Comparisons and the WE effect

One is not unhappy at the realization of how miserable ones life is as much at the realization of how much better it could have been. Its the comparison that we do between things, situations, circumstances, even people. Its almost always impossible to take all parameters into account and yet we continuously keep evaluating through comparisons. Such comparisons also inspire us to strive harder and its these comparisons that make us content when we compare with something lesser.

This morning I was a little overwhelmed with work and my mind wandered away to a photocopy shop at Luisenstrasse in Munich. I could remembered me visiting that shop to get something printed. I had waited for the bus for several minutes after getting it printed. Across the street I could see the windows lined on the rear wall of TU Munich. It took me just a few seconds to spot the window to a room used by two PhD students, Florian and Georg. I knew them because they supervised two of my best friends' thesis and I had also consulted Florian about a topic for my thesis. I had been impressed by his hairstyle and wished I could have a similar haircut too, but I had lost hair in huge numbers.

How calm their lives had seemed to me standing there. I could see them enjoy their work, produce results, have fun at parties and everything. On the contrary enjoyment seems no where near work here. I see people working weekends and yet not producing enough results, I was often been made to feel as if to be the odd one for not working weekends, I had conversations with several colleagues and non-colleagues, I observed a lot of people's behavior and I couldn't but wonder why is it so that everything sounds burdensome here. After several sessions of pondering I came to realize that its the Work Environment that is kind of depressing here. No one, and I mean no body, seems to be happy. Its hard to find people who actually do with enthusiasm whatever they do. Its like people are overworked and since they do it as if they are being forcefully made to do what they do, they still end up producing less.