Academic Identity
I am assistant professor of Sociology at Barnard College. My book (and my dissertation research) is a comparative study of technology and futures trading, an ethnography of open outcry and electronic traders. My current research is on how art specialists price cultural commodities, particularly how categories and commensuration work in the secondary/resale fine arts market. I teach courses in economic sociology, organizations, and gender.
Professional Identity
I occasionally consult, focusing on organizational change, the future of technology and financial markets, and environmental markets. I do strategic assessments of markets, technology and organizational design, with qualitative and quantitative components. If you are interested, please email me.
Personal Identity
I grew up outside Chicago, and went to school(s) at Wesleyan University, USC, and Northwestern University. I currently live in New York, with a partner who is a marketing manager for an educational nonprofit. I love movies, like to cook, and I can do a mean lindy swing out. I am INTP.
July 24, 2008
PAL Happiness Index
Filed under: Ramble — Peter @ 1:20 pm
What would go into the Peter Happiness Index (PHI)?
weather (temp+humidity+rain+sunshine quotient)
day of the week (Monday= -1; Tues-Thurs= 0; Fri-Sat= +1; Sun= 0)
amount of work accomplished (three-day moving average of some kind of productivity index)
relationship status (arguments, romance, etc. as dummies, or perhaps a 7-point scale)
work to-do list
home to-do list
recent wider-world communications (recently caught up with friends, family)
days since last vacation/days to next vacation
personal finances (stock market + real estate market proxy)
health (days since last workout, sickness level, current weight, 4-week weight changes)
hobby activities (days engaged in/since last)
cultural consumption (good songs heard / movies seen / TV watched / clubs gone to / high culture)
What am I missing? I’m going to try to put this index together and see if it has face validity…
2 Responses to “PAL Happiness Index”
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This site is hand-woven, and heavily borrows from the wonderful blueprint framwork. Rock on, grids!
Not quite
, but getting there..
July 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
some kind of risk index, where the “happiest” loading would involve you taking some interpersonal and professional risks, but in ways you successfully justify (to yourself) as meaningful (while you also secretly wonder if you’re insane and engage in elaborate forms of self-sabotage).
same thing with an annoyances/crankiness/contraryness index, where optimal level is neither high (lots of annoyances, very cranky, very contrary) nor very low.
you should add in a rating of how generous you feel yourself to be. call it The Up With People In Oh Eight Scale.
What about including your accomplishments, broadly defined, so that you get points for publications, but also for tasty meals made, etc.?
and don’t you want some bio-metric-y stuff, too…that isn’t weight-related? for example, don’t they say that smiling can release endorphins that make you feel better, even if you weren’t smiling from pleasure?
Oh, and what’s the jury’s ruling on things like booze and drugs that will make you “happier” but in really superficial or short-term ways, and might be harmful over the long-run?
still thinkin’…
July 24th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I like, I like. First collect, then cull, then operationalize, then chart. I’d say per drugs, that it’s kind of a mildly weighted positive, if you include hangover+long-term damage against anticipatory pleasure+buzziness+positive affect on risk index…
I’m struck by how many of these measures are external or out of my control, though maybe I’m just not including enough of the subjectives. Interesting that yours focus on those..
Biometrics, too…there’s Kerewin from Bone People who kept a years-running tally of her various biometrics, to see how her rhythms matched the world’s. Sounds exhausting to me.