The TEDTalk by Barry Schwartz was very interesting. He concluded that the secret to happiness is low expectation. He mentioned that paralysis is a consequent of having too many choices. He mentioned many premises. One of his premises stated that many choices makes people self-blame. Another premise was that many choices causes an escalation of expectations. Cory Stieg from CNBC concludes that you can use money to buy happiness. One premise was Studies also suggest that spending money on experiences makes you happier than items. Another premise is that when people paid for time-saving services such as ordering takeout, having your home cleaned and outsourcing someone to run errands they had higher levels of life satisfaction than when they bought material items. I agree with these people. I agree that to have many options causes one to always feel self-blame. People will use their imaginations and start wonder wonder “what if”. I also, believe that money is not the key to happiness. Many people are happy with low income or high income. Usually people tend to adapt and find their happiness with life experiences. People can find happiness by helping others. Others can find happiness training in sports, like I, myself do. Living most your life with low or high income you can find ways to make the most of life experiences to be happy. In conclusion, money itself does not buy happiness, but the choices you make with that money.
“My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane”
I interpret this to mean some sort of cognitive dissonance. Also, the feeling of missing out a.k.a fear of missing out F.O.M.O. It can become a toxic cycle of one mentally arguing with one self trying to balance or find the equilibrium to feel satisfaction. Satisfaction from knowing you made the right choice which would lead to one feeling proud of making a good choice. This in turn would make one happy, knowing they chose “correctly” (for themselves of course) and giving them a peace of mind.
2 thoughts on “Leo Rodriguez DB 5”
Hello Leo,
Your explanation and reasoning of the video and the article are the easiest way to understand the meaning of both. Your conclusion and the reasoning are very reasonable. I just loved you’re wondering about the “What if” question. Too many choices will make us wonder about different things and situations. We both have a common understanding that happiness can be found by helping others, and in my situation, if I can help someone, it brings a job from the heart, and that is the most satisfying in the world.
Hi, Leo!
You assessed this perfectly. When Barry Schwartz mentions paralysis being a consequence of having too many choices, I identified with that immediately. I try to shave every decision down to two things I can live with, then make a decision quickly and move on.
“My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane”
Regarding the cartoon, I think they were relating being well-informed to paying attention to too many factors. The fact that there is too much going on, which they’d have to focus on all of, is stopping them from getting involved in any of it for the sake of their sanity. Loved reading your post!