“I don’t want to give them up,” my patient told me.

“Why not?” I asked.

“I’ve been reading some articles on the Internet that say they might cure me.”

Tragically, he was referring to vitamin supplements, which he’d somehow come to believe would cure him of Stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. [...]]]> http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2011/04/24/the-two-kinds-of-belief/feed/ 23 http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2010/11/14/why-we-need-to-know-why/ http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2010/11/14/why-we-need-to-know-why/#comments Sun, 14 Nov 2010 23:00:48 +0000 Alex Lickerman http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/?p=6042 Photo: nathanborror

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating:  we are, all of us, meaning-seeking creatures.  We seek not only to define the meaning of our lives by adopting, whether consciously or unconsciously, an over-arching purpose, but also to understand the reason for almost everything that happens in the course of each [...]]]> http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2010/11/14/why-we-need-to-know-why/feed/ 17 http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2010/02/14/getting-people-to-change-their-minds/ http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2010/02/14/getting-people-to-change-their-minds/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:39:11 +0000 Alex Lickerman http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/?p=4518 Changing another person’s mind is literally one of the hardest things to do in the world.  Think of how many conversations you’ve ever had in which one of the participants decided the other was right and abandoned their previous views altogether.  It almost never happens.

Why?  Because even though ideas flit in and out [...]]]> http://www.happinessinthisworld.com/2010/02/14/getting-people-to-change-their-minds/feed/ 15