Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness • Hacker News Board

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#21

Post by rob74 » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:08 AM UTC

> Which comes first, succeeding and then being happy, or being happy and then succeeding?

Er, that sounds suspiciously like the eternal question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". If you start off with a "happy" state of mind because of "external" reasons, you are probably more likely to succeed at work too, but of course your work also should contribute to maintaining your happiness. So it's either a virtuous cycle of success at work (without having to invest all of your time into it!) leading to a better overall life; or a balance of work being (negatively) stressful and you needing to "recharge" in your spare time (family life, friends, hobbies...); or a vicious cycle of your work burning you out and also leading to personal problems - of course, a positive attitude helps, but IMHO asking the simplistic question "which comes first" is as dumb as in the chicken-and-egg example...

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#22

Post by inter_netuser » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:22 AM UTC

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #12

pella wrote: post #2

suggestions ( via MIT Sloan ) 1. Measure happiness in both employees and job candidates. 2. Develop happiness in your workforce. 3. Retain employees who are happy.

>2. Develop happiness in your workforce. Floggings will continue until your happiness KPIs improve.

you forgot to add (MIT Sloan)

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#23

Post by jfoutz » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:24 AM UTC

adra wrote: post #8

drewcoo wrote: post #5

Happy people don't change the world. They maintain the status quo. "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - Shaw https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a...

I'd argue lazy people don't often change the world and probably not people who are drunk/high all the time. I'd argue self worth and personal happiness doesn't eliminate ones desire to positively change society (same with rich people), though it may be less common. Lincoln was a rich white guy who still did good things. Tons of CEOs are money obsessed miserable sociopaths whos greatest contributions will be adding so…

Lincoln was born in poverty. The founding fathers were all rich. I get your point, it’s just a bad example.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#24

Post by foo_barrio » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:25 AM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #21

> Which comes first, succeeding and then being happy, or being happy and then succeeding? Er, that sounds suspiciously like the eternal question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". If you start off with a "happy" state of mind because of "external" reasons, you are probably more likely to succeed at work too, but of course your work also should contribute to maintaining your happiness. So it's either a virtu…

The chicken/egg question always irks me. Eggs came first. Eggs have existed far longer than chickens (eg dinosaur eggs). Whatever the first thing we could possibly call a chicken came from an egg.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#25

Post by avgcorrection » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:26 AM UTC

pella wrote: post #2

suggestions ( via MIT Sloan ) 1. Measure happiness in both employees and job candidates. 2. Develop happiness in your workforce. 3. Retain employees who are happy.

Fitter, happier, more productive

Comfortable (Not drinking too much)

Regular exercise at the gym (Three days a week)

Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries

At ease

Eating well (No more microwave dinners and saturated fats)

A patient, better driver

A safer car (Baby smiling in back seat)

Sleeping well (No bad dreams)

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#26

Post by throwaway5486nv » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:29 AM UTC

cube00 wrote: post #6

> While many — if not most — of us are motivated by genuine caring for the people who power our organizations, we also intuitively know that employee happiness should boost job performance. I have a hard time believing that "many — if not most" people in management are actually motivated by this.

No post body was provided.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#27

Post by endymi0n » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:29 AM UTC

keyraycheck wrote: post #11

jimkleiber wrote: post #9

> We first asked them to rate their well-being — their happiness, if you will — along with their optimism, and then tracked which soldiers later received awards based on their job performance. I'm curious to dig into the paper more because at first glance, I feel somewhat confused they seem to say happiness and well-being and optimism are all essentially the same thing. Again, maybe their paper doesn't say that and i…

or is it other way around? i.e. High performers are happier and more optimistic. So cause and affect is reversed

The study answers this question (at least partly) by measuring happiness levels _before_ the job.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#28

Post by i_like_waiting » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:29 AM UTC

cube00 wrote: post #6

> While many — if not most — of us are motivated by genuine caring for the people who power our organizations, we also intuitively know that employee happiness should boost job performance. I have a hard time believing that "many — if not most" people in management are actually motivated by this.

I am not, you can add it as a data point. Its just work, you are probably not caring about your manager outside of your performance review. And thats fair.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#29

Post by stephen_g » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:31 AM UTC

drewcoo wrote: post #5

Happy people don't change the world. They maintain the status quo. "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - Shaw https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a...

I disagree. Obviously there’s no single rule, and we can argue about what causes what and what is just a correlation, but I think a lot of unhappy people are cynical, and cynical people are less likely to try and change the world, whereas a lot of optimistic people are happier people, and optimistic people might be more likely to be crazy enough to think they can change the world.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#30

Post by xmprt » Tue, Feb 22, 2022, 7:31 AM UTC

foo_barrio wrote: post #24

rob74 wrote: post #21

> Which comes first, succeeding and then being happy, or being happy and then succeeding? Er, that sounds suspiciously like the eternal question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". If you start off with a "happy" state of mind because of "external" reasons, you are probably more likely to succeed at work too, but of course your work also should contribute to maintaining your happiness. So it's either a virtu…

The chicken/egg question always irks me. Eggs came first. Eggs have existed far longer than chickens (eg dinosaur eggs). Whatever the first thing we could possibly call a chicken came from an egg.

You're right but for the people who are confused, it's because of the semantics of the question. If you specify the question a little more and ask "What came first? The chicken or the chicken egg" then the question is how do you define a chicken egg. Is it the egg that comes from a chicken or the egg that a chicken hatches from.

In the first case, the chicken came first and in the second case, the egg came first. I think it's obvious the the second case makes more sense but some people might argue.