Daniel Kahneman on two kinds of happiness

[ciphergoth]

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory at TED 2010. Video, 20 minutes, transcript to right of video.

Kahneman, one of the founders of behavioural economics, on how our remembered happiness correlates only weakly with our experienced moment-to-moment happiness, and the profound implications for the study of happiness and the pursuit of happiness. I'll find it hard to think about happiness the same way again.

Comments

Re: Somewhat rambly comment because I'm on my way out

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Is the right response to try and adjust our remembered happiness to more closely match our experienced happiness? Should we have apps on our phones that beep at random times and ask us about our experiential happiness at that instant?

Re: Somewhat rambly comment because I'm on my way out

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I'd draw the opposite lesson from it - I think the right response is to take active steps to forget negative experiences as quickly as possible (once the lessons from them have been learned and any consequences dealt with) and as far as possible remember only the positive ones, to maximise remembered happiness.