Mixed Feelings of Happiness and Meaning

When people are asked to score happiness and meaning throughout the day, like they were in the American Time Use Survey, scores tend to be higher, which is what you see in the averages. Generally speaking, people will say they are happy and what they do is meaningful.

However, while the averages give you a rough idea of how activities score, the distribution for an activity is often more mixed than just happy and meaningful. These charts show the distribution for 150 of the most common activities over the full range of scores.

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One Dataset, Visualized 25 Ways

“Let the data speak” they say. But what happens when the data rambles on and on?

The Most Gender-Switched Names in US History

We use some names mostly for boys and some mostly for girls, but then there is a small percentage that, over time, switched from one gender to another. Which names made the biggest switch?

How the American Work Day Changed in 15 Years

The American Time Use Survey recently released results for 2018. That makes 15 years of data. What’s different? What’s the same?

A Day in the Life of Americans

I wanted to see how daily patterns emerge at the individual level and how a person’s entire day plays out. So I simulated 1,000 of them.