Hedonic adaptation: why autonomy does not wear off.
Hedonic adaptation is the process by which most things people chase stop registering over time. For example, a pay rise fades around the second year, and a bigger house becomes just the house. Autonomy appears different, because it is a condition rather than a comfort.
Most of what you chase wears off.
A pay rise stops registering somewhere in the second year. Also, a bigger house becomes, fairly quickly, just the house. This adaptation is well documented, and it is described here rather than complained about. As a result, an enormous amount of human striving produces remarkably little that lasts.
Why hedonic adaptation spares autonomy.
Research on basic psychological needs treats autonomy and competence differently. Their satisfaction predicts wellbeing continuously rather than transiently, which means they do not wear out. They do not habituate the way a salary does, because they are not comforts. Instead, they are conditions, and a condition keeps working as long as it lasts.
The honest synthesis.
The largest component of the self-employment satisfaction premium is autonomy. So the thing driving that satisfaction is the one least likely to fade. You will probably not be as happy as you think. However, you will probably be more satisfied with your work, and that is worth paying for.
Then again, the price must be one you can genuinely afford, because there is no refund.
Test hedonic adaptation against your own goals.
List three things you want from leaving, and mark each as a comfort or a condition.
Next, write the cost you could keep paying for years, not months, to get the conditions.
From the book.
The research on basic psychological needs treats autonomy and competence as things whose satisfaction predicts wellbeing continuously rather than transiently, which is a careful way of saying they do not wear out. They don't habituate the way a salary does, because they are not comforts. They are conditions. And a condition keeps producing its effect for exactly as long as it lasts.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 6: You are guessing how it will feel, and the guess is wrong
Questions about hedonic adaptation.
What does hedonic adaptation mean for a pay rise?
A pay rise stops registering somewhere in the second year, so its emotional effect fades.
Why doesn't autonomy fade the same way?
Research treats autonomy as a condition whose satisfaction predicts wellbeing continuously, so it keeps working while it lasts.
Why must the price be affordable?
Since you will pay it for a long time, and the thing you are buying comes without a refund.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 6, “You are guessing how it will feel, and the guess is wrong”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Impact bias: why you misjudge future feelings.
- 02 Focusing illusion: why your job gets too much weight.
- 03 Self employed life satisfaction: the five-year gap.
- 04 Job satisfaction vs life satisfaction: two scores.
- 05 Hedonic adaptation: why autonomy does not wear off.
- 06 Impact bias criticism: what the research can claim.
- 07 Mood diary: a one-line log for two weeks.
- 08 Arrival fallacy: what reaching a goal really felt like.