The Happiness Immune System

By Daniel Miessler on July 5th, 2010: Tagged as Happiness | Philosophy

I say, without hyperbole, that this is one of the most important videos I’ve ever posted. You must watch this video. And watch it again every year, or every week, as needed.

I also find it very interesting that I just got done posting my options and happiness post without watching this video. Very strange. Or, perhaps I’d seen the video (or the research findings) many years ago and already knew of it.

  • CarlM

    You've seen it before. I know this because you POSTED it before (April 4, 2007). (Search your blog's “happiness” tag.)

  • http://danielmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

    Well then…that explains the familiar feeling. The talk was from back in 2004. I wonder if I should spend more time organizing my content vs. making new content. I should hire someone to do this.

  • igf1

    This video is a great example of something that should be seen, by everyone! You know, I passionately understand, what he (the speaker) is saying. Not only is it absolutely true, it's been absolutely misunderstood since one caveman acquired more shinny rocks than the others. I have realized just how destructive the “greed is good” Friedman culture is to the individual. By far the most insidious aspect of this breed of capitalism is the misplaced notion of the sovereign individual. It's a myth that wealth and power are synonymous, It's a myth that money and wealth are synonymous and the idea that money can make a poor man happy is purely deceptive. I have come to understand, with fair degree of certainty that the universal key to happiness is simplicity. The paradox is one's refusal to believe that it could possibly be that simple.

    “A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”
    ~Albert Einstein

  • Maxo

    This is something that I keep trying to articulate to my wife. To be fair, I'm probably a little outside of the norm on this way of thinking, but often my wife will worry about a situation, while I am completely at ease. I'll try to reason to her something like, “barring circumstances that don't have to do with this situation, such as a muderer attacking us, in the worst of scenarios we are still alive and healthy, so don't worry about the potential bad.”
    I think we often refuse to take risks to reach the goals that put us closer to where we would like to be, because we spend too much time focusing on what would happen of the bad part of those risks are realized. We even do that when the best situation of not taking those risks isn't a situation we prefer to be in.


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