Visitors from other countries or out-of-towners often remark that Californians, despite their casual manner, are not all that friendly. And they offer as proof the absence of greetings or smiles when they pass people on the sidewalk. I can’t remember just when I decided to …

I have made a few exciting discoveries about seeing small lately. Several months after Small: The Little We Need for Happiness was published, I happened upon Rick Hanson’s book Hardwiring Happiness, where I read that neuroscientists were already studying what I had experienced that afternoon …