Fractionals

K-Punk has his normal, wryly terrifying take on Zidane, the World Cup's choice of "let the memories begin" as a slogan, Icons, fear, memory and happiness here; fantastic stuff, and he links to a lengthy, interesting article doing a brief survey of the field of the psychology of happiness. And just as glenn mcdonald said a few years ago that "all advice is ways of saying 'let it go'," it turns out we're all trying too hard:

Economists have a term for those who seek out the best options in life. They call them maximizers. And maximizers, in practically every study one can find, are far more miserable than people who are willing to make do (economists call these people satisficers).

So naturally enough, some of the advice accompanying the article is wonderfully counter-intuitive. So much of our angst (or whatever you want to call it) in modern, affluent Western culture stems from having too much choice and agonizing over that choice. Most people researching these issues can tell you that it's best to just go ahead and decide, within reasonable limits, because "If you make a mistake, you have the capacity to rationalize the worst decisions. And if all of that doesn’t work, well, we’re able to find happiness in even the most hopeless situations."