In this era of AI, every one of us and all aspects of us can be tracked, monitored, compared, ranked, labelled, categorized, and quantified by many indicators, indices, and metrics. For instance, GDP per capita is used to measure the prosperity of the country. Countries are also ranked as Triple-A, first world, developed, friendliest, rudest, kindest or even happiest by a set of so-called criteria.
Based on the World Happiness Report 2023, which measures our happiness and well-being, Scandinavian countries scored high, with Finland being the happiest and Denmark being the second happiest in the world. The least happy country in the world is Afghanistan, with a score of 1.859, mainly attributed to a low life expectancy rate and low gross domestic product rate per capita.
Malaysia Ahead Of China & Indonesia
While Malaysia is ranked at 55 on the World Happiness Index (WHI) 2023 Report with a score of 6.012, ahead of Indonesia (84) and China (64), Singapore is crowned the happiest country in Asia at 25th place. Needless to say, this holistic measure is adopted because the success of the country should not be judged by just the amount of money they make. Many have defended that the success of a country should be gauged by how happy the people are.
Now, since our behaviour as well as our happiness could also be quantified against a list of factors, and we know the determinants of our happiness, could we achieve happiness if all the countries in this world are moving in the same direction?
Astute investors often use formulae to determine value by measuring the risks and returns of their investments. A fund’s or fund manager’s performance is often measured against certain standards or compared against their peers in the industry.
Many sophisticated portfolio construction strategies or techniques are “religiously” used by the fund management industry to drive the portfolio in pursuit of so-called “optimal” outcomes. Hence, assuming that all of us stay invested as advised by the experts and if we could leave all these cumbersome investment stuff to the experts who could genuinely safeguard our interests, would we be heading towards the right path compared to our peers who choose otherwise?
Measuring Value
Then, how do we measure and determine the value of our life then? Do we have a set of criteria also to measure our life? What are your standards or benchmarks that we use to measure our lives? Just as companies are obsessed with KPIs to measure the performance of their companies, shouldn’t we be obsessed with our life’s value? Our bosses also said, “things that can’t be measured can’t be managed”, right?
In other words, could we only manage our lives if we could measure our lives? Thus, are we managing our lives? If yes, according to whose or which standard? Are there any best or gold standards we could adopt to measure our lives to achieve optimality in every aspect of our lives? Are standards cast in stone and thus cannot be changed?
Countless articles have been written and have argued that money has got nothing to do with happiness. Many also brag that “everything is not about money” or “money is not everything”. But let us assume that money can buy us happiness, and we define our happiness by how much money we have in our accounts. Then, can we be really happy?
Humans Are Unique
Unfortunately, there is still no perfect or gold standard to measure our lives in this era of AI because we are not just data. All of us are unique and deserve to be unique. We all look at things from different perspectives. As we progress towards digitalisation, we are becoming more judgmental.
Why are we so quick to judge others? On what basis? In cross-cultural management textbooks, we used to learn about the differences between Western and Eastern values. But now, what values do we have? As we continue interacting with people from different backgrounds, can we still judge our lives based on our moral compass? What if our moral compass is skewed and not valid anymore?
We are often being treated as data. Often, statisticians trim 5 percent of the outliers so that the data becomes normally distributed in their analyses. In other words, the outliers are always underrepresented in the picture. What if we are the outliers? What if we just don’t fit in. Do we have to adjust to fit in?
Essentially, our life’s value depends on whether we think “happy” and how we live our lives. If our wellness is derived from the validation of others or defined by something we own, could we truly declare that we are happy? Words like “optimal” and “balance” are often heard, but who could actually live a balanced life?
Don’t you think it is easier if we just move forward or backward. In short, if we don’t progress, we will regress. Think about it. There is nothing much that we could maintain really. For instance, can we maintain our health? Or our brain capacity, our youth or our looks?
Even the landscape Feng Shui of your house changes according to which fengshui sifu you follow, and the comparative advantage of a country changes over the years. Nobody could be ahead of everyone forever.
Thus, why bother to create permanent enemies? Why can’t we, or rather countries, embrace diversity and subscribe to “prosper thy neighbour” instead of “beggar thy neighbour”? If we could be happy only at the expense of others, we may need to see a doctor.
About the Author
Dr Audrey Lim Li Chin is a lecturer and a researcher at Multimedia University (MMU) Melaka. She teaches Derivatives and Fintech. She is particularly interested in behavioural finance, retirement planning, mental health, and Fintech, especially Blockchain and data analytics. She is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), HRDF certified trainer and is currently pursuing Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification.
This article is in collaboration with Max Wealth Education Sdn Bhd, an approved Education Provider for the CFP Certification Program.
