Hidden Brain

Why Am I Unhappy?

We think if we just get that next thing — the promotion, the relationship, the house — we'll finally be happy. But the research suggests that we're not very good at predicting what will make us happy, and we're especially bad at knowing how long that happiness will last.

Hidden Brain

Why Am I Unhappy?

Most of us believe that we know what we want. We imagine that if we just got that thing — the job, the relationship, the house — we'd be happy. But research suggests that we're not very good at predicting what will make us happy, and that we often adapt to good things far more quickly than we expect.

Hidden Brain

Blowing Up Your Life

We don't just want change. We want the feeling of being on the verge of change — the anticipation, the possibility, the sense that something better is just around the corner. The problem is that this feeling is often more pleasurable than the reality of change itself.

Hidden Brain

Blowing Up Your Life

We think that making a big change will make us happy, but what we're really doing is escaping the discomfort of our current situation. And the new situation will eventually have its own discomforts, which we'll want to escape from as well.