First Harvard Article

Dear friends,

Thanks all for the wonderful response to my first article! This is an article that I submitted to the Harvard Citizen, published on 18th Oct 2011. Text below, if you prefer.

Battle hymn of a happiness optimizer

Rahul Daswani, Contributor, MPP’13

Over the last several weeks, many of us (especially first year students) have been struggling to find a balance between maximizing happiness and maintaining control over where we spend our time. I have found five strategies extremely helpful in maximizing my happiness on a daily basis.

1.     Gratitude: After all, we are at Harvard. Every morning, I wake up and marvel at the fact that I’m actually here. Surprisingly, this isn’t a joke. The fact that our ‘problems’ involve trying to figure out which diplomat to go have a discussion with, or which war veteran to sit next to in class, is an existence most people don’t even begin to imagine. I’ve taken to plugging out of my iPod and plugging in to the sounds, sights and smells around me during my 15 min walk to campus. Try smiling at every person you walk by on your way to school for 5 minutes straight: you might be surprised at the reaction you get.

2.     The 80/20 principle: For the non-consultants among us, a common rule we can apply to our daily life (aka problem sets) is that we can get 80% of the solutions with 20% of the effort (or time). One way to practice this is to have self-imposed time limits for assignments. For instance, I have vowed never to spend more than 3 hours a week on stats. If there’s a part of a question I did not get a chance to complete (or will take too long), I’ll just read over the solution set once its out, and spend the rest of my time doing activities I enjoy a little more than number-crunching.

3.     Burst the bubbles: So now that we are all happier and have new-found time on our hands, what kinds of things could we do? Some of the things I enjoy (outside of HKS and even the Harvard community) are: Exploring the social scene at other schools; stopping by the GSD for beer and BBQ once beer runs out at quorum call; going to a HBS party on Wednesday night; organizing a house crawl.  Better yet, I enjoy exploring areas outside of Cambridge, such as taking a day trip to Maine (best lobster I’ve ever had); spending a weekend at a Cape Cod beach; or going on a date Thursday night at Stella in Boston with someone stellar.

4.     Cultivate mentors: In an environment where so many people have spent significant amounts of time living and working in each of our ‘dream jobs’, it would be foolish not to learn from their experience. Take advantage of formal as well as informal opportunities to meet people who you can bounce ideas off. The Mid-Careers often share classes with us kids, or are involved in the same service projects. The ones I have met have been nothing but open and excited to provide guidance at our behest.

5.     Take an annoying classmate to lunch: Wait, what? Yes, I’m sure we all have a small number of people who just get on our nerves every time they talk. Our instincts tell us to walk away to pre-empt any chance of a prelude to a conversation. Or is it just me? In any case, one of the most rewarding things I’ve done is sit down for an extended conversation (over lunch, in the courtyard, at a house party) with one of those people to understand more about where they come from, and why they think the way they do. Often, I’ve found it allows me to refine my own perspective on life, and think about things in a way I hadn’t thought of before. Not to mention, that person becomes much more of a real friend to me than just another ‘Facebook friend’.

These are some of the strategies I have used to avoid death by problem sets, keep my perspective and optimize my happiness. If you have any other ideas or strategies, I’d love to hear ‘em.  See you at the next party.