Week 3 — More of the mind’s annoying features…

• In many ways our minds are “miswired” to set us up for unhappiness.
• We want the wrong things (see Yale University’s The Science of Wellbeing with Laurie Santos - Week 2)
• We think in relative terms: Olympians who finish in third place are happier than those in second because of what they anchor to.
• We think in terms of salient references: we compare ourselves to others usually the most noteworthy. We are more likely to think of Jeff Bezos than our unemployed neighbor done the block when it comes to a reference point.
• We face hedonic adaptation: good stuff wears out. Think waning wonderfulness.
• We fall victim to impact bias: we overestimate the intensity and duration of how things will impact our happiness.
• Finally - and most important - we are largely unaware of these above effects.

Yale University’s The Science of Wellbeing with Laurie Santos - Week 4