Morgan Housel

U2, the band, their albums in the 1980s are so unbelievably good.

You listen to Joshua Tree and those albums, you're like, every song is like magic.

Like, how did you... This is so good.

The recent albums...

I will judge and be like, I don't know, man.

It doesn't really happen.

And I think at least part of that is that I'm judging the recent albums relative to the pure magic that they produced.

If you don't like that music, you probably have your own example of it.

It's okay.

But that's the case.

Everything is going to be judged relative to your highest moment in the past.

And that's a very hard thing to deal with.

I don't know if you can do it intentionally.

I think you can be forced into it.

of if something terrible happens in your life, you are able to say, I'm so grateful for it because I used to be down in these pits of despair before.

Stephen Hawking had a very potent example of this, the late scientist who was, of course, had no control over his paralyzed head to toe in a wheelchair.

And he talked about that he was so grateful for life and so happy to wake up every morning because his expectations were reduced to zero when he was 21 years old, when he was diagnosed with this illness and everything else since then.

And there have been some studies about this of like the comparison, the classic example of who is happier, a lottery winner or a paraplegic?

And the answer is like not intuitive.

It's very often the paraplegic.