Thinking, Fast and Slow offers fascinating insights into various aspects of your mind. I've just read something worth considering. Kahneman talks about a survey which was executed in Germany, where participants were asked these questions:

1. How happy are you these days?

2. How many dates did you have last month?

They found out that the answers did not correlate with each other. However, when the order of the questions was changed, they found out that the number of dates and the happiness of the subjects did correlate. Kahneman calls this a combination of proning, “What You See Is All There Is” and substitution (all concepts which are explained in detail in the book).

So it turns out stuff like this matters. You and me are being influenced in the way we think way more than you imagined.

How could we use this knowledge to bring some happiness to the people around you? By asking questions, could it be possible to remind friends of great things that are happening to them? Lets experiment!