📹 How (Not) To Be Happy

A reminder that our intuition about happiness is often wrong

Video Essay:

References and Notes:

[1] Marcus Crassus wealth estimations: Mary Beard. (2015) SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Pp 319. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation.

[2] Marcus Crassus death: Cassius Dio, Roman History 40, 26.3

[3] Edge Foundation. (2012). This will make you smarter Pp 49 (The Focusing Illusion by Daniel Kahneman) HarperCollins Publishers. 

[4] "Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it." Daniel Kahneman (2011) The Focusing Illusion. Edge.org. From https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11984

[5] “Pleasure is the beginning and the goal of a happy life” Alain de Botton. (2000) The Consolations of Philosophy. Pp 50. Vintage Books, New York

[6] “Of all the things which wisdom has contrived which contribute to a blessed life, none is more important, more fruitful, than friendship.” Brad Inwood and L.P Gerson. (1997) Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings. Pp 61 Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis/Cambridge

[7] Modern Psychologists have effectively replicated Epicurus’s results, where they showed that the best predictors of our happiness are quality, positive contact with friends and relatives, and absence of physical pain. Daniel Kahneman. (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow Pp 395. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

[8] The Story of Danny Simpson; Victoria Times 19th September 1990. Retrieved 22:10, September 1, 2018, from: http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/histor.htm

The portrait of Sisyphus is drawn from: Wikipedia contributors. Sisyphus. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sisyphus&oldid=856290405

Marcus Crassus biography is largely drawn from Marcus Crassus mentions in: Mary Beard. (2015) SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Epicurus biography is largely drawn from: Alain de Botton. (2000) The Consolations of Philosophy (Consolation for Not Having Enough Money). Vintage Books, New York.