Dilbert’s Happiness Formula
Scott Adams, creator of the wildly entertaining (and my personal favorite) comic “Dilbert,” gives his take on the formula for happiness. Some of the article is written in jest, however it is still a very interesting read.
I fantasize about writing a book called The Happiness Formula. The idea would be to create a simple formula for troubleshooting your life and improving your happiness. On page one would be this top formula.
Happiness = health + money + social life + meaning
The rest of the book would be nested formulas that further explain each component of happiness. For example…
Health = sleep + diet + exercise
And then down another level…
Sleep = schedule + technique
And down another level until it starts getting practical…
Sleep Technique = consistent bedtime and waking time + no reading or TV in bed + no booze or caffeine…
And so on.
To make the Happiness Formulas extra useful, the highest priorities would appear first (leftmost) in the formula. For example, in the top Happiness Formula (Happiness = health + money + social life + meaning), health is a higher priority than money, which is a higher priority than social life, etc.
What would be your personal formula for happiness? Please share it with us in the comments. Want more information about happiness in the workplace? Go here and here.
Happiness Formula - [Dilbert Blog]
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Comments
vex says on March 30th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Oh, I wish he would write that book, I really do!
Mauricio Mikola says on March 30th, 2007 at 5:45 am
It’s looks like Habit 7 from Stephen Covey.
That’s the problem with new self-help books. They all have the same meanings, with different words. And all have a magical formula to achieve a better condition of life.
I am deciding to quit reading this kind of book, and start to act. Just reading isn’t helping.
But i think it will be a great book, but only if he focus in humor.
Curtis says on March 30th, 2007 at 8:35 am
One of the readers to the Dilbert blog set up a PBWiki for the Happiness Formula. It can be seen here:
http://happinessformula.pbwiki.com/
JamesT says on March 30th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Any chance of getting Dilbert to run for President in ‘08? Haha…in any case, the Happiness Formula looks simple, but man, does it ever just make sense.
Leon says on March 30th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
This is a great inspiration. It may be interesting to put this into a wider scope. Let’s brainstorm more formulas on lifehacks: http://community.lifehack.org/......php?p=505
John says on February 13th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
A lot of research have been done in the psychology realm that proves that material things (cars, money, houses, etc.) do not lead to happiness.
The AIR Equation, dubbed the 3-part formula for happiness, is the closest I’ve seen to being right. The formula claims to be 92% accurate. The website is:
http://www.airequation.org