Have you ever watched "The pursuit of happiness" with Will Smith? The movie is about a young, recently divorced father, who is pursuing a career startover, being literally broke and searching for a shelter every night, together with his son. In one of the last scenes, where the protagonist finally manages to get hired by a famous investment company, there is a self talk where he states: "this part of my life, this little part, is called happiness.."
What is happiness? Is it someting to be found? Dan Gilbert, the author of "Stumbling on Hapinness", claims that happiness is synthesized. In his famous TED talk "the surprising science of happiness" he claims that "unlike ‘natural’ happiness which we feel when we get what we want, synthetic happiness is happiness which we realize when we don't get what we wanted.
Gilbert deliberately presents quite a few examples backed with data to support his saying. The most powerful evidence was that "a year after losing the use of their legs, and a year after winning the lotto, lottery winners and paraplegics are equally happy with their lives."
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