Happiness

Dan Gilbert, Harvard psychologist:

Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we wanted. And in our society, we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is of an inferior kind. Why do we have that belief? Well, it's very simple. What kind of economic engine would keep churning if we believed that not getting what we want could make us just as happy as getting it?

Wow. Quite possibly, the most enlightening 21 minutes of my life. Watch it. Ideas worth spreading indeed.