Sam Harris on Happiness

by Will Wilkinson on February 17, 2008

He focuses on the absence of negative feelings. He’s almost Eastern. And I think this is in fact the largest part of the subjective sense of well-being. The importance of the absence of anxiety and worry is why it is plausible that money has a fairly strong non-relative effect well up the income scale. There is always some worry that having a bit more helps alleviate.

By the way, Big Think has a lot of interesting stuff. I think of it as mono-vlogging.

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Kai 1 year ago 1 point
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What he seems to be describing is the concept of "mindfulness", i.e., being focused on and attentive to the present moment as opposed to being preoccupied with the past or the future. Dwelling (maybe regretfully) on the past and rehearsing the future (maybe anxiously) both increase the risk of negative affect, and as Ed Diener and others have found, we have a built-in negativity bias anyway.
I have known mindfulness as a lifestyle ideal, and it was a new aspect to me that it works by increasing happiness.

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TGGP 1 year ago 1 point
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If merely the absence of negative feelings is what it's all about, does that lead to anti-natalism?

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slots 4 months ago 1 point
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Their is a line between poverty and wealth.. where negative feelings subside to an extent. When you get to a certain level of poverty.. the anxiety really builds up.

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