要快樂其實很簡單 ( The Surprising Science of Happiness)

By Dan Gilbert, Harvard psychologist 

Reading notes of The Surprising Science of Happiness:

In 2M-years the human brain has nearly tripled the size. (二百萬年的時間，人的腦體積增加了將近3倍)  Human gains new structures called the "frontal lobe." particularly, the "pre-frontal cortex’ and what does it do for us to justify the 2M year’s evolutionary time? (人類新增了一個稱為「額葉」的結構，尤其是「前額葉皮質」的部分, 究竟前額葉皮質有什麼功能可以在兩百年間，完成人類的進化過程？)

• The most important things the pre-frontal cortex does could be an Experience Simulator. (前額葉皮質其中最重要的一項功能是【經驗模擬器】)  
• Let's try our experience simulators and see which one we prefer ?  The Lottery winner or a Paraplegic ? (什麼是經驗模擬器? 舉個例, 樂透得主跟下半身麻痺癱瘓的人, 你喜歡那一個? 我們不必親身經歷二者, 也能透由我們腦中的經驗模擬器做出選擇). 
• Interestingly, there are data to show how happy they are.  The fact is that a year after losing the use of their legs, and a year after winning the lotto, both are equally happy with their lives. (有趣的是根據實驗數據,不管是失去雙腿的癱瘓人或樂透得主, 在一年後, 他們兩者對生活感到一樣快樂!)

• The research that the lab to the economists and psychologists have been doing, have revealed something startling to us, something we call the "impact bias" which is the tendency for the simulator to make you believe that different outcomes are more different than in fact they really are. (不管是實驗室對全國經濟學家做的研究或心理學家所做的研究報告, 都得出一令人吃驚意外的結論, 稱之為【預測的偏差】 這是指模擬器出錯的狀況 它預測不同未來的差異遠比實際的差異還要大

• From field to lab studies,  it shows how major life traumas affect people suggests that if it happened over three months ago, with only a few exceptions, it has no impact on our happiness. Why?? Because happiness can be synthesized. (從現場實地研究到實驗室研究 , 大都顯示任何人生重大創傷困境等等對人生造成的影響 只有少數例外, 在事件發生超過3個月後, 它對人生幸福快樂並沒有任何影響.  為什麼? 因為快樂幸福是可以合成的!)

• Human beings have something that we might think of as a "psychological immune system" The unconscious cognitive process that help to change our views of the world, so that we can feel better about the worlds in which we find ourselves (每個人都有一種我們稱之為 [心理的免疫系統] 這種免疫系統是下意識的認知轉換過程, 它能有效幫助我們改變思考想法來看這個世界, 讓我們心靈優化對真實世界的感覺!

• We synthesize happiness, though most of us believe that synthetic happiness is not of the same quality as "natural happiness." And the psychological immune system works best when we are totally stuck, when we are trapped. (我們合成快樂, 雖然我們堅信合成快樂的質量跟自然快樂是不一樣的! 但要知道我們的心理免疫系統 在我們不能改變的情況下能達到最佳成效)

1. Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, the ability to make up your mind and change your mind -- is the friend of natural happiness. (自然快樂是我們得到心理所想要的東西那種真快樂, 同時擁有全然的決定權和隨時改變選擇的能力才是自然快樂的真諦)
2. Synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we wanted and in our society, we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is of an inferior kind and freedom to choose -- to change and make up your mind -- is the enemy of synthetic happiness. (合成快樂是我們得不到想要的東西時，改變自己想法來調整的快樂, 在我們的社會，我們堅信 合成快樂是比較差的一種,  同時要知道全然的自由狀態去做決定或改變是合成快樂的天敵) 

• We should have preferences that lead us into one future over another. But when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the difference between these futures, we are at risk. When our ambition is bounded, it leads us to work joyfully. When our ambition is unbounded, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, to sacrifice things of real value. When our fears are bounded, we're prudent; we're cautious; we're thoughtful. When our fears are unbounded and overblown, we're reckless, and we're cowardly. (我們當然應該用自己的喜好去選擇一個適合自己的未來.  但當這些偏好過度強硬或過急的來驅使我們,  又因為我們錯估未來選擇的差異天性時, 我們便處於危險的判斷.  當我們的野心有範圍標的，我們能高興地朝方向前進, 當我們的野心無限延伸, 我們會說謊、欺騙、偷竊、甚至傷害他人 犧牲掉真正人生有價值的東西。當我們的恐懼有界線,  我們會處事謹慎熟慮, 當我們的恐懼無限上綱, 我們會變得魯莽、怯懦且退縮)

The lesson I want to leave you with is that our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown, because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing when we choose experience. (這演講中我們能學到的是  我們往往太過於放大我們的渴望和憂慮,  其實我們已經有與生俱來的種種選擇能力去製造我們窮其一生不段追求的東西了)