Friday, February 12, 2010

Food for Thought




"The morning kicked off with Daniel Kahneman, Nobelist in behavioural economics, who argued that we need to give up the word "happiness". It's too vague to be useful, he said, and fails to make a fundamental distinction between being happy in your life and being happy with your life. The experiencing self - the you that lives in the moment - is a very different entity than your remembering self - the storyteller who lives to make memories. We are living under the "tyranny of the remembering self", Kahneman said. "We don't choose experiences, we choose memories." I guiltily put down my note-taking pen and tried to experience the moment."

I totally do that! I'm usually so busy trying to capture the moment on film or video that the capturing of it becomes more important than actually experiencing it. Do you do that too? I think that's part of why I hand piece, I'm trying to slow down and enjoy the moment.

There is an amazing group of intellectuals called TED which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. These really smart and thoughtful people present cutting edge ideas and experiments from all areas of science, giving us regular people a lot of food for thought! The quote above is from the TED conference and the video is the author of Eat Pray Love speaking on creativity.

I double dog dare you to click on this link to see the list of TED Talks and NOT find something that interests you! Leave a comment here telling me which video sounded the most interesting to you.

Thoughts?

8 comments:

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Tamara Dawn said...

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Mom et al said...

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-Maria

Abbe said...

This post has really affected me. I have been having very intense discussions with a friend about the whole idea of happiness and what it means, whether anyone can be 'happy' or if it is fleeting and more about one area of ones' life at a time rather than a blanket feeling. I think I need more wine to ponder about it.... thanks for posting it and making me think!
Abbe

Unknown said...

I've been perusing TED for nearly a year now - some good stuff. There is a great discussion with Katherine Gilbert on Creativity - about 6 months ago - very nice, very inspiring to me.

Katherine wrote Eat Pray Love.

Unknown said...

oops - I commented on something that you already posted! I look at all the blogs I follow on Google reader, and don't always get the pics with them right away --- hope all is well!

Margot said...

Abbe, for me, happiness is really acceptance of the now. You have to accept and like the kind of person you are and what you've accomplished so far in your life, and be happy with the effort you've put forth to get there. No one can do better than their best. If you're not happy with these things, working on them will get you closer to your own personal happiness. God doesn't demand that we succeed in anything, He only asks that we try.

The external part of life can't be controlled,but your reaction to it determines how you feel. I think that's what "living in the now" really means: gratitude for what each day offers. Envy, avarice and discontent with your lot in life or with the amount of 'stuff' you've (not) accumulated is what destroys happiness, because you're living in the future and not working in the now!

Bridget said...

Loved her book, but Ms. Gilbert's clip was a little too repetetive for me! It took her a while to get to the point.