Shambala In The City

Héctor got off the train with his nerves on edge. After a long year working on their mobile app, it was time to do a real test. It was his first assignment as an app programmer and his career was on the line.

As he crossed the platform, he activated the joytester on the screen and crossed his fingers for it to work well. The idea of ​​creating a “happiness meter” had been his and the company had supported him despite his youth.

That day in the city was going to be decisive. He had to choose fifty people who would agree to be scanned by the app for ten seconds. The joytester would save the measurement results so that, on their return, the bosses could check the accuracy of the program. As soon as he left the station, Héctor stopped an old woman with her grandson and asked them if he could focus on them with his mobile.

“Do you want a photo of the two of you?” –Asked the grandmother.

“No, I need to focus a moment on each one.” I am an engineer and I have designed a program that captures facial expression and body posture.

“Well, he’ll tell you I’m hunched over,” she teased. For that you don’t need to have studied engineering.

Héctor concentrated on the screen while the program collected data on the sharpness of the eyes, the curvature of the lips, the tension in the face and the general posture of the old woman. After analyzing them, the application emitted a soft buzz while it reflected on the screen: Degree of happiness: 4.62 / 10.

Surprised by the fact that this talkative grandmother had failed the happiness test, he set out to scan the child:

“What is this program for?” He asked.

—It serves to know if you are happy.

The boy raised his eyebrows in disbelief and then stuck out his tongue. Hector waited for his expression to return to normal before activating the scanner. Ten seconds later he returned his second result: Degree of happiness: 5.82 / 10. That’s better, she told herself as she went for her next test. This time he asked a girl of great beauty who was looking at her watch in front of a cosmetics store. The girl asked a couple of questions before joining the experiment, but knowing what the program was for, she posed proudly.

During the data collection, Héctor told himself that this girl could be perfectly a model or an actress. Her skin and eyes looked healthy, and she must have been satisfied with the genetics she had inherited. A great score was to be expected, so the result filled him with astonishment: Degree of happiness: 3.97 / 10. Increasingly restless as he searched for other volunteers, he recalled that the program had been very reliable in processing movie scenes. He had carefully scored the different moods of the protagonists.

Hector had chosen that city for its quality of life statistics. Unemployment was low and the longevity index above average. Perhaps the grandmother and the boy had argued before the test, she told herself to calm down, and the girl had just broken up with her boyfriend.

To clear up her doubts, she decided to follow the test with people with plenty of reasons to be happy: the recently promoted director of a bank branch, a flower seller who claimed to love his job, a couple in love in a park, a man whom he loved. he had hit the lottery a few days ago … They all lent themselves to the experiment, but the scores were always low. That city known for its calm, green areas and beautiful architecture suspended in happiness.

Confused by these results, he decided to end his day in a teahouse called Shambala, like the paradise of the Tibetans. Hector entered with an expression that couldn’t be further from paradise. Had he tested his invention on himself, he would have gotten little more than zero.

-How can I help you? A little man with an oriental look answered him. Are you okay?

It seemed to the engineer that he was genuinely interested in him, so he explained the application he had created and what had happened to him when he tested it in the city. His story deserved a great laugh from the owner of the tea shop, who then told him in a serene voice:

—It is normal that the great majority have failed in happiness.

-Normal? He asked offended. Why?

“You say you’ve explained the purpose of the test to everyone.” That has made them, inadvertently, think about their happiness during those ten seconds. Somehow, they measured her before that gossip did.

“I understand, but … what’s the problem?”

The oriental put a cup of tea on the counter and said: “Happiness disappears the moment it is measured. If you live without worrying about her, it is very possible that you are active and happy, but as soon as you stop to think … ”. Before disappearing into the back room, he concluded: “You already know the proverb: If you want to be happy as you say, don’t analyze.”