So, people want a lot of things out of life, but I think, more than anything else, they want happiness. Aristotle called happiness "the chief good," the end towards which all other things aim. According to this view, the reason we want a big house or a nice car or a good job isn't that these things are intrinsically valuable. It's that we expect them to bring us happiness.
Ljudi žele mnogo stvari od života, ali mislim da više od svega, žele sreću. Arsiotel je nazvao sreću "najvećim dobrom", krajem kojem sve druge stvari teže. Prema njegovom viđenju, razlog zašto želimo veliku kuću ili dobar auto ili dobar posao nije jer su ove stvari istinski vredne. Zapravo očekujemo da nam donesu sreću.
Now in the last 50 years, we Americans have gotten a lot of the things that we want. We're richer. We live longer. We have access to technology that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. The paradox of happiness is that even though the objective conditions of our lives have improved dramatically, we haven't actually gotten any happier.
U poslednjih 50 godina, mi Amerikanci dobili smo mnoge stvari koje želimo. Postali smo bogatiji. Živimo duže. Imamo pristup tehnologiji koja je samo pre nekoliko godina izgledala kao naučna fantastika. Paradoks sreće leži u tome što iako su se objektivni uslovi našeg života u velikoj meri poboljšali, mi zapravo nismo postali srećniji.
Maybe because these conventional notions of progress haven't delivered big benefits in terms of happiness, there's been an increased interest in recent years in happiness itself. People have been debating the causes of happiness for a really long time, in fact for thousands of years, but it seems like many of those debates remain unresolved. Well, as with many other domains in life, I think the scientific method has the potential to answer this question. In fact, in the last few years, there's been an explosion in research on happiness. For example, we've learned a lot about its demographics, how things like income and education, gender and marriage relate to it. But one of the puzzles this has revealed is that factors like these don't seem to have a particularly strong effect. Yes, it's better to make more money rather than less, or to graduate from college instead of dropping out, but the differences in happiness tend to be small.
Možda zato što konvencionalno gledanje na napredak nije doprinelo većoj sreći, došlo je do povećanog interesovanja u poslednjih nekoliko godina za samu sreću. Ljudi diskutuju o uzrocima sreće već veoma dugo, zapravo već hiljadama godina, ali izgleda da mnoge od tih diskusija ostaju nerešene. Kao i sa mnogim drugim domenima u životu, smatram da naučni metod ima potencijal da odgovori na ovo pitanje. Zapravo, u poslednjih nekoliko godina došlo je do ekspanzije u istraživanju o sreći. Na primer, mnogo smo naučili o njenog demografiji, kako neke stvari kao što su primanja i obrazovanje, pol i brak imaju veze s njom. Jedna od zagonetki koja je rešena je da izgleda da faktori kao što su ovi, nemaju posebno jak efekat. Da, bolje je zarađivati više nego manje para ili diplomirati umesto odustati od fakulteta, ali razlike u sreći su male.
Which leaves the question, what are the big causes of happiness? I think that's a question we haven't really answered yet, but I think something that has the potential to be an answer is that maybe happiness has an awful lot to do with the contents of our moment-to-moment experiences. It certainly seems that we're going about our lives, that what we're doing, who we're with, what we're thinking about, have a big influence on our happiness, and yet these are the very factors that have been very difficult, in fact almost impossible, for scientists to study.
Što nas dovodi do pitanja, šta su veliki uzroci sreće? Mislim da na ovo pitanje još uvek nismo odgovorili, ali smatram da nešto što ima potencijal da bude odgovor je da je sreća možda mnogo povezana sa sadržajem naših iskustava iz trenutka u trenutak. Svakako deluje da utičemo na naše živote, da ono što radimo, sa kim smo, o čemu razmišljamo ima velikog uticaja na našu sreću, ali ipak ovo su razni faktori koji su bili veoma teški, zapravo skoro nemogući za proučavanje naučnika.
A few years ago, I came up with a way to study people's happiness moment to moment as they're going about their daily lives on a massive scale all over the world, something we'd never been able to do before. Called trackyourhappiness.org, it uses the iPhone to monitor people's happiness in real time. How does this work? Basically, I send people signals at random points throughout the day, and then I ask them a bunch of questions about their moment-to-moment experience at the instant just before the signal. The idea is that, if we can watch how people's happiness goes up and down over the course of the day, minute to minute in some cases, and try to understand how what people are doing, who they're with, what they're thinking about, and all the other factors that describe our day, how those might relate to those changes in happiness, we might be able to discover some of the things that really have a big influence on happiness. We've been fortunate with this project to collect quite a lot of data, a lot more data of this kind than I think has ever been collected before, over 650,000 real-time reports from over 15,000 people. And it's not just a lot of people, it's a really diverse group, people from a wide range of ages, from 18 to late 80s, a wide range of incomes, education levels, people who are married, divorced, widowed, etc. They collectively represent every one of 86 occupational categories and hail from over 80 countries.
Pre nekoliko godina, dosetio sam se načina da proučavam ljudsku sreću iz trenutka u trenutak, u normalnim, svakodnevnim okolnostima, svuda u svetu, nešto što nikada pre nismo bili u stanju da uradimo. Zove se trackyourhappiness.org, koristi iPhone da nadgleda ljudsku sreću u stvarnom vremenu. Kako ovo funkcioniše? Pošaljem ljudima signale u nasumičnim trenucima u toku dana i zatim im postavim gomilu pitanja o njihovom iskustvu iz trenutka u trenutak u momentu neposredno pred signal. Ideja je ta da ako možemo da nadgledamo kako ljudska sreća ima uspone i padove u toku dana, u nekim slučajevima čak iz minuta u minut i pokušamo da razumemo kako ono što ljudi rade, sa kim su, o čemu razmišljaju i svi drugi faktori koji opisuju naš dan, kako bi oni mogli da se povežu sa promenama u sreći, mogli bismo da otkrijemo neke od stvari koje zaista vrše veliki uticaj na sreću. Bili smo te sreće da ovim projektom prikupimo popriličan broj informacija, mnogo više informacija ove vrste nego što mislim da je ikada pre prikupljeno, preko 650 000 izveštaja u stvarnom vremenu, od preko 15 000 ljudi. Ne radi se samo o mnogo ljudi, radi se o zaista raznolikoj grupi ljudi iz širokog spektra godina, od 18 do kasnih 80-ih, širokog spektra prihoda, nivoa obrazovanja, ljudi koji su venčani, razvedeni, udovci, itd. Oni zajedno predstavljaju svaku od 86 profesionalnih kategorija i dolaze iz preko 80 zemalja.
What I'd like to do with the rest of my time with you today is talk a little bit about one of the areas that we've been investigating, and that's mind-wandering. As human beings, we have this unique ability to have our minds stray away from the present. This guy is sitting here working on his computer, and yet he could be thinking about the vacation he had last month, wondering what he's going to have for dinner. Maybe he's worried that he's going bald. (Laughter) This ability to focus our attention on something other than the present is really amazing. It allows us to learn and plan and reason in ways that no other species of animal can. And yet it's not clear what the relationship is between our use of this ability and our happiness. You've probably heard people suggest that you should stay focused on the present. "Be here now," you've probably heard a hundred times. Maybe, to really be happy, we need to stay completely immersed and focused on our experience in the moment. Maybe these people are right. Maybe mind-wandering is a bad thing. On the other hand, when our minds wander, they're unconstrained. We can't change the physical reality in front of us, but we can go anywhere in our minds. Since we know people want to be happy, maybe when our minds wander, they're going to someplace happier than the place that they're leaving. It would make a lot of sense. In other words, maybe the pleasures of the mind allow us to increase our happiness with mind-wandering.
Voleo bih danas u ostatku svog vremena sa vama da govorim o jednoj od oblasti koje smo istraživali, a to je lutanje misli. Kao ljudska bića, imamo jedinstvenu sposobnost da nam misli odlutaju iz sadašnjosti. Ovaj tip sedi ovde i radi za kompjuterom, ali zapravo bi mogao da razmišlja o odmoru na kom je bio prošlog meseca, da se pita šta će imati za večeru. Možda je zabrinut što ćelavi. (Smeh) Ova sposobnost da usredsredimo pažnju na nešto drugo, a ne na sadašnjost je zaista sjajna. Dopušta nam da učimo i planiramo i rezonujemo na načine na koje ni jedna druga životinjska vrsta ne može. A zapravo nije jasno koja je povezanost između našeg korišćenja ove sposobnosti i naše sreće. Verovatno ste čuli da ljudi predlažu da bi trebalo ostati fokusiran na sadašnjost. ,,Budi ovde sada", verovatno ste to već čuli stotinu puta. Možda, da bismo zaista bili srećni, moramo da ostanemo potpuno usredsređeni na naše iskustvo u trenutku. Možda su ovi ljudi u pravu. Možda je lutanje misli loša stvar. S druge strane, kada nam misli lutaju, one nisu koncentrisane. Ne možemo da promenimo fizičku realnost pred nama, ali možemo da odlutamo bilo gde u našim mislima. Znamo da ljudi žele da budu srećni, pa možda kada nam misli lutaju, one zapravo odlaze na neko srećnije mesto od onog koje napuštaju. Imalo bi smisla. Drugim rečima, možda nam zadovoljstva uma dozvole da lutanjem misli povećamo sreću.
Well, since I'm a scientist, I'd like to try to resolve this debate with some data, and in particular I'd like to present some data to you from three questions that I ask with Track Your Happiness. Remember, this is from sort of moment-to-moment experience in people's real lives. There are three questions. The first one is a happiness question: How do you feel, on a scale ranging from very bad to very good? Second, an activity question: What are you doing, on a list of 22 different activities including things like eating and working and watching TV? And finally a mind-wandering question: Are you thinking about something other than what you're currently doing? People could say no -- in other words, I'm focused only on my task -- or yes -- I am thinking about something else -- and the topic of those thoughts are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. Any of those yes responses are what we called mind-wandering.
S obzirom na to da sam naučnik, voleo bih da pokušam da rešim ovu debatu nekim informacijama i posebno, voleo bih da vam predstavim neke informacije sa tri pitanja, koja postavljam projektom Prati svoju sreću. Zapamtite, ovo je iz iskustava realnih života ljudi iz trenutka u trenutak. Tu su tri pitanja. Prvo je pitanje o sreći: kako se osećate, na skali od veoma loše do veoma dobro? Drugo je pitanje o aktivnostima: šta radite, na listi od 22 različite aktivnosti, uključujući stvari kao što su jedenje, rad i gledanje TV-a? I konačno pitanje o lutanju misli: da li mislite na nešto drugo osim na ono što trenutno radite? Ljudi mogu da kažu ne - drugim rečima, skoncentrisan sam samo na ono što radim - ili da - mislim na nešto drugo - i teme tih misli su priijatne, neutralne ili neprijatne. Svi odgovori sa da su ono što nazivamo lutanjem misli.
So what did we find? This graph shows happiness on the vertical axis, and you can see that bar there representing how happy people are when they're focused on the present, when they're not mind-wandering. As it turns out, people are substantially less happy when their minds are wandering than when they're not. Now you might look at this result and say, okay, sure, on average people are less happy when they're mind-wandering, but surely when their minds are straying away from something that wasn't very enjoyable to begin with, at least then mind-wandering should be doing something good for us. Nope. As it turns out, people are less happy when they're mind-wandering no matter what they're doing. For example, people don't really like commuting to work very much. It's one of their least enjoyable activities, and yet they are substantially happier when they're focused only on their commute than when their mind is going off to something else. It's amazing.
Šta smo otkrili? Ovaj grafik pokazuje sreću na vertikalnoj osi i možete videti da ovaj pravougaonik predstavlja koliko su ljudi srećni kada su usredsređeni na sadašnjost, kada im misli ne lutaju. Kako se ispostavilo, ljudi su manje srećni kada im misli lutaju nego kada im ne lutaju. Možete pogledati ovaj rezultat i reći, dobro, naravno, u proseku, ljudi su manje srećni kada im misli lutaju, ali sa sigurnošću misli im lutaju od nečega što od samog početka nije bilo nešto u čemu su uživali, barem bi tada lutanje misli trebalo da nam donese nešto dobro. Ali nije tako. Ispostavlja se, da su ljudi manje srećni kada im misli lutaju, bez obzira na to šta rade. Na primer, ljudi ne vole baš mnogo da putuju na posao. To je jedna od aktivnosti u kojima najmanje uživaju, ali su uprkos tome srećniji kada su usredsređeniji na svoje putovanje, nego kada im misli odlutaju na nešto drugo. Sjajno je.
So how could this be happening? I think part of the reason, a big part of the reason, is that when our minds wander, we often think about unpleasant things, and they are enormously less happy when they do that, our worries, our anxieties, our regrets, and yet even when people are thinking about something neutral, they're still considerably less happy than when they're not mind-wandering at all. Even when they're thinking about something they would describe as pleasant, they're actually just slightly less happy than when they aren't mind-wandering. If mind-wandering were a slot machine, it would be like having the chance to lose 50 dollars, 20 dollars or one dollar. Right? You'd never want to play. (Laughter)
Kako je moguće da se ovo dešava? Smatram da je delimično razlog to što kada nam misli lutaju, često mislimo na neprijatne stvari i ljudi su mnogo manje srećni kada to rade - naše brige, naši strahovi, kajanja - a međutim kada ljudi misle na nešto neutralno, značajno su manje srećni nego kada im misli uopšte ne lutaju. Čak i kada misle na nešto što bi opisali kao prijatno, zapravo su samo malo manje srećni, nego kada im misli ne lutaju. Kada bi lutanje misli bilo slot mašina, bilo bi kao da imate šansu da izgubite 50 dolara, 20 dolara ili jedan dolar. Zar ne? Nikada ne biste hteli da igrate. (Smeh)
So I've been talking about this, suggesting, perhaps, that mind-wandering causes unhappiness, but all I've really shown you is that these two things are correlated. It's possible that's the case, but it might also be the case that when people are unhappy, then they mind-wander. Maybe that's what's really going on. How could we ever disentangle these two possibilites? Well, one fact that we can take advantage of, I think a fact you'll all agree is true, is that time goes forward, not backward. Right? The cause has to come before the effect. We're lucky in this data we have many responses from each person, and so we can look and see, does mind-wandering tend to precede unhappiness, or does unhappiness tend to precede mind-wandering, to get some insight into the causal direction. As it turns out, there is a strong relationship between mind-wandering now and being unhappy a short time later, consistent with the idea that mind-wandering is causing people to be unhappy. In contrast, there's no relationship between being unhappy now and mind-wandering a short time later. In other words, mind-wandering very likely seems to be an actual cause, and not merely a consequence, of unhappiness.
Govorio sam o ovome, možda čak sugerisao na to da lutanje misli uzrokuje nesreću, ali sam vam zapravo pokazao da su ove dve stvari povezane. Moguće je da je tako, ali moglo bi takođe da bude da ljudima misli lutaju kada su nesrećni. Možda je to ono što se zapravo dešava. Kako ikada možemo da razdvojimo ove dve mogućnosti? Možemo iskoristiti jednu prednost. Složićete se sa mnom da je činjenica da vreme ide unapred, a ne unazad. Je li tako? Uzrok mora da dođe pre posledice. Srećni smo što imamo odgovore od svake osobe, tako da možemo da pogledamo i vidimo, da li lutanje misli teži da prethodi nesreći ili pak da li nesreća prethodi lutanju misli i tako prodremo u uzroke ove pojave. Ispostavilo se da postoji jaka veza između lutanja misli u ovom trenutku i osećaja nesreće odmah posle, što se slaže sa idejom da lutanje misli prouzrokuje ljudsku nereću. Poređenja radi, ne postoji veza između osećanja nesreće u datom trenutku i lutanja misli kratko nakon toga. Drugim rečima, lutanje misli je vrlo verovatno stvaran uzrok, a ne samo posledica nesreće.
A few minutes ago, I likened mind-wandering to a slot machine you'd never want to play. Well, how often do people's minds wander? Turns out, they wander a lot. In fact, really a lot. Forty-seven percent of the time, people are thinking about something other than what they're currently doing. How does that depend on what people are doing? This shows the rate of mind-wandering across 22 activities ranging from a high of 65 percent — (Laughter) — when people are taking a shower, brushing their teeth, to 50 percent when they're working, to 40 percent when they're exercising, all the way down to this one short bar on the right that I think some of you are probably laughing at. Ten percent of the time people's minds are wandering when they're having sex. (Laughter) But there's something I think that's quite interesting in this graph, and that is, basically with one exception, no matter what people are doing, they're mind-wandering at least 30 percent of the time, which suggests, I think, that mind-wandering isn't just frequent, it's ubiquitous. It pervades basically everything that we do.
Pre nekoliko minuta, uporedio sam lutanje misli sa slot mašinom, koju nikada nećete poželeti da igrate. Koliko često ljudima misli lutaju? Ispostavlja se da mnogo lutaju. Zapravo, zaista mnogo. 47% vremena, ljudi misle na nešto drugo, a ne na ono što rade u tom trenutku. Kako to zavisi od onoga što ljudi rade? Ovo prikazuje stopu lutanja misli u 22 aktivnosti što ima raspon od 65% - (Smeh) - kada se ljudi tuširaju, peru zube, do 50% kada rade, 40% kada vežbaju, sve do ove kratke linije sa desne strane, kojoj se verovatno, mislim, neki od vas smeju. 10% vremena ljudski um luta kada imaju seks. (Smeh) Smatram da je na ovom grafiku veoma zanimljivo to što, doduše sa jednim izuzetkom, bez obzira na to šta rade, ljudima lutaju misli barem 30% vremena, što sugeriše, mislim, da lutanje misli ne samo da je učestalo, već je i sveprisutno. Prepliće se kroz sve što radimo.
In my talk today, I've told you a little bit about mind-wandering, a variable that I think turns out to be fairly important in the equation for happiness. My hope is that over time, by tracking people's moment-to-moment happiness and their experiences in daily life, we'll be able to uncover a lot of important causes of happiness, and then in the end, a scientific understanding of happiness will help us create a future that's not only richer and healthier, but happier as well. Thank you. (Applause) (Applause)
Danas sam vam u svom govoru rekao nešto o lutanju misli, o varijabli za koju se ispostavilo da je prilično važna u jednačini za sreću. Nadam se da ćemo vremenom, kroz praćenje sreće ljudi iz trenutka u trenutak i njihovog iskustva u svakodnevnom životu, biti u stanju da otkrijemo mnogo važnih uzroka sreće, a onda i da će nam naučno razumevanje sreće pomoći da stvorimo budućnost koja ne samo da će biti bogatija i zdravija, već i srećnija. Hvala vam. (Aplauz) (Aplauz)