Thinking about happiness
I happened to stumble accross this though-provoking video-speech from Dan Gilbert, a Harvard Psychologist – he talks about hapiness and human’s ability to predict the best way to reach it.
Here is a nice description of Dan Gilbert’s conclusions from an Amazon review of his book
“1) We often exaggerate in imagining the long- term emotional effects certain events will have on us.
2) Most of us tend to have a basic level of happiness which we revert to eventually.
3) People generally err in imagining what will make them happy.
4) People tend to find ways of rationalizing unhappy outcomes so as to make them more acceptable to themselves.
5) People tend to repeat the same errors in imagining what will make them happy.
6) Events and outcomes which we dread may when they come about turn into new opportunities for happiness.
7) Many of the most productive and creative people are those who are continually unhappy with the world- and thus strive to change it. Happiness is rarely as good as we imagine it to be, and rarely lasts as long as we think it will. The same mistaken expectations apply to unhappiness.
Gilbert makes these points and others with much anecdotal evidence and humor.
A pretty happy video, but not as happy as you think it is going to be. ”
If you liked it, Gilbert has his blog full of interesting related posts.
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