Yesterday, I came across a book called Happiness: Lessons from a New Science
by Richard Layard . The books is a multi-disinplinary book between psychology, sociology, applied economics, and other fields about what is defined as happiness and how increased western standards of living had no effect on happiness. I had the chance to read only the first few chapters of the book at the bookstore, however, it did captivate my attention of nearly half an hour. The book describes three main ideas that determine happiness in a person.

1. Status Race: We are more happy earning 100k a year when the average salary is say, 60k a year in the neighborhood than we are earning 150k a year compared to average salary of 180k a year. Most memorable quote i read related to this point.

A man is a very wealthy man if he earns 10 dollars more than his wife's sister's husband.

2. Security: Electrons try to be stable and loose energy/gain energy is achieve this state. In the same way, human beings want stability. They hate insecurity in jobs, in general life and are very unhappy about that. Maybe that is the reason why Japan was so successful during the middle of the cenutry, thanks to its no-firing policy at its companies. People tend to be more happier when they dont have to think about something they dont like.

3. Trust: You dont trust everybody and view each and everyone of them in suspision. This is also why you tend to be happiest among your friends and family, because you trust them. If you dont feel comfortable around them, then you got yourself a problem.