Kindle Notes & Highlights
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June 18 - July 7, 2015
By making ourselves feel poor, we can induce our overconsuming instincts into living more frugally.
carrying less cash.
Its easier to use electronic money.
A danger of using credit is that we do not hand over anything that feels valuable (such as cold, hard cash), so charging doesn’t feel like spending money.
spending.
The
One account is untouchable and can accumulate savings, while the more commonly used account, usually the checking account, gets fixed transfers each month.
Now we have pay easy, we can transfer money to anywhere as we like .
The surprising conclusion is that most people get rich because they spend less, not because they earn more than the average.
“Wise rulers in all ages have valued cereals and despised money. No matter how much gold and silver one may possess, one cannot live for a single day on these. Rice is the one thing needful for life.”
民以食為天
Companies know that we are overly optimistic about our future behavior and they use this knowledge to make money.
明天會更好
“Dopamine Response = Reward Occurred – Reward Predicted.”
Put another way, the dopamine system was built to reward evolutionary success, not to produce permanent happiness.
In his Coffee Cantata of 1732, J. S. Bach wrote, “Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine!”
Evolution should favor those who take the right risks, not just those who are reckless gamblers.
we are often fooled by products that have been artfully designed to exploit our risky instincts.
To win, we need to decide in advance the maximum we can lose, then ensure we absolutely cannot exceed that limit.
If we just rely on our instincts, we are likely to be too timid in our professional lives.
Happiness is a tool that our genes use to induce us toward behaviors that benefit them. The rabbit moves to further the interests of the racetrack owner, not the dog. Similarly, we strive toward elusive goals, not for our own happiness, but to further the interests of our genes.
Our genes don’t care about our past achievements, only about continually
Lots exception cases here, people like blowing there past.
Our instinctual systems are thus both the toughest and the nicest of bosses. They constantly ride us for more, not caring what we accomplished yesterday but asking for maximal effort today.
Some people only bull shit more.
Learning that the pain will go away sooner than we predict, however, can help us become more courageous.
First, absolute levels have little effect on happiness. Second, we love making progress. Third, expectations play a central role.
First, the road to attractiveness need not be a mystery. The behaviors of a good mate are almost exactly those that our mothers tried to teach us. (We would have listened more if we knew it would get us more than Cub Scout merit badges.) Second, anyone can become significantly more desirable by being considerate, staying physically fit, and being fiscally responsible.
A husband who provides a constant flow of gifts cements the marriage vows. Women should also give gifts to their husbands, but the best gift may be enthusiastic sex.
I was blamed when giving gift. Received no gift, non sex.
should continue improving ourselves as a way to improve our relationships.
No improvement after marriage.
Cooperation is central to human activity, and gossip is central to cooperation.
the country has permanent interests but no permanent friends.
Their more dependable and plentiful food supply led to bigger families. But their populations soon became swollen and, running out of room to grow, they became warlike.
That's the reason material abundant lead to selfish.
While we may all dream of unconditional friendship, we are just as motivated by self-interest as the troops.
One interesting twist to our outdated social instincts is a systematic overestimate of our importance.
So we have to be humble.
Because people lived in small groups for so long, our genes have built us with instincts appropriate for a world with a small number of people who interact frequently.
Like the herring gulls, our instincts worked well in our natural environment, but get us in trouble in an industrialized world.
