TED Talks is a series of conferences given by speakers who are leaders in their respective field.
Although TED talks contains videos on a wide variety of topics, I want you to stick with the topic of happiness as we are covering it in Chapter 1.
If you should choose to do this assignment for blog comment credit, please do the following:
- Find a TED Talks video of which the speaker is discussing happiness. You can do this easily using the search option on the website. There are plenty to choose from, which allows you the flexibility to choose one of which is interesting to you. After finding a video, please:
- Provide the link to your video.
- Discuss, in your own words, what the video was about.
- Discuss what you learned.
- If applicable, describe how the information presented ties into your textbook's discussion on happiness.
- Provide your general reaction to the video. What did you like? Were there things you disagreed with? Etc.....
There are some great videos on this website, so I encourage you to be a frequent visitor of the site :)
http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html
ReplyDeleteI was interested in listening to this talk because I have a passion for food and cooking. Malcolm Gladwell is a very fun speaker to listen to. This was about a man named Howard Moskowitz who had changed the entire food industry ways of thinking about how to make people happy. Being that each person is different, there is never the perfect Pepsi or tomato sauce. Pepsi first came to Howard asking how to make the perfect diet Pepsi that everyone would love. What he finally figured out was there was no perfect Pepsi, but instead Pepsi's! This also is what happened with Prego tomato sauce. He found out that there are three types of sauces that makes most of Americans happy! This was a great presentation to show that we to solve problems we sometimes need to think way outside the box.
http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_killingsworth_want_to_be_happier_stay_in_the_moment.html
ReplyDeleteI was interested in this video as soon as I read the title, Want to be Happier? Stay in the Moment. Matt Killingsworth talked about how people are constantly searching for happiness and just can't see to completely be satisfied or be happy. Aristotle called happiness Chief Good. As the economy continues to prosper, people are getting new houses, cars, clothes, and better lives but studies have shown that they are not getting any happier. Happiness tends to lurk in those moment to moment experiences. They performed a test on over 650,000 diverse people to monitor their happiness. The test showed that when people are the happiest is when they are focused in the moment and not mind wandering. Over 47% of people's minds wander on a moment to moment basis. So as Matt said, live in the moment.
From this video, I've learned that Matt is completely right but why is it so hard to live in the moment and focus on true happiness. I know I struggle with living in the moment because I'm always looking forward to what's coming up next or what else is going on when I truly need to focus on this very moment because I will never get it back. I really enjoyed the message that Matt had to share and I'll try to work on my living in the moment mind set because everyone deserves to be truly happy.
I watched Graham Hill's talk of "Less stuff, more happiness."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness.html
The video was about how we live in three times the space then we did fifty years ago yet there is a 22 billion dollar personal storage industry. So people continually buy more than they need and more than they can store. People think that having more will make them happier when in turn it actually causes more stress. Hill developed three approaches to living a simpler life. First, live ruthlessly. He encourages people to cut unnecessary things from their life and ask themselves, "Is this really going to make me happy?" before buying things. Second, he encourages people to think small. Store things in a more efficient manner-stack, nest, digitize. And lastly, use multifunctional housewares. For example, a sink that is also a toilet or a bed that can also be a table. He stresses that people need to edit their life and clear out the clutter.
I really enjoyed the video. I was expecting it to be longer( it was less than 6 minutes) but it was short and to the point. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Hill. I did a rummage sale this summer and went from room to room in our house encouraging my family to get rid of things. Getting rid of the clutter was quite therapeutic. Mr.Hill was right; living with less stuff has made me happier. I don't practice his idea daily but I hope to change that and live more simply.
This is super interesting! Definitely good advice, some of which I should take myself. This reminded me of a YouTube video I watched in a class where a comedian was essentially making fun of people who save a lot of "stuff."
DeleteThere are some curse words, just a forewarning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_7_rules_for_making_more_happiness.html
ReplyDeleteI watched a video called, "7 rules for making more happiness" by Stefan Sagmeister. This video talked a lot about different happiness studies that have been conducted on Americans. In the video, it gave different examples about what is important and not so important when considering if a person will be happy or not. Men and women are similar in how happy they are. Being young or old or pretty or ugly has no effect on how happy that person may be. The weather and climate do not play a role in how happy a person may be. In the textbook I read that money, age, gender, parenthood, intelligence, and physical attractiveness is not very important in considering if a person is happy or not. I also found that health, religion, social activity, and culture have somewhat of an impact. Lastly, love, marriage, relationship status, work, genetics, and personality have the biggest impact on if a person is happy. From the video, I learned that monkeys are the happiest species of animals. Overall, I liked the video. I learned a lot from it and I found it pretty interesting. One thing that I didn't like is that it was confusing at times and hard to follow.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
ReplyDeleteDan Gilbert explains how our brain makes a possibly bad situation good. He tells us that our brains trick us into liking something more then we really do. In a bad situation that we can’t change our brains make us think that it’s not so bad, especially when that is the only option. He used an example of someone who lost their job which is not really something that people want to happen, but when that person was asked if they were happy they said that they are better off without that job. This just shows us how our brains force us to make the best out of a situation.
I learned that our brains are more powerful then we think and that they have the ability to determine our happiness without us even knowing it.
I really liked Dan Gilbert’s talk it was very interesting. I found it interesting that he basically called out what has been happening, but I just have never noticed it before or thought about it too much. It makes total sense that our brains make us think that our situation is better than it really is; otherwise no one would be happy. This adaptation protects us from being unhappy all the time and never being ok with an unpleasant outcome.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness.html
ReplyDeleteIn this video Michael Norton discusses how money can buy happiness as long as you are spending it correctly. He showed this by explaining a research experiment that they had been conducting in which they gave a group of people money and then told half to spend it on themselves and half to spend it on others. In the end, the half that spend the money on themselves revealed that they didn't become any happier by doing so, but the half that spent the money on other people did have an increase in happiness. He also explained how the amount of money spent didn't matter, but the fact that the money was spent on someone else did. I learned that money can indeed buy happiness, but not if i'm buying things for myself. I also learned that it doesn't have to be a huge amount of money spent in order to feel happier afterwords.
On page 18 of chapter 1, the textbook explains that money isn't at all important in determining how happy a person is. It explains that there isn't really a relationship between how much money people have and how happy they are, but it doesn't discuss how the different ways of spending the money can affect one's happiness.
As soon as I read the title of this video I knew that I had to watch it. I have always been the type of person that loves to spoil other people. One instance in particular that I can think of that makes me extremely happy is Christmas, and being able to give presents to the people that are close to me. I 100% agree that spending money on other people can bring more happiness than spending it on myself.
I agree with this wholeheartedly! Definitely an interesting perspective when thinking about money and happiness.
Deletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_etcoff_on_happiness_and_why_we_want_it.html
ReplyDeleteI was very interested in listening to this video since it talked about happiness in our world. Nancy Etcoff used many surveys and researches to show the different types of self-medication that people use today to make them happy. In research by Freud it was said that happiness leads to doom. Nancy was able to use surveys across the world to show the differences between happiness in people and saw that people are “Pretty happy.” She explained how one becomes happy in the brain with dopamine. She then focused on one’s relationship and where the happiness comes from. Nancy seemed pretty open minded that happiness is obtainable if one sets their minds to it.
I feel that this video does correlate with the text book since we will be learning about happiness and how to handle stresses in our lives to be happy.
I liked how Nancy was able to cover all the bases to happiness. She did what any normal person would do and do a google search of methods to get happy. Then she explained why those methods don’t work and why even in therapy the counselor needs to explain to the client that just because they are now not miserable it doesn’t mean they are happy. She declared that not having misery is not the same as being happy. I also like how she pulled some of Freud’s thoughts of happiness in and didn’t really comment on them but did give an option for people to make that decision between the two. This is a good video to watch to learn the different sides of happiness.
http://www.ted.com/talks/eve_ensler_on_happiness_in_body_and_soul.html
ReplyDeleteEve Ensler created a Ted Talk entitled “Happiness in body and soul”. In this talk she describes the work she has done with the monologues and how she learned and experienced so many different things through talking about vaginas. She began her speech describing how the monologues came to be, she simply talked to women who it turns out want to talk about their vaginas. She collected stories and turned them into The Vagina Monologues. As she was going around speaking and talking about the stories she had been told she was continuously told more stories, however; they were not about what she thought. They weren’t about great orgasms and various sex escapades instead, they were about how these women had been raped and beaten.
She became very disheartened and almost wanted to give up until she found a way to use the information she had collected for a good purpose. That is how the Vagina Monologues shows began to help stop violence against women. Eve then shares stories of three women she has titled Vagina Warriors. These are women who have persevered and done great things to help women around them. The final woman discussed is from Kenya. At the age of 10 she was forcibly circumcised. She saw the bad in this and after hearing about The Vagina Monologues and V-day she wanted to make a difference. So she created a model of the lower half of the female body both one that had been mutilated and one that had not.
Through this she saved many women from being forcibly circumcised. After explaining this story Eve admits that when she was young she lived with an alcoholic father who abused her both sexually and physically. Through the work she has done she has healed herself by helping others. Eve ends her talk with some great words of wisdom, “Happiness exists in action, in telling the truth, and saying what your truth is, and in giving away what you want most.” By helping others and giving away the help she wanted most as a young child she had found her real happiness.
What I learned from this is really summed up in her last quote. That if I want to be happy I have to work at it by being honest and giving myself up to being happy. Also, doing well is one of the best ways to create happiness. It doesn’t even have to be something huge like The Vagina Monologues it can be small yet meaningful. This video was powerful but not overwhelming she slid in slight bits of humor to lighten the mood but not diverting from her overall message. I would love for all women to listen to her talk and learn from the wisdom she has gained.
Link: http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2008P/None/BenjaminWallace_2008P.mp4
ReplyDeleteThe video was titled, “the price of happiness” by Benjamin Wallace. In the video Benjamin poses the question can happiness be bought. To investigate his question he decides to sample eight of the world’s most expensive items. These items range from food items such as Kobe beef and a bottle of 1947 chateau cheval blank to test driving a Bugatti Veyron. The overall feeling he expressed was that for how expensive these items are he was expecting more happiness than he received. The first thing that I learned from this video was that just because something is more expensive does not necessarily make it better. The second thing that I learned from this video is that if I am ever wealthy enough to afford any of these items skip all except for the car.
http://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness.html
ReplyDeleteIn this video Matthieu Ricard discusses where people think we get our happiness and how he believes in that we can train our brains to be happy more and let negative things affect us less. The main point of the talk I feel is that most of society puts so much effort into physical health and material well being, but they ignore the most important part which is our mental health and happiness. He explains that our happiness has to come from within us before we can be truly happy with material things and things around us. It was really interesting when he talked about how different people view what it takes for them to be happy because then he also talks about the science behind being happy. It was interesting learning about the all of the studies monks have done and meditation and how from a pure scientific study it shows I think that you can in fact increase your happiness by actively trying to train your brain to over come negative events with serenity.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness.html
ReplyDeleteMichael Norton talks about how money can create happiness, but you have to spend it the right way. He talks about different studies that show when you spend money on others you are happier than if you spent it on yourself. One example he discussed was a doge ball team spending money doing a group experience instead of each of them spending the money on themselves. The teams who spent the money separately on themselves preformed the same, but the teams who spent the money on each other actually performed better than before. This way of thinking surprised me. Spending money on others actually makes you happier is a new idea to me. Once I see these examples it really makes me want to start giving to others, even if it is just a cup of coffee. One thing that also surprised me was that it didn’t matter how much money was spent the effect was the same. When you spend money on others instead of yourself you are happier. I think this can tie into how social activity increases happiness, which we discussed in class. When you give money to others you are partaking in a social activity that could lead to many things that make a person happy. Once I listen to Michael’s whole lecture I have to agree with what he says. The facts that he presented were mind blowing, and like I said before, it really wants me to give to others just to see if he is right.
http://www.ted.com/talks/roberto_d_angelo_francesca_fedeli_in_our_baby_s_illness_a_life_lesson.html
ReplyDeleteThe video “Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli: In our baby's illness, a life lesson”, Roberto and Francesca discussed how they changed their world for their son Mario, who had a stroke very early on when he was just a newborn. Their main message, that I took away, was to not look at your problems as problems, but as gifts, as opportunities in life. They started to look at their sons’ stroke, not as their problem but as their opportunity to learn and help him. I liked the video, it was a little short but the story caught me right away, and I loved the message (look at your problems not as problems, but as opportunities) and I think it is a great message to teach. They said that they are happy now because they are looking at their situation not as a problem but as a gift.
http://www.ted.com/playlists/4/what_makes_us_happy.html
ReplyDeleteThis video talks about how in the past people didn't have as much space for things. No matter how much extra room someone has they are constantly asking for more. He talks about how people spend money on things they think will make them happy, but in all reality the expenses they have and the debt they put themselves in causes more stress than happiness. He explains how he lives an "edited" life and can fit everything exactly how he wants into a smaller space while helping decrease the footprint made on our planet. I learned that less can equal more. By cutting down on space in a home, it saves money on square footage, heating or cooling the place and furnishing it. People nowadays have a hard time getting rid of things from their past, so as they move from house to house they just take it with them and it builds, causing them to need more room for their unnecessary objects.
http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2011X/None/MichaelNorton_2011X.mp4
ReplyDeleteMichael Norton tested a theory of how you spend money effect your happiness. The idea can best describe the talks is by this quote from Mr. Norton, he stated, “Money does buy happiness, you just aren’t spending it right.” His first test was with Canadian college students. He gave money to some and told them to spend money on themselves, other to spend on other people. People who spent money on themselves didn’t become less happy, the just stayed the same. While those who spent money on other became happier. It didn’t matter the amount they spent, or what they spent the money on, all that mattered was the act. The same held true in Uganda. Worldwide, the idea holds true, those countries that donate tend to be happier. So money can buy happiness, it is just the fact that most of us are note spending it right, we need to learn how to spend for other.
This correlates greatly with the book. Money was on the list of items that does not improve happiness, while social interaction and community was on the that was proven to increase happiness. I agree with the idea, and made me think of time where I had given gift or donated. The positive emotion was much greater than the times I had just purchased a gift or item for myself. I thought the video was great, another home run for Ted Talks.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
ReplyDeleteThe TED talk, “The Surprising Science of Happiness”, given by Dan Gilbert, is a look at the science behind happiness. According to Dan, there are two kinds of happiness: Synthetic and Natural. Natural happiness is the type of happiness that comes to us through organic means. If you were to get a surprise promotion or find a one hundred dollar bill on the ground, happiness would be the natural reaction. The best way I can explain Synthetic happiness is it is the happiness our body feels in a situation that does not produce natural happiness. His example was that a paraplegic was just as happy one year after his accident as a lottery-winner was a year after receiving their winnings. Obviously, mass amounts of money caused the lottery-winner to be naturally happy. The man who lost his legs probably was not very happy at first, but a year after his accident he had come to terms with his new limitations. His brain had adapted to his situation. He had no choice but to not have legs, and he had accepted that fact and moved on. I think his brain reasoned that things were not going to get better, so it was better to not let it bother him and to be happy besides.
I learned a lot in this talk, like how the only the human brain has the power to create simulations based upon past experiences. Think about sky-diving, you’ve probably never done it, but based upon past experiences of senses you can create a rough sketch of how it would feel in your head. (Think: dreams or imagination) Maybe that simulation would be completely wrong to how it would feel in real life, but you can still produce the image. This video was a great video, and I really learned a lot about the cognitive powers of our brain and how happiness is directly attributed to them.
http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html
ReplyDeleteThis starts out by the speaker talking about how he was playing with his sister and when she feel off the top bunk bed, he gave her some positive feedback and it made his sister not cry but made her forget about her pain. He goes on to talk about how happiness is measured by success. If you get good grades, now you have to get better grades to get to that point of happiness with yourself. He was a Harvard graduate and when he told his friends that he was going to Harvard to study happiness they asked what does anybody at Harvard have to unhappy about. People keep raising the bar every time something good happens and then that makes it harder to achieve happiness. People are always thinking negative and then after awhile your brain is always thinking negatively. So with his research he has learned how to help people to start thinking happy. He has people journal and write positive emails to people for several weeks at a time. After a while you start to replace negative with positive thoughts and in return you start seeing happiness more often. When people done the journaling or writing emails it increased their productivity. The statistic that caught me off guard is when a doctor rethinks on the positive side, they are able to come to a diagnosis 34% faster than before. This is a very interesting TED Talk.
I can't say that there is anything I disagree with I think this would be a great video to show people. Some of the processes that he went through to help people to start thinking positive would be a great tool. People get stressed out to much when the bar keeps getting placed higher and higher. They are always trying to succeed and don't want to fail so they are never happy. If they are always thinking positive it is easier to happy.
Happiness comes in many different forms. This video was about how all of our stuff could be cutting into our happiness. First he looked our past and talked about how we have three times the stuff that we did 50 years ago. Along with this we spend more money (both to buy this stuff and store it) more of a carbon footprint, and more stress. The speaker then talked about three steps that we can cut down on our stuff and gain more happiness. 1.) Edit ruthlessly, which just means cut back on your stuff and never turn back around, if you haven’t used it in a couple years you might used it down the road but it is not worth holding on to it. This could be clothes or random house hold items that we can cut down or use something else. 2.) Think small, this concept is what self-explanatory, have thinking that fold or stack into smaller items and can be stored in smaller spaces. 3.) Multiple uses, also self-explanatory, things should have more than one use, and if they don’t it is not worth having. I think this is very cool concept, he talked about less stress when you are camping or on a trip because the lack of stuff you have to deal with. He goes to an extreme when he shows is one bedroom house that serves as more like 5 rooms. But this concept of a multiple use “everything” really does de-clutter your life, it is cheaper, decreases your footprint, and causes less stress.
ReplyDelete