I always feel like it’s a bit cheesy to muse about the big questions like the meaning of life–although somehow when Carl Sagan does it seems profound. It makes me a bit hesitant to do posts like these but one of my favourite web comics, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, happened to post a strip today that is a natural follow-up question to the Carl Sagan’s video I posted yesterday a perfect segue to a great Dan Gilbert TED talk. If you haven’t seen yesterday’s video from the Carl Sagan series, take a few minutes to do that now. Aren’t you now tempted to ask this:

If I was that dad, I would show my daughter the TED talk below by Dan Gilbert demonstrating that our body has a type of “psychological immune system” that can create happiness in almost any situation. Sounds hokey, I know, but watch the video and tell me the video where they ask people to rank and choose art prints and then rerank them later isn’t convincing. Bottom line: whatever reality reveals people will adapt and find satisfaction in it.