[The World on the Page] Actions for Happiness Revealed by Big Data

Today, we are surrounded by data. The digital world is pouring out an astonishing amount of data. The human mind cannot quickly process this kind of massive and unstructured data. While our minds are excellent at instantly perceiving the true feelings of those around us through facial expressions or gestures, our ability to quickly understand large-scale data is not particularly remarkable. This is why we often fail to grasp the flow of the world.

Fortunately, wanting to read big data, we invented a mind completely different from ours: artificial intelligence (AI). AI excels and is proficient at quickly processing big data to make optimal decisions. Thanks to this, for the first time in history, humanity has acquired the technology to understand the past and foresee the future using the enormous traces it has left behind?data on the scale of trillions.

In "How Data Becomes a Weapon in Life" (The Quest), Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard PhD in economics and former Google data scientist, speaks of a "data-driven life solution." Instead of relying on intuition, common sense, or baseless advice, utilizing big data collected through smartphones and computers can help us live better lives.

According to Yuval Harari, before the Middle Ages, religion primarily provided a compass that explained how the world was and how we should live. After the Renaissance, our cultivated tastes (emotions) provided the map of life. However, God has long since fallen silent, and emotions often lead us astray.

Before excavators existed, people dug the ground with their hands or shovels, but when excavators are available, it is better to use them. Big data outlines the contours of the world and can help us make good decisions at life's crossroads. Properly utilizing artificial intelligence is crucial for escaping human biases and making better choices.

Humans often fall into illusions due to cognitive biases. For example, we commonly believe that obtaining our dream job will make us happy. However, this is not true. Surveys of assistant professors striving to become tenured professors illustrate this well. Before becoming tenured, most believe that obtaining the desired position will bring long-term happiness.

It is merely an illusion. Over time, comparing those who became tenured with those who did not shows little difference in happiness. Getting the desired job brings momentary joy but does not enhance happiness itself. We do not accurately remember the duration or total amount of past joy and pain. Because of this, we overvalue the peak of joy and remember pain for longer. However, pain and joy are momentary, and their duration is not very long. Even if people do not get their desired job, they quickly recover. Even terrible and seemingly fatal events are not as significant when they actually occur.

The Book of Job is right: "This too shall pass."

Using big data is advantageous for correcting our cognitive illusions. The happiness research by George MacKerron and Susanna Morato demonstrates this well. They recruited 60,000 smartphone users and collected over 3 million happiness-related data points?the largest dataset ever. Together with co-researcher Alex Bryson, they systematically classified human activities to discover what truly makes humans happy.

According to the happiness activity chart they created, the activity that makes humans happiest is intimate contact with a loved partner, especially sex. Attending plays, dance performances, concerts, exhibitions, museums, and libraries followed. Sports, running, and exercise ranked fourth; gardening fifth; conversation, chatting, and socializing seventh; walking and hiking ninth. Work and study were thirty-ninth, and being sick and bedridden was last, fortieth.

The result that sex and socializing, which increase intimacy with those around us, make us happy, while battling illness and working make us unhappy, is commonsensical. However, people often underestimate how happy they are when visiting exhibitions or libraries, exercising or running, and gardening. This explains why Park Gang-su, mayor of Mapo District, made the foolish decision to reduce libraries?the source of happiness?and increase study rooms?the breeding ground of unhappiness. When leaders do not understand happiness, residents become unhappy.

Watching television and movies ranked twenty-first, smartphone games twenty-second, sleep and rest twenty-ninth, internet surfing thirty-first, and social media thirty-second. People overestimate the happiness brought by passive activities that require little energy. However, for happiness, one must get out of "bangkok" (staying indoors) and actively move outside. Those who live a sedentary indoor life often suffer from depression.

The problem is that people often spend more time on activities with low happiness than on those with high happiness. People allocate about two hours of their waking time to happy activities like intimate contact or visiting exhibitions, while more than half is given to unhappy activities such as work, housework, and commuting. Big data tells us that restructuring daily life is necessary to become happier.

People often say they love their work. Most of this is a lie. It is fundamentally difficult for work itself to be happy. However, moving residence closer to the workplace to reduce commuting time, regularly relaxing by listening to music, and suppressing unhappy activities reduce work stress. But the most important thing is to get along with colleagues like friends. When coworkers treat each other considerately and as friends, workplace happiness increases, greatly raising the likelihood that work becomes enjoyable. Good leaders make the workplace a place of camaraderie.

Ironically, big data argues that to be happy, one should not overuse smartphones. Humans gain the greatest happiness when interacting with close people such as lovers or friends. Frequently interacting with loose acquaintances does not increase happiness but rather leads to greater unhappiness. Internet shopping and social media are leisure activities that provide the least happiness. Spending a significant portion of Facebook activity on going to concerts with close ones, walking, or hiking clearly makes life happier.

Jang Eun-su, literary critic