The 4 Things We Need to Be Happy?

November 21, 2008 in Growing · Follow Me on Twitter

I watched a video today, from “Stories from the Near Future,” the 2008 New Yorker Conference, that spoke of happiness and how it is created by humans being involved in an economy of engagement.

Day 108/365 [Year 2]
Creative Commons License photo credit: thp365

The presenter argued that many people today, because we have become so good at surviving, feel not good at life.

They feel that there is nothing left to conquer or solve, nothing left to engage them or give them purpose. She went on to argue that games and alternate realities are so popular today because they create an economy of engagement and exercise our need to survive.

The speaker argued that happiness is derived from four engagement principles:
  1. having satisfying work to do
  2. the experience of being good at something
  3. time spent with people we like
  4. the chance to be part of something bigger

Could it really be so simple? Is feeling engaged all humans need in order to feel happy?

Excitingly, the speaker also argues that as we evolve, games will be used more and more to engage people in actively creating social change. The website and interactive game World Without Oil is a current example of this idea in action.

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  • Guest
    Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. Others no doubt will like it like I did.
  • Happy to hear you enjoyed it.
  • HERO
    TARA,
    Including the Jane McGonigal, video from the series-"Stories from the Near Future" is a sound idea. I had seen it earlier,but was more than happy to give it a second view. It sounds a bit simplistic to be able to derive such a vague and difficult to define concept of happiness from the listed 4 engagement principles. But Jane's forecast(2018) if our civilization survives until then is essential:"Extreme scale collaboration is the most important human ability that has to be developed in order to meet the challenges of the alternative Futures ahead of us-"Massively multilayer collaboration can well turn out to be the new necessary mod us operand i." I can't but agree with you and the late A.Einstein in your post -Good News, We're No Longer Solving Today's Problems With the Same Thinking That Created Them!" If this is the case indeed, then we can look forward without anxiety , frustration and fear. We can and we will find the solutions to keep us living up to pit expectations, if they are realistic enough.
    Regards, MIKE.
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