money can't buy happiness. oh, yeah? says who?

Interesting interview in the Atlantic about money and happiness. Turns out money should buy us happiness, but most people aren't spending it right.
Do you buy things? Thats a dead end street and a path to disappointment and disenchantment.
Profs. Daniel Gilbert, Elizabeth Dunn and Timothy Wilson have found that people need to buy more experiences and fewer objects. This all gets back to what I call the story*, buy an object you get an instant hit and then it fades quickly.
Go on a trip or do something cool around town that provides memories and material for conversations with friends and acquaintances and you have that forever. Even if you've had bad memories of the event, those fade over time and the event will take on mythical proportions and bring even more joy years down the road.
Another revelation they found, smaller more frequent experiences provide more happiness than one great experience. Makes sense as they're cumulative and tend to snowball.

the story*
Last night we had a blast at The Lackman, the coolest bar in a beautiful old building in the hottest neighborhood in Cincinnati, tons of other people out enjoying the mild evening and some damn good beer specials.
Of course being The Lackman there was much beer talk including home brewing complete with pictures and videos.
Walking home, we twice ran into friends, already with grins on our faces, gabbing away.
We got to meet Gabi who came from Pheonix to check out the Cincy scene, not surprising that she came to where the action and energy is, downtown/OTR. When she goes home she'll be telling everyone about how cool Cincinnati is.
I wonder what kind of story people living in the suburbs have of their trip to the mall?
Venice on Vine: free tip here, make a batch of pepperoni pizza and swing by to sell by the slice, I guarantee you'll be printing money.





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