Synthesized Happiness

This goes on the list of one of my fave tedtalks of all time. Dan Gilbert, "the expert of happiness" talks about how there is no difference between regular happiness and synthesized happiness. One of the first examples he gives is that a person who has a limb amputated and one who has won the lottery have equal amounts of happiness in one year's time. People who have tragic things happen to them or miss out on great opportunities often say that it was for the best or they're happy it happened to them when logically it doesn't seem possible. I guess I can only explain so much of the lecture and the rest you really just have to see but he made me think a lot I suppose about how much of my happiness is real is how much is just synthesized (though the entire point of his lecture was about how one is not superior over the other).