It's the promise of something better -- just about to arrive -- that has the biggest impact on happiness. Seriously.
"We're going to have a baby!"
"I just got engaged."
"We just hired this great engineer."
"We're going to Hawaii for Christmas."
I could go on, but you get the point. Once you've had Google's free food and other perks for a while, they become baseline. They're just part of what's normal.
This is absolutely true. The promise of a big purchase (the anticipation) makes people way more happy than the purchase itself and even being able to enjoy the fruits of the purchase.
"We're going to have a baby!" "I just got engaged." "We just hired this great engineer." "We're going to Hawaii for Christmas."
I could go on, but you get the point. Once you've had Google's free food and other perks for a while, they become baseline. They're just part of what's normal.