Sunday, January 4, 2009

Dangling Chads Weren't So Bad

"[Researchers] collected relevant data from the George Bush - Al Gore presidential election in 2000. Gore voters predicted they would be unhappy after a Bush win, and Bush voters predicted the opposite. When they surveyed voters later, they were far less unhappy (in the case of the Gore voters) than they had predicted. The truth is, while electing a Commander-in-Chief is important, it has less bearing on our everyday lives than most folks think...

...A major reason we overestimate the impact of the things that will happen to us just around the bend is that we underestimate our own resilience. Most of us discount our ability to bounce back from hard times and cope with problems."

- Ed Diener

Last night I tried to skate by without taking Sudafed, testing whether my system was on the recovery. Test failure woke me up around 2:00 in the morning with a three-alarm cough that took about an hour to soothe with drops and a pill. While I was groggily sitting in the living room waiting for the meds to kick in, I wondered what I'd be like after waking up today. So far so good!

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