The Futile Pursuit of Happiness

I'm not going to take the time to write about this in more detail now, but I find this article fascinating and worthy of more thought:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFD61538F934A3575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1

Short summary: we vastly overestimate how much big boons and big ills will affect our emotions in a persistent way.