Type here your thoughts about this week using the following headers:
General Thoughts - thoughts on the videos
Key Take-Aways - what were the main lessons you took from this weeks course
Rewirements - how did you get on with the rewirement activities?
General Thoughts
Annoying feature number 1: no new learning here. I will use this reminder as an opportunity to give more thought over the next few days to how much I expect I want each activity. Stopping to consider whether I’m correct, or miswanting.
Annoying feature number 2: again pretty much all stuff I’ve studied before, although there were some bits that went into interesting new depths. The study on silver and gold medals was very interesting and during the video I was questioning my points of reference in different areas of life. The car study was very interesting too, I’m sure that would transfer to Instagram, social media and lifestyle TV leading to a decrease in general happiness in the general community.
Personally I don’t think I pick up on this social pressure from media, it’s never really something I’ve noticed, so I’m not sure if I really have reference points. I’ve never wanted more money, etc than my brother’s or friends, and just been happy doing my own thing and living my own life.
I guess I need to reflect on reference points more because it seems to be critical to our happiness level, but I think I’m naturally pretty insulated from this.
Annoying feature number 3: again not new info. Long lasting Happiness comes from within. Any external stimulus is just a temporary bump.
Annoying feature number 4: going into more detail than earlier videos. the positive bias didn’t surprise me, the negative bias difference was surprising in the extreme cases the studies showed.
Key Take-Aways
Rewirements
I do these as a habit already and find them a big help in life. You are very welcome to try one of our approved random acts of kindness (although I dislike the name. they aren’t random they are specific actions designed to make the world around you, and yourself happier). Currently I just give my dog a ball in the park most days. He takes it to everyone he sees, sits near them and pushes the ball towards them with his nose. @Wiggles makes it very easy to have random conversations with people I’ve not met.
General Thoughts - with this class, I think that until now I really did not have so much issues with the fact to get unhappy with the showing off lifestyle of celebrities and Co., since I already in my teenage years stopped looking much what the media tried to sell…but, true is that since I started to have one account in the social medias, because at first the idea was to have contact with friends and family, I find myself giving much more importance about stuff that I maybe doesn’t need but have the idea of getting happy with it.
Key take-aways: I’m catching from this course, is that until now, I’m getting the idea that she is trying to make us clear that we are attached to people and materials stuff too much…well about the material stuff I can accepted well this but about relationship its something that I’m not very agreeing with it, She talks most of the time about marriage but what is it with “blood-relatives”…
Rewirements: started training for a new job and started to talk with a co worker that I didn’t knew well and we went for a beer and came up really well.
Katia your rewirement success is a good one.
I like the course a lot. I feel some friction with the way it’s presented because I’ve never liked the traditional structured American education format; but I think Dr. Santos does a really good job despite this because I think she feels the material could be beneficial to the children who have been immersed in this format for learning their entire lives. As such a lot of the exercises and touches on how your mind lets you down seem a little tame and scaled back to me. I’m not an expert but I’ve been through a lot of bias training both in workplaces in the private sector and in public safety and I know firsthand how your preconceptions can fail to give you a complete picture of a person or situation, leading to disaster.
It’s these experiences and growth that give you the tools you need to begin to understand how your actions in life impact your happiness, and I think a big part of that is a good balance of truly good things in life that you value. This reminds me again of the character strengths.
Andy I like those activities. I watch a youtube channel called “Crime pays but botany doesn’t” and he does some guerrilla horticulture and I admire that. I may turn a new eye to my neighborhood. I’ve also been wanting to set up a table outside my house and see if I can register people to vote.
I agree regarding the education, I guess it’s targeted at Harvard Students who I’d expect to be advanced in academic skills but more likely than normal young adults to be lacking emotional balance and self care. Many will come from highly pressured childhoods where achieving grades comes at the expense of well-being and social skills. (i’ve worked with kids at those schools, soo many of them are an utter wreck from growing up under so much pressure).
I’m surprised your tech background isn’t kicking in on the website itself. I find it surprisingly un-user friendly considering its the biggest provider of online courses in the world 
I’m going to use this course as an opportunity to record how things are effecting my energy levels as i often find them lower than i want. Beginning with coffee. No coffee for a week and i’ll self-assess my productivity and energy levels. I suspect it has a weirdly draining effect on me.
Btw, @KatiaEstrela is going to join our teams too, exploring the HR and Recruitment, SEO and UI Teams to see which she enjoys the most 
Great timing with the team rebuild just starting
I didn’t mention the rewirement because I wanted to post after doing a few things. I keep little dopp kits in my car that I hand out among the groups of people on the corners near the clinics and jail. A guy asked me for change, I didn’t have any but I spent $2 on some shit he wanted from inside the store. It’s weird how difficult it can be to think of a random nice thing to do.
