Tag Archive for 'ted'

Video review and comments

Different choices lead to different outcomes. Some choices bring you wealth, fame and reward. Others don’t. But all scenarios lead to similar amounts of happiness. This is because the human brain has the incredible capacity to manufacture happiness even if you did not achieve your goals. In other words, all paths lead to similar amounts of happiness. So if you missed out on the opportunity to join Infosys, Google or the Beatles early on…it does not matter…you will be just as happy. You can call it self-justification.

Another interesting concept is developed: People who are presented with choice (e.g. choose one painting over another) will often be unhappier than people who had did not have choice. This is because people with choice will keep wondering about whether they made the best decision or not!

This is a wonderful video. In the spirit of a 20 min talk some broad statements and sweeping generalizations are made. But the central ideas mentioned above do hold together.

What learnings can we apply from this video in our own life? Lets talk about careers. If you believe everything this video says, then any career has the ability to make you happy. Some careers may be able to reward you more than others (money, power, fame etc) but even if you end up in a career that turns out to be non-rewarding, your brain will manufacture “synthetic happiness.”

Another important point in the video: Choice is an enemy of happiness. Coming back to my career example: if you have many career paths to choose from, then you might end up being quite unhappy (if you can always change to another career at a later stage). You mind will always engage in what-if type flagellation once you have chosen. However if your career choice is irrevocable then you will be happy because being stuck allows “synthetic happiness” to be created.

Check out the video for yourself. It certainly taught me a lot. Adam Smith is quoted in the video. I repeat him here:

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Some of these situations may no doubt deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drivers us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds either by shame from remembrance of our own folly or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.