# 10 Ways to Buy Happiness ![rw-book-cover](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1wHg!,w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6acbf3c4-94d8-44d6-8386-1f3d30fcfc1c_600x398.webp) ## Metadata - Author: [[Ian Leslie]] - Full Title: 10 Ways to Buy Happiness - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: New research shows happiness keeps rising as income grows, not stopping at a fixed plateau. - Source File: web-only Spending wisely matters: make a clear personal model of the life you want (a "Diderot Unity") and avoid impulse buys. Choose goods with real stories or craftsmanship behind them, because those purchases bring more lasting satisfaction. - URL: https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/10-ways-to-buy-happiness?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=62t39&triedRedirect=true ## LLM Chats ## NotebookLM ## LLM Audio ## Highlights > Plausible, but false, for the happiness plateau has been debunked. [A more comprehensive study](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty/matthew-killingsworth/) by [Matthew Killingsworth](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty/matthew-killingsworth/) at Wharton, published in 2021, found that well-being rises steadily with income well beyond $80,000, with an equally steep slope above as below. Kahneman himself accepted this finding and collaborated with Killingsworth on [a new study](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120). This one found that happiness steadily increases with income a long way after $100,000, and that for people who tend to be happy anyway, it actually accelerates. The plateau or flattening effect that Kahneman and Deaton identified is real but applies only to the least happy 20% of the population: ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k5sp95hmn82f83yx8wszg248)) > It’s worth doing. In a recent post on similar themes, [Sherry Ning](https://substack.com/home/post/p-172726092) cited René Girard: “All desire is a desire for *being*”. Ning adds, “Every desire points to a way of life, a kind of person we long to become.” If this is so, then we ought to decide what we want our desires to add up to; on what, or who, we want to be. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k5sph63ywpy8ys5xkrgmpzby))