If people can construct a simple and coherent story, they will feel confident regardless of how well grounded it is in reality.

However, optimism is highly valued, socially and in the market; people and firms reward the providers of dangerously misleading information more than they reward truth tellers. One of the lessons of the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession is that there are periods in which competition, among experts and among organizations, creates powerful forces that favor a collective blindness to risk and uncertainty.

It doesn't take many observations to think you've spotted a trend, and it's probably not a trend at all.

The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.

The experiencing self lives its life continuously. It has moments of experience, one after the other.

Happiness is determined by factors like your health, your family relationships and friendships, and above all by feeling that you are in control of how you spend your time.

It's a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.