Somewhat Happy
Taleb describes Marc, a prosperous lawyer whose long working hours leave him exhausted. The portrait raises a question about whether income and status compensate for their costs in time, health, and relationships.
THE IDEA
Somewhat Happy
Marc lives on Park Avenue in New York City with his wife, Janet, and their three children. He makes $500,000 a year, give or take a boom or a recession—he does not believe that the recent spurt in prosperity is here to last and has not mentally adjusted yet to his recent abrupt rise in income. A rotund man in his late forties, with spongy features that make him look ten years older than his age, he leads the seemingly comfortable (but heckled) life of a New York City lawyer. But he is on the quiet side of Manhattan residents. Marc is clearly not the man one would expect to go bar-hopping or attend late-night Tribeca and SoHo parties. He and his wife have a country house and a rose garden and tend to be concerned, like many people of their age, mentality, and condition, with (in the following order) material comfort, health, and status. Weekdays, he does not come home until at least 9:30 p.m. and, at times, he can be found in the office at close to midnight. By the end of the week, Marc is so fatigued that he falls asleep during their three-hour drive to “the house”; and Marc spends most of Saturday lying in bed recovering and healing.
Marc grew up in a small town in the Midwest, the son of a quiet tax accountant who worked with sharp yellow pencils. His obsession with sharpness was so strong that he carried a sharpener in his pocket at all times. Marc exhibited very early signs of intelligence. He did extremely well in high school. He attended Harvard College, then Yale Law School. Not bad, one would say. Later his career took him to corporate law, where he started working on large cases for a prestigious New York law firm, with barely enough hours left for him to brush his teeth. This is not too much an exaggeration, for he ate almost all of his dinners in the office, accumulating body fat and Brownie points toward his partnership. He later became a partner within the usual seven years, but not without the usual human costs. His first wife (whom he met in college) left him, as she was tired of an absentee lawyer husband and weary of the deterioration in his conversation—but, ironically, she ended up moving in with and later marrying another New York lawyer, probably with a no-less-flat conversation, but who made her happier.
When to use it
Evaluating the impact of a salary increase on overall life satisfaction.
Understanding why material acquisitions often fail to bring lasting happiness.
Considering both the benefits of a lifestyle change and the possibility that its novelty will fade.
Designing interventions to help people savor positive experiences and avoid adaptation.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Marc's Story
Marc earns $500,000 a year as a New York lawyer but works late and spends much of the weekend recovering. The account says he has not yet adjusted to his higher income; his fatigue illustrates the costs of the lifestyle rather than demonstrating a return to a fixed happiness baseline.
Lottery Winners
Imagine a lottery winner who initially feels delighted but later finds some old worries returning. This illustrates the possibility of adapting to a positive change; it does not establish that winners generally return to a fixed happiness level within a set time.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How has your own income or lifestyle changed in the past and did it affect your happiness in the long term?
Can you identify areas in your life where you have adapted to improvements and now take them for granted?
What steps can you take to counteract hedonic adaptation and maintain appreciation for positive changes?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Fooled by Randomness The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)