Summarized by Laurie Santos in her The Science of Well-Being course, here are some annoying features of our mind that hinder our pursuit on true happiness:
- Our minds’ strongest intuitions are often totally wrong.
- Our minds don’t think in terms of absolutes; our minds judge to relative points. It’s mind blowing to learn the study that Olympic Silver medal winners are generally not as happy as the Bronze medal winner, as they choose the different reference points: Gold medal vs non-medal.
- Our minds are built to get used to stuff. This means the minds get adapted to happiness fast, so that every success we make won’t give us happiness that last long.
- We don’t realize that our minds are built to get used to stuff. Our minds are so resilient than we think.