[swombat]

They discuss how happiness is indeed a consequence of the choices people make.

I completely disagree. Happiness is a consequence of your outlook on life. It has very little to do with choices, and everything to do with how you perceive yourself, and whether you believe that you should be happy.

This TED talk by Brené Brown on the topic is particularly relevant:

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

[dschobel]

Thank you for this link. I think a lot of HNers with the "life is an optimization problem, I just need to find the correct parameters" mindset can learn from it. It certainly made me uncomfortable for the amount I identified with the speaker.