Stumbling on Happiness

========== #8-10

when you look at a photograph or someone’s face, you don’t see a big black mark where your blind spot is; you seem to see the whole image. This is because your brain fills in the missing details automatically.

========== #15-15

what our minds do is store only key details and emotions.

========== #19-20

although we consider our memories and our vision as accurate representations of facts, they are in fact a mixture of reality and imagination.

========== #20-21

Our minds are capable of filling in missing details without us knowing about it.

========== #34-35

We trust that our predictions of the future are accurate – yet they are merely single scenarios in a sea of possibilities.

========== #41-43

Because your brain is much more concerned with the present moment than the future. This trait evolved because it is a necessity for survival: our ancestors had to focus on the sabre-toothed tiger stalking them in the present, rather than daydreaming about the future.

========== #49-49

Our current emotional state heavily influences how we think about the future – which leads to mistakes.

========== #61-62

We should value products based on how much satisfaction we get for our money – not how much their price has increased.

========== #68-69

Situations such as these show how we can’t trust our memories when making decisions.

========== #73-74

Since we focus on unique events rather than the whole experience, a few fantastic moments can make us remember the entire experience as being better than it was.

========== #76-76

We can’t trust our memories because we remember the strange and unique over the mundane and normal.

========== #82-83

wealth increases happiness when it gets people out of total poverty and into the middle class.

========== #87-87

A stable society depends on a strong economy to survive; it therefore needs people to strive to earn more money.

========== #95-96

You would probably sit there for hours on end, thinking about the pros and cons, mulling over the same thoughts again and again.

========== #98-100

our experiences are not as unique as we assume. In fact, the solutions to a great many of our concerns lie in the experiences of others. People react to things in pretty similar ways. Studies have shown that you can make accurate predictions about your feelings based on a report of someone who has been through the same experience.

========== #114-115

if you are hesitant about doing something, the best option is just to go for it. You can always learn from your mistakes, but you won’t learn anything from inaction.

========== #132-133

If you know you have the choice to exchange the watch, you’ll probably examine it more critically,

========== #133-133

more critically, looking for reasons why you should exchange it.

========== #137-138

We don’t understand that sometimes it is actually a lack of freedom that can make us happy. Although we value freedom and choice, we are often happier when we can’t change things.

========== #140-141

Having a secret admirer who drops off gifts at your doorstep can be flattering and exciting. But if you find out who it is, chances are that you will feel a little deflated.

========== #145-146

The longer we think about something, the longer our feelings toward it will last, thereby exaggerating those feelings further.

========== #154-157

You might wonder: How do these people manage to see everything in such a positive light? The reason is that they only see what they want to see; they surround themselves with information that backs up their positive worldview. To a certain extent, we all act in the same way. We carefully control the information we are exposed to, paying more attention to information we regard as positive and ignoring everything else.

========== #163-164

Your friends may not be as unbiased as you think: we unknowingly surround ourselves with those who support our views.

Just finish it. I thought I would again read something about how to be happy. But this book shows that our imagination about future is irreliable because of its inherent 3 shortcoming. Such as，our imagination tends to fill in and also leave something out，its tendency of projecting present feelings and experiences into the future imagination, its failure to recognize that things will look different. So live in the present is very important and other people's experience is also important...