The Care and Feeding of Happiness!

For those of you who may be wondering why I haven’t posted any blog entries or updates lately, regarding The Care and Feeding of Happiness Novel Project:

I’ve been diligently working on completing the first draft of the novel by the end of December, 2011. Fortunately, I’m more or less on track. As of this writing, there are over 60,000 words in the book so far – that’s five chapters, and well over 200 pages. I’ve had to cease doing blog entries and YouTube videos, as the deadline for the novel itself is upon me, and I have limited time to finish the project. My priority is to finish the book…but I will be creating additional material in the near future to let you know how the project unfolded.

Once the first draft is completed and in good enough shape, I will be seeking a publisher. More information will be posted here as it becomes available.

Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement as I make my way through this! It’s been a long road, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Stay tuned for more details as to where you will be able to find the final version of…

The Care and Feeding of Happiness!

I haven’t written much lately, or posted a new video, for reasons which you’ll see below. But I wanted to you let you know what’s been going on with the novel these days, so here’s a quick update.

I am almost finished the first chapter  – chapter 3, which introduces Rhiannon. I decided to start with this one, as there’s faint chance I’ll be flying to Australia any time soon, so I had to write this one from my field notes, and a lot of Internet research. The good news is, it’s almost done. I’ll be announcing its ‘first draft’ completion on Twitter, the Facebook page, and here – stay tuned.

PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT: If you want my first chapter before others get their mitts on it, then follow me on Twitter @professordana, or ‘like’ the Facebook page “The Care And Feeding of Happiness”, because that’s where I’ll be announcing how you can get in on this “pre-read”!

Starting next Tuesday July 12th, I will be on a road trip for one week in New Mexico. Emma Miller is from there, and I’ll be blogging, tweeting, and Facebook-ing from the road. I may even get a chance to post a short “road trip” video, letting you know how my exploration of Emma’s life and background is coming along!

Interesting podcast on the relativity of being happy *all the time*. Maybe it’s not just a good idea – it’s okay, in fact desireable, to have other emotions in the mix, too. It’s an hour long, so sit back with a cuppa joe or whatever, and put yer feet up…

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2011/06/20/say-no-to-happiness/

Okay, suppose we could live longer? Would that make us happier? Well, that depends on who you talk to. Ted Fishman points out that only in the last 100 years or so have we lived beyond the average age of about fifty years. Now, the average age is eighty-something. Fishman made the reference that life used to be like a standard light switch (hmm…’life switch’?) We were living one day, and a few days later we were dead. Now, he compares it more to a dimmer control – it has its ups and downs, and we recover from illness better, but alas, it, too, eventually goes out.

Living to be a lot older ( let’s say, to age 200?) would dramatically change the whole dynamic. Consider, as Robert Sawyer pointed out, that Darwin’s idea of natural selection is based on the concept of shared DNA. That’s why we feel ‘closest’ to our parents and siblings, and not nearly as close to, to use his example, our second cousin twice removed (who only shares 1/64th of our DNA.) This also accounts for why we can’t seem to get it together to share long term goals (I’m referring to really long term goals, change the planet stuff.) Now then, if we did get to live to be 200, that would certainly give us a much longer worldview and perspective, wouldn’t it? And that, in turn, might help change things for the better. But, on the other hand, that would give us a lot more to chew on, as we tried, for so much longer, to work on our own Care and Feeding of Happiness…!

Dan Gardner, Bullshit Skeptic, made some interesting points in this morning’s IdeaCity session. The human brain is a machine that looks for patterns (something that we’ve heard other speakers refer to, actually.) And, the more information you have (some call this intelligence), the more susceptible you are to what is called “confirmation bias.” This is simply the idea that, once we’re convinced of something, the more we tend to believe it, even in the face of additional information, which may fly in the face of our original conviction. And, this is because the more you know about something, the more you are able to make patterns within that information. So, contrary to popular belief, the ‘smarter’ you are, the more you are, in fact, susceptible to bullshit. To use Gardner’s words, information is like “confirmation bias on steroids.” What we all need to get better at, is “metacognition”‘ the ability to think above our own thinking: the ability to self-doubt and self-criticize. Ask yourself, “Am I wrong about this?”

Finished off Day 2 of IdeaCity with the topic of “food”. The stuff we eat is, like it or not, at great risk. It’s genetically modified (whether we know it or like it) – Anjani Thomas. Fish for our table is more often farmed than naturally occurring in our seas and oceans -  Paul Greenberg. We will, at some point be unable to sustain ourselves regular farms – some folks, like Dickson Despommier suggest that urban vertical farms are the way to go, and in fact these systems are already being built around the world – google “vertical farm” and you’ll see!

Lest this all seem like a bummer (and this is a blog about happiness, after all), the food topic finished with a wonderful presentation with Bob Blumer, The Surreal Gourmet. Bob makes food fun and a delicious form of happiness! I’m buying his cookbook at the final day of the conference on Friday!