Daniel Kahneman

The experiencing self vs. the remembering self

Everybody is in search of happiness these days, but it seems almost impossible to think straight about happiness.
Daniel Kahneman argues that there are too many traps to really get to the bottom of it. First of all wellbeing is a complex thing, it applies to too many different things. And then there is a great discripency between our two selfs; the experiencing self, that only lives in the present, the now;  and the remembering self, that keeps score and maintains the story of our life.

The remembering self is a story teller. Our memory tells our stories, it is what we get to keep from our experience.
In that perspective it is good to question what defines a story?
Changes, Significant moments and Endings (probably the most important)
These parts will define your influence memory.

One of the biggest differences between the experiencing and remembering self is the handling of time.
Your experiencing self might find overall happiness whilst undergoing an event but one significant moment or ending can ruin the whole experience and your remembering self will tell you the event was horrible.
This underlines the conflict in valuing hapiness, for one part of your self tell you the experience was good but the other clearly doesn't.

Another great TED talk to think about how experiences are established and perhaps how we (as designers) can use this knowledge to make design matter.

Keywords: experience, ted

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