Manel Baucells was the favourite Professor amongst students when I did my MBA at IESE Business School. He taught Decision Analysis. There are certain types of situation under which humans will take poor (rational) decisions. We study this subject so that we can reduce the likelihood that we will take similar poor decisions under similar situations. Examples of situations that cause poor decisions are sunk costs, loss aversion, prediction of low frequency events.
Manel’s new book “Engineering Happiness: A New Approach for Building a Joyful Life“has just arrived to my Kindle. I asked him to answer a few questions about the book, and about how a Microsoft Excel geek could end up at the fluffy end of psychology… writing about happiness ;-)
Interview with Manel Baucells
by Manel Baucells
What most surprised you in learning about happiness?
How much happiness depends on our attitudes, rather than on external circumstances.
What led you to write the book?
As professors, our audience are the students that attend our lectures and the colleagues that read our academic papers. There is a moment in our careers that we want to expand our audience, and publish a book for a broad audience. It is critical to choose a time that is not too early in one’s career, and ideas are not yet mature; or too late. Rakesh and I felt that this is a good time in our careers to write a book of this characteristics.
Who will benefit from reading the book?
Any one interested in being happier, or readers of popular science books. I feel that the audience for non-fiction, research based books is expanding. This increase is due, no doubt, to the growing quality and relevance of the research done in the social sciences.
What are the 3 most damaging things people do that reduce happiness?
The fundamental starting point of the book is that happiness equals reality minus expectations. There are three key things one needs to understand:
- The first is that expectations shift. The moment one increases his or her living standards, one get adapted quite soon, and going back down is very painful.
- The second is that our happiness is greatly influenced by how we compare with our peers, our comparison group.
- The third is that happiness can be engineered by using a “less to more” approach. Always start low, and then increase.
What 3 things have you changed in your own life since writing the book?
Managing expectations better, create less to more (crescendo) patterns, and engage in activities that accumulate.
The book is accessible for anyone interested in the latest science on the field of human happiness: Engineering Happiness: A New Approach for Building a Joyful Life.
Have you read the book? Did you have Manel as a professor? What are your thoughts about the concept of mathematically measuring and improving “happiness”?