On Failure and Happiness

Randomly, I've been re-reading Geography of Bliss this week: a visiting cousin happened to leave his copy behind, which was a stroke of good luck, since my copy is currently 5000 miles away. I flipped the book open and found myself reading about Iceland, and specifically, what makes Icelandic people, on average, amongst the happiest in the world*:

"Having multiple identities (though not multiple personalities) is, [according to one Iceland resident] conducive to happiness. This runs counter to the prevailing belief in the United States and other western nations, where specialization is considered the highest good. Academics, doctors, and other professionals spend lifetimes learning more and more about less and less. In Iceland, people learn more and more about more and more."

And, by way of explaining how multiple identities are able to be cultivated:

"It's because of failure," says Larus, pushing his glasses against the bridge of his nose.
"Failure?"
"Yes, failure doesn't carry a stigma in Iceland. In fact, in a way, we admire failures."

This all intuitively makes sense to me. As an oversimplification:

If you're not worried about failing, you're more likely to try new things, which is likely to cause happiness.

(* Caveat: At least, according to Ruut Veenhoven and Eric Weiner. As pointed out by friends at brunch, there are too many unanswered questions/concerns about the methodology to rely too heavily on its accuracy. And who knows if Icelanders *are* happy? They seem to be having their own share of troubles these days.)

Happiness is Tolerance?

I've been thinking about tolerance lately. I attended a thought-provoking lecture by Dr. Ken Jackson this weekend, in which he discussed the virtues of New York City. Jackson posited that New York was unique amongst international cities because it has such a multi-cultural, tolerant population.

I disagreed with a number of Dr. Jackson's arguments, but the lecture got me thinking about "Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner. In short: it's an NPR journalist's exploration of the research done by Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, who researches the happiest places in the world.

Weiner travels from country to country, trying to figure out why people are happy. The first chapter is about the Netherlands, which ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. Here is Weiner's take on why the Dutch are so happy:

"Tolerance! This is the original "don't tread on me" nation... The Dutch will tolerate anything, even intolerance. In the past few decades they have welcomed, with open arms, immigrants from around the world, including those from nations that don't tolerate things like religious freedom and women who work or drive or show their faces. Dutch tolerance comes at a cost, as the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist highlighted. But Veenhoven's research shoes that tolerant people tend to be happy."