The Surprising Science of Happiness

 

    The notion of happiness is amorphous and open to interpretation. Everybody has a distinct definition of happiness, and every individual has a different idea of being joyful. Happiness is a necessary component of human life, whatever that may be. Life has no significance at all without it. It is not at all conceivable for someone to live without experiencing joy and happiness. Thus, everyone desires happiness. Gilbert the speaker in this TED Talk gives an analysis of human happiness through a psychological and neurological scope. Gilbert draws on well-established research, credible authors, and poets with various perspectives on happiness. Explaining our sources of happiness, the functions of the frontal brain, artificial happiness, and contrast with genuine happiness. No of the circumstances, we may all find happiness. Your enjoyment is the same whether you won the jackpot in 2014 or were paralyzed in 2014. (Gilbert). However, if people were to glimpse into the future, they would find this absurd. If they had to pick one over the other, they wouldn't hesitate. This happens when they enter a dangerous realm known as "Impact Bias" (Gilbert). People see situations as better or worse than they actually are due to the impact bias.

    This TED talk appeals to me because it vigorously refutes how we often think about success and pleasure. Many people haven't given this idea much attention, but I believe it would comfort individuals who are hesitant to declare a major in college out of concern that they may miss out on other opportunities. It offers the neurological underpinnings of perspective, which many college students lack. While this is a phenomenon that people should be aware of, I believe that if people were more knowledgeable of synthetic pleasure, they would become overly dependent on it. People would rationalize being lazy as maintaining a perspective on how meaningless their decisions are.