Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.
Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy — and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design.
It’s perhaps the most universal human yearning: to be happy. But this simplest of goals so often eludes us. We’re not terribly good, we humans, at knowing what we want.
“The Pursuit of Happiness” was 2004’s conference theme, but TED speakers over many years have continued this quest. Daniel Gilbert‘s astonishing talk shows how we’re poor predictors of what will actually make us happy. Stefan Sagmeister shares how great design contributed to his happiest moments, suggesting that the secret may be attention to detail. And Malcolm Gladwell, tongue in cheek, explores what we might learn about the pursuit of happiness through one man’s quest to make the perfect pasta sauce.
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