The pursuit of happiness

When people ask me how life is in the US, I am always in a state of conflicting opinions. Quite frankly, there is no difference in my state of well being whether I am in a developed, clean, picturesque city of the US with a pleasant weather OR if I am in a crowded, dirty, slow and hot city in India.

But when I think about the experience here, I think immediately about the weather, the clean atmosphere, the infrastructure and easy life which convinces me that this life is better.

Therefore, I was pleased to see this TED video which illustrates that the brain really refers to particular memories it has instead of the whole experience and is therefore not a good judge of whether an experience was good or not.

It turns out that once the basic needs of a person are taken care of, the key determinant to happiness is whether we get to interact with people we like.

Doesn't this turn our whole set of aspirations upside down? A job promotion, bigger house, a fancy car, foreign trips.

Instead, we must spend more time on Facebook :)