People like leaders who look like they are dominant, optimistic, friendly to their friends, and quick on the trigger when it comes to enemies. They like boldness and despise the appearance of timidity and protracted doubt.

So your emotional state really has a lot to do with what you're thinking about and what you're paying attention to.

I used to hold a unitary view, in which I proposed that only experienced happiness matters, and that life satisfaction is a fallible estimate of true happiness.

There's a tendency to look at investments in isolation. Investors focus on the risk of individual securities.

Friends are sometimes a big help when they share your feelings. In the context of decisions, the friends who will serve you best are those who understand your feelings but are not overly impressed by them.

Mental effort, I would argue, is relatively rare. Most of the time we coast.

Psychologists really aim to be scientists, white-coat stuff, with elaborate statistics, running experiments.