In this week’s copy of ‘The Week’ Jeremy Paxman, the renowned scourge of politicians, admitted that at school he had accused a friend at school of having a ‘ridiculously superficial ambition’ when they were talking about what they wanted out of their careers. His friend said, “I don’t care what I do as long as I’m happy.” Jeremy Paxman admitted that the conversation had always haunted him and that on hearing his friend was now working for the UN he had written to him to apologize.

Being happy isn’t a superficial ambition. It’s actually really hard to achieve but because it’s not measurable people often aspire to other measures or heuristics : money, status symbols, expensive holidays.

Interestingly, Jeremy Paxman took the art of the political interviewer to a new level, probing politicians for ‘measurable’ answers. They, in turn, have learned how to answer in abstract nouns and verbs (“I fully support the idea etc.’) without ever giving any information. Paxman’s predecessor, Robin Day, was very good at gently coaxing politicians to reveal truths. Some how, the more aggressive interviewing style has left us less informed. In the same way our more aggressive ‘search for happiness’ has made it more difficult to find.