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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

sloanreview.mit.edu

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Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#441

Post by nuancebydefault »

suction wrote: post #150
hyperman1 wrote: post #128

I had the chance to work with a few people I'd consider genius level. While I'm pretty smart myself, they all have something I don't always have: The ability to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. For example, we were walking trough a hallway. On a wall is an old, damaged, ugly map of my country, half covered with graffiti. I'd walked past it almost every day for half a year. He checks it out, and…

Well, having already made enough money to always be able to just say "you know what, I'm out" whenever you feel like it is necessary to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. Anyone who's not "secure for life" and has to keep the salaries coming in will have to deal with bad people, bad decisions, bad culture, etc. and become unhappy. I've sort of dabbled in that situation: I made and lost a fortune…

I can testify this is not the case, at least in my experience. Being able to say "I'm out" does not guarantee happiness. Compare it to people saying "when I win the lottery, all my problems are fixed". Surely you have heard about studies that conclude quite the opposite. So what makes happy, instead? Being able to cooperate with, surprise people in positive ways, and getting appreciation from that. But this also means investment: being open to ideas of others, being creative and working hard. No pain, no gain...

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#442

Post by Riseed »

nuancebydefault wrote: post #441
suction wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, having already made enough money to always be able to just say "you know what, I'm out" whenever you feel like it is necessary to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. Anyone who's not "secure for life" and has to keep the salaries coming in will have to deal with bad people, bad decisions, bad culture, etc. and become unhappy. I've sort of dabbled in that situation: I made and lost a fortune…

I can testify this is not the case, at least in my experience. Being able to say "I'm out" does not guarantee happiness. Compare it to people saying "when I win the lottery, all my problems are fixed". Surely you have heard about studies that conclude quite the opposite. So what makes happy, instead? Being able to cooperate with, surprise people in positive ways, and getting appreciation from that. But this also mean…

> Being able to say "I'm out" does not guarantee happiness.

It doesn't seem to me that anyone was saying it was a guarantee. Rather, that being able to say "I'm out" is in something along the lines of the "necessary, but not sufficient" category.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#443

Post by tim333 »

datavirtue wrote: post #410
xwdv wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This advice used to work years ago but user expectations have risen massively and you can no longer get away with a shitty cookie cutter MVP. You must do the big work upfront and come out very polished out of the gate, or else users will sense you don’t really have much skin in the game and not bother investing time in your niche project. This often means you must leverage the latest and greatest tech to get an edge,…

Yeah, users care about React. [Eye roll]

As a user I care enough to make some effort to avoid it such as using old.reddit rather than the new fangled version.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#444

Post by borroka »

nuancebydefault wrote: post #441
suction wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, having already made enough money to always be able to just say "you know what, I'm out" whenever you feel like it is necessary to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. Anyone who's not "secure for life" and has to keep the salaries coming in will have to deal with bad people, bad decisions, bad culture, etc. and become unhappy. I've sort of dabbled in that situation: I made and lost a fortune…

I can testify this is not the case, at least in my experience. Being able to say "I'm out" does not guarantee happiness. Compare it to people saying "when I win the lottery, all my problems are fixed". Surely you have heard about studies that conclude quite the opposite. So what makes happy, instead? Being able to cooperate with, surprise people in positive ways, and getting appreciation from that. But this also mean…

I may be making a mundane observation here, but I've tried living with less money and more money, and more money makes me much happier. People who aren't happy with more money (and assuming there are no trade-offs with time spent at work or work-induced stress, say moving from 100k a year to 500k a year), are deserts of desire.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#445

Post by borroka »

snek_case wrote: post #320
pyb wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a good point. Are people successful because they are happy, or vice versa?

I think you're asking the right question. Very unpopular opinion, but I think some of it comes down to genetics. I know a guy who is just always happy, no matter what. I've just never seen him feeling down. He grew up in a somewhat challenging situation but it doesn't seem to matter. I really think some of it is just the way he's wired. He has a lot of energy, is physically active everyday and doesn't fall asleep eas…

All behavioral and "personality" traits are partly heritable and most (all?) of them are due to many genes of small effects. This is a very general and solid result of behavioral genetics, > is made with people who have no clue about the realities of life and speak because they can. It has the same intellectual value as "love will find you."

Although personalities tend to be sticky throughout life, that some people can substantially change their personalities is also quite obvious to anyone with (figuratively) open eyes.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#446

Post by taneq »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #177
montebicyclelo wrote: post #60

> we suggest that leaders follow the science and take a structured approach to hiring for, promoting, and developing employee happiness > Measure happiness in both employees and job candidates. > we conservatively advocate using measures of happiness and optimism as discriminators, or tiebreakers, because the risks are low and the benefits could be important. Good luck getting a job, unhappy people… I don’t think the…

> Good luck getting a job, unhappy people… More like "have fun discriminating against people with psychiatric disabilities."

What happens when psychiatric symptoms are indistinguishable from 'normal' poor performance?

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#447

Post by dragonsky67 »

jglmn wrote: post #348
suction wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, having already made enough money to always be able to just say "you know what, I'm out" whenever you feel like it is necessary to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. Anyone who's not "secure for life" and has to keep the salaries coming in will have to deal with bad people, bad decisions, bad culture, etc. and become unhappy. I've sort of dabbled in that situation: I made and lost a fortune…

I'd flip the script. Start willing yourself to be super positive, interested and committed, and no matter what you'll get much better. More than that, you'll become better liked in the eyes of people who write the checks, and overall be considered more indispensable. That will parlay into additional opportunities, responsibilities and eventually pay. After that, leverage to either negotiate pay, or attract interest f…

Is this the thing that I see in many Americans giving presentations? They are always uncomfortably excited and happy, regardless of what they are presenting. I get it, you're excited, but please accept that I'm here for the information, not your personal endorphin levels.

/rant off.... Sorry just came out of a workshop where the presenter spent half the time trying to get a bunch of technical people excited rather than just presenting the information we came for. Very exhausting.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#448

Post by actually_a_dog »

taneq wrote: post #446
actually_a_dog wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good luck getting a job, unhappy people… More like "have fun discriminating against people with psychiatric disabilities."

What happens when psychiatric symptoms are indistinguishable from 'normal' poor performance?

When the person cannot do the job with reasonable accommodations.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#449

Post by baby »

layer8 wrote: post #426
baby wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s actually talking about stoicism, which is to accept what you can’t change.

Depressed people tend to underestimate what they can change, which complicates the matter.

It’s not about a simple trick, it’s about a shift of mentality akin to finding a religion.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#450

Post by 0x4d464d48 »

sanderjd wrote: post #381
pjc50 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally just emotional labor: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5ea9f140-f722-4214-bb... > we conservatively advocate using measures of happiness and optimism as discriminators So the job goes to the people who, in the eyes of the interviewer, can best fake happiness. The more desperate you are for the job for economic reasons, the more pressure on you to fake it convincingly. Big bright but not desper…

I think a lot of your points are good ones, but I wonder why you're so convinced it has to be fake emotions? It is not outlandish to think a person would have real gratitude for someone or three good things that happened in a day or strengths they can apply in new ways. I share your sense that forcing employees to do these exercises is pretty gross, but these are not exercises that would be difficult or which I would…

"Not all emotion is fake..."

Agreed. But when people are incentivized to show outward indicators of certain emotions, people aren't particularly good mind readers which makes it hard to parse out fakers from the authentic, it leaves the door open for opportunism, smarm, passive aggression and a different flavor of toxicity.

The way I see it:

Authnetic and happy?

Fantastic!

Authentic and morose?

Not ideal but if the person makes positive contributions and can be trusted theres potential for value add.

Inauthentic with a sunny disposition?

This screams underhanded, manipulative and untrustworthy. Fuck off.

Makes me think of an adage from Warren Buffet.

"We look for intelligence, we look for initiative or energy, and we look for integrity. And if they don't have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you're going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb."

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffett-hiring-t....

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