get used to the thing very quickly.

I don't care if you're driving a Ferrari after a while, it's just a car.

There aren't things that are so amazing that we don't very quickly get used to them.

Louis CK's famous bit that I've spoken about several times about how these days everything's amazing. Nobody's happy.

That's why. You get the latest iPhone or whatever.

Within a week you're going to be pissed off that it's not acting fast enough.

Sometimes it misses a call. Sometimes it doesn't do this perfectly or that perfectly.

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