Why Modern Life Can Feel So Empty - William von Hippel - #905

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Episode 41 was when you were last on the show, and this will be 910 or something, maybe.

**William von Hippel** (0:09)
So you've been busy.

**Chris Williamson** (0:12)
So have you. But you've barbelled two ends of a half decade of lots of content. So I was thinking, I just got back from a walk, and I was thinking about your new book. And I had this sort of consideration in my mind, whether it would be useful for us to still have hunter-gatherers living amongst us today, just to remind all of the modern humans about how good we've got it across human history, this sort of weird inequality reminder that would sort of be lingering there in the back of our minds.

**William von Hippel** (0:42)
Yeah, that would be awesome. I mean, we are not long ago, I remember ordering a pizza and it came with barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce on my meat lettuce pizza. And I was just devastated. I was like, how could this happen to me? And a couple of hunter gathers in our existence and I go, oh, who cares about my pizza, right?

**Chris Williamson** (1:01)
Yeah. So why, given the fact that, obviously the joke that everybody hates to hear, I hate to hear it. I hate to be reminded of my opulent, bourgeois, luxurious 21st century life. But given the fact that living standards are objectively the best that they've ever been, why is it that so many people are struggling to lead happy lives despite being relatively blessed?

**William von Hippel** (1:26)
Yeah. That's the shocking fact that got me started on this book. I always thought it was everybody else. I read this literature, I know it very well. Being wealthy doesn't make you happy. I admit, I felt a little superior to wealthy people. I thought, well, here I am, just middle-class guy. If I were wealthy, I would be happier because I would appreciate what I have. I even remember visiting an old friend and just marveling at his inability to appreciate this extraordinary wealth that he had accumulated since we were kids.
But it wasn't until I was reading Frank Marlowe's wonderful book on the Hudson that I realized, I'm just as bad as he is, we all are. We don't appreciate these amazing riches that we have. If you think about them, you might say, well, what does it really matter that we have a fancier chair or something like that? But it's not just the trivial comforts. Hunter Gathers buried almost half their children. They lived in a world that was dangerous and uncomfortable and unpredictable. We live in this world that's comfortable and safe and has endless opportunities for entertainment, and yet we're not any happier than they were. If you look at the literature, there's all bits and bobs of advice. Express awe, express gratitude, do these things. Those all are pretty good pieces of advice. They help in the moment. But it doesn't answer the question of how can we possibly not be happier than they are. And that's what got me started in about 10 years ago. And it took me forever to figure out what I think might be an important part of the answer.

**Chris Williamson** (2:52)
Yeah, it's an upsetting realization that we all know in the back of our minds. And we all have this sense of ungratefulness, or at least I do.
I understand I can one click order my Amazon parcel and it arrives one day late to my house. But I really wanted that sun cream so that I could go to the beach on that day or whatever. And I had to go to the corner shop. And I mean, the corner shop had it too, but how inconvenienced I was. And I don't necessarily like being reminded of it, but it does give us a very fascinating insight into the way that human psychology, well-being, satisfaction, happiness, the way that that works because it's so stark and it's so front and center to all of our experiences. Even just over the last 50 years, the last 100 years, the difference in the quality of our lives and yet, you might even know this, how do we rank in modern society in terms of happiness rates overall across the span of human history?

**William von Hippel** (3:57)
Well, across the span of human history is a little hard. We can look at the last 50 years where income has tripled basically in the US and Western Europe, and we can see that average happiness levels have an increased and iota. They're completely flat. It's called the Easterlin paradox while country gets richer.
The little conveniences don't seem to make much difference. The you would think, and it's fair enough because it probably annoyed you slightly to your package was a day late, but then you probably got on with life. You probably didn't lie there all night going, I can't believe I didn't have sun cream today, right? The little things make sense, but what doesn't make sense to me is the big things. When you look at the data, for example, some investigators went to Tanzania and asked the Hadza, how happy are you? Over 90 percent said they're happy. Basically, that was their answer, I'm happy. Whereas when you ask the same question in Poland, which is where the investigators were from, less than 50 percent said that I'm happy. They chose instead of sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm sad, or even I'm sad. And so, I'm together look like they're happier than we are, and that life of theirs is so difficult to lead. And so, part of the story is clearly, everybody gets caught up in the details of life, but there's got to be a bigger part of the story when we zoom out that would explain why, despite all these modern wonderfulnesses about our lives, we don't have a greater, higher life satisfaction. It's human nature to get annoyed at the small things, but why is it that we're not just walking through life going, God, life is great. You know, why don't we just appreciate this enormous opportunity and wealth that we have, which I was feeling very superior for those people not appreciating until I realized I'm not doing it either, right? None of us are.