Capital Furs

Someone brought something to be about paradise. He said it'd be a beach. Post your ideas!
Mine would be [Because I'm sick right now] Laying in bed, a nice bowl of warm soup on my lap, some orange juice to the side, with that special someone sitting on the bed next to me, with a story book. They'd read me a nice romantic story, while spoon feeding me the soup, before crawling in next to me, and cuddling me, as they nursed me back to health. :3

RIght now, being at a party -not big but not small- maybe 25-30 people- at my old house on a clear summer night. There's music, booze, food. Everyone knows everyone, everyone likes everyone. It's a good time. No drama. We all just lets go and have a good time for the sake of having a good time.

Definitely a nice warm Caribbean island, with clear blue water. And a really nice mansion on the island, with the latest technology.

And there would be adorable kittens EVERYWHERE.

Vaporshi wrote:Definitely a nice warm Caribbean island, with clear blue water. And a really nice mansion on the island, with the latest technology.

And there would be adorable kittens EVERYWHERE.

YES, There must be KITTEN GROWING TREES. You just pluck a kitten from the tree, and cuddle. :3

Paradise for me is my brain's frontal lobe, which has the great capacity to generate happiness for absolutely no reason.

Pooshie wrote:Paradise for me is my brain's frontal lobe, which has the great capacity to generate happiness for absolutely no reason.

Neurotransmitters.

I was just watching a lecture on the secret to happiness. And here's a little paradigme to make people think:

Take a large enough sample and show each individual a set of 6 objects (Paintings for example). Ask them to rate the objects from the one they like the most, to the one they like the least.
Now, tell them they may take 3 or 4 home. Naturally they should take number 4 (Assume that if they take number 4, number 4 becomes the new number 3).
Alright. Now call them back in a few weeks and ask them to rate the pictures again.

When this experience is repeated over a large sample, a certain phenomenon begins to emerge: The picture they chose to take home becomes their number 2 choice, and the picture they left behind falls to number 5.
One interpretation of this is that the subject's brains forced themselves to like their choice. They are stuck with them, might as well enjoy them.



Another example of this sort of thing was tried out with a photography class. Students were permitted to take photographs around campus with a camera, then develop the pictures themselves in a blackroom. Afterwards, the students were seperated into 2 distinct groups:
- Group one got to chose one of the pictures they made and keep it as a souvenir. But, if ever they felt as though they didn't like their picture, they could come back within the next 4 days to exchange it.
- Group two got a to chose one fo the pictures they made and keep it as a souvenir. But, that's the end of it. The pictures were to be sent to England in... 4 minutes.

The result of a survey that had been conducted 2 weeks after this experiment showed that folks were actually happier with the class when they /didn't/ get to exchange their pictures within the next 4 days. On the other hand, instead of contemplating what might happen, the people who were stuck with their one picture learned to be happy with it.





I'll close this little rant just to say that it's hard sometimes to seperate the shock of something new with long term happiness. You might think that a lottery winner is happier than a paraplegic, but surveys show that both groups of people are actually just as happy.

Really, Frank?

That's surprising. I learned that it worked the opposite way. The painting they took should have fallen while the one they left would go up. People are never happy with what they have and they would find issues with what they took (Oh, the paint is a little dull) while focusing on the good points of the one they left behind.

Conflicting messages! D:

No kidding. Here, I'll link the video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html?newComment=

But the study wasn't about being happy with what you have. It was about being happier when you don't have a choice BUT to be happy.

Also, if you still have the option of changing the picture after to have it, you're less happy than if you have this same picture with no option of changing.

Pooshie wrote:Also, if you still have the option of changing the picture after to have it, you're less happy than if you have this same picture with no option of changing.

Ok. That's probably the key to the differences in what we've heard xD