The Paradox of Happiness

If happiness is all about things being unexpectedly good, then you cannot by definition pursue it. And so if you try to pursue it, you're going to beset with failure time and time again. I think at the heart of it is a prisoner's dilemma. If I am the only one who's honest about myself and my unflattering motivations and everyone else pretends to have pretty, high-minded motivations, then I lose status and everyone else gains status. That would be equivalent of me cooperating and everyone else defecting. So we're stuck in this prisoner’s dilemma. The only way we can get out of it is by coordinating to punish defectors. We need to call