"Fulfilling a sense of obligation isn’t a substitute for actual unqualified happiness, and it’s certainly not a recipe for good work."

John O’Nolan writes about how to approach cus tomer ser vice. Some ter rific advice and details on how to com mu ni cate and cul ti vate happy users.

"It’s easy to forget that underneath this fragile layer of markup, HTTP requests, IMAP, and avatars are people, and it’s those people that make my workplace, the web, fantastic."

37signals gives some insight into how Smiley is working and what the data look like.

37signals has made the results from their smiley app public. Pretty cool piece of software.

"Whether as creators or consumers, whether you ascribe to happiness theory or the set point theory of happiness, as another year begins, don’t forget to plan a vacation, take time off — even just a day or an afternoon. You may only remember the peak-end."

"Lets be clear — I am not advocating burning people who are not very happy with their lives and letting them struggle with the pain and agony of burns, the slow recovery, and the comparison to other less fortunate individuals — but I do think that ironically such negative experiences can actually improve the outlook people have on life and their motivation for living."