【正文】 re cowardly.
　　The lesson I want to leave you with from these data is that our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown, because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very modity we are constantly chasing when we choose experience.
　　Thank you.
。re reckless, and weamp。re thoughtful. When our fears are unbounded and overblown, weamp。 weamp。39。re prudent。 In other words: yes, some things are better than others.
　　We should have preferences that lead us into one future over another. But when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the difference between these futures, we are at risk. When our ambition is bounded, it leads us to work joyfully. When our ambition is unbounded, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, to sacrifice things of real value. When our fears are bounded, weamp。The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from overrating the difference between one permanent situation and another ... Some of these situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse for the horror of our own injustice.amp。t be exactly the same.
　　In more turgid prose, but closer to the truth, was the father of modern capitalism, Adam Smith, and he said this. This is worth contemplating: amp。t exactly be right. Is there really nothing good or bad? Is it really the case that gall bladder surgery and a trip to Paris are just the same thing? That seems like a onequestion IQ test. They canamp。s nice poetry, but that canamp。 Itamp。Tis nothing good or bad / But thinking makes it so.amp。amp。s making it hyperbolically: amp。s making my point here but heamp。 Duh! 66 percent of the students, twothirds, prefer to be in the course where they have the opportunity to change their mind. Hello? 66 percent of the students choose to be in the course in which they will ultimately be deeply dissatisfied with the picture. Because they do not know the conditions under which synthetic happiness grows.
　　The Bard said everything best, of course, and heamp。re doing another course where you take the two pictures and you make up your mind right away and you can never change it. Which course would you like to be in?amp。d have four days to change your mind, or weamp。re doing a photography course, and we can do it one of two ways. We could do it so that when you take the two pictures, youamp。You know, weamp。s the final piece of this experiment. We bring in a whole new group of naive Harvard students and we say, amp。t like their picture. Why? Because the reversible condition is not conducive to the synthesis of happiness.
　　So hereamp。t like their picture, and in fact even after the opportunity to swap has expired, they still donamp。 have killed themselves. They donamp。t the good one? Maybe I left the good one?amp。Should I return it? Have I gotten the right one? Maybe this isnamp。s really happening. Both right before the swap and five days later, people who are stuck with that picture, who have no choice, who can never change their mind, like it a lot! And people who are deliberating amp。s whatamp。t much matter whether they were in the reversible or irreversible condition.
　　Wrongo. Bad simulators. Because hereamp。s a very small increase, and it doesnamp。re going to maybe e to like the picture they chose a little more than the one they left behind, but these are not statistically significant differences. Itamp。s what students think is going to happen. They think theyamp。re going to e to like the picture that they keep and the picture they leave behind. Other students are just sent back to their little dorm rooms and they are measured over the next three to six days on their liking, satisfaction with the pictures. And look at what we find.
　　First of all, hereamp。 Now, half of the students in each of these conditions are asked to make predictions about how much theyamp。Make your choice. And by the way, the mail is going out, gosh, in two minutes, to England. Your picture will be winging its way over the Atlantic. You will never see it again.amp。 The other half of the students are told exactly the opposite: amp。s totally returnable.amp。ll check with you. You ever want to change your mind, itamp。ll e to your dorm room and give just give me an . Better yet, Iamp。ll be glad to swap it out