I've recently come across the idea of shifting baseline syndrome in two different books. First in Footprints1 and then last week in Satellites in the High Country2. Shifting baseline syndrome is where we measure "normal" by what was common when we were children. You see this when fishermen view their current catch as the normal catch (the baseline) and discount the big catches that are talked about from the past. They discount these catches as reality despite photographic evidence of the larger fish and larger quantity of fish.
In Satellites in the High Country the author talks about the existence of "wildness" in terms of it's shifting baseline. Where previous generations would have seen a dammed river reservoir as a tammed place with any wildness removed, the author's hiking companion can only see an expanse of water where life is teaming below the surface...and he calls it a wild place.
We all also experience something similar with hedonic adaptation. Where we earn more money and can get nicer stuff which makes us happier for a short time. Then our happiness level returns to it's baseline and we need yet more nicer stuff to feel like we are gaining in happiness.
By What Do You Set Your Baseline?
Many of our problems come from this continued resetting of our baseline, from having so much that it becomes the new baseline3. As better time-saving appliances came along and it was possible to keep your house even more clean, we didn't save any time we spent more time cleaning. We fall into a comparison trap4 where we gain more, and then measure ourselves against someoene else that has even more.
This is where I turn to Stoic Philosophy, specifically it's advice to not change what you own to gain happiness, but change yourself to enjoy what you have5.
Be happy with the house you have, it's probably way larger with less people in it than any previous generation had6. You have far more space than almost any person in many other countries, and yet your baseline is set around some house down the road that looks like it may be larger than yours or nicer on the outside.
Further Reading