[oracardo]

The Overstory by Richard Powers: this book changed the way I look at trees. I'll be driving some days and out of nowhere notice a tree and appreciate it. This book inspired me to consider that there is an objective meaning to life.

The Incerto Series by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: where to start...I started reading this series over a decade ago and I still think about it weekly. It can be very dense to get through as I took a lot of notes. But I think it's worth the trouble. One of my favorite chapters is via negativa. This is the concept that it is easier to know what NOT to do than what should be done. Many interested ideas flow out from that when it comes to personal health, public policy, and morality.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: this book opened up my eyes to a host of mental biases. It's similar to some of Taleb's work but IMO easier to read. My favorite chapter surrounded the idea of the self as your memory vs your experience. Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it?

[JKCalhoun]

> Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it?

No. The photos and videos are not interesting, but .. no memories? Further, I am unlikely to take it if I also have to be alone. Experiences are, for me, to be shared because shared experiences are the coin that connect us to others.

[0x445442]

As I get older I grow more impatient with the effort of capturing my experiences with photos or other media. Organizing the media is a hassle and the real time effort diminishes the experience because my memories of the experience are interspersed with the effort to capture it.

[dekleinewolf]

I would argue that by definition 'your dream vacation' would include the company that would take part in your ideal vacation.

[sedawk]

> Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it? Of course I would, there is no downside to it. Even if I have no memory of it after the fact, the goodness that would result from such a vacation would remain with me (and hopefully affect me in a positive way). Plus, I get to do it all over again; because, if I had no memory, it never happened! Win-win ;-)

[oracardo]

The downside is time spent without any memories.

If I could snap my fingers and appear 7 days in the future, my body having experienced a vacation but my mind having no recollection what did I really gain? And at what cost?

[sedawk]

>what did I really gain? This is what I was trying to say: gain being the good effects dream vacation had on your mental health. Cost, of course is time, but you'd pay that anyways.

[dekleinewolf]

Absolutely. There is no expense (I take it as of any kind, or are we just talking 'it's paid for'?)

I would assume that at least during my dream vacation, my dream vacation would make me really happy. So 'really happy' beats 'average self' for any amount of time, even if I don't have memories afterwards.

[heliodor]

"Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert is an excellent complement to "Thinking Fast and Slow". It explores how the mind works in regards to happiness, and the biases in that.