Most of the articles on Cracked.com induce you into becoming a crazed euphoria-seeking serial-clicking monkey.  Not necessarily a bad permutation, but almost always a drain on the productive use of ones time.  However, I really enjoyed this article on the misconceptions we hold about what will make us happy in life and found it to be quite thought provoking and informative.  The first bit is here, the rest can be found at Cracked.com.

5 Things You Think Will Make You Happy (But Won’t)

By: February 17, 200

“If 80s movies taught us anything, it’s that at some point you’re going to run into a mysterious relic that lets you switch bodies with other people.

Would you use it? Would you choose to switch lives with, say, Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie or Dale DeBone? Most people would.

But let’s say the artifact doesn’t let you choose, but will instead switch you randomly with one of the other six billion people on the planet. Virtually nobody will take that deal, for fear they’d switch with some poor villager in Nigeria.

So what does that say about us? Well, according to experts, it says almost everything we think about what would make us happy is dead wrong. Let’s look at the five things we’re most wrong about, with some pictures of adorable animals for good measure.”

Go to the little girls’ aisle at the department store, if you’re not there already. On the shelves you’ll see the dominant little girl fantasy isn’t Cinderella or even Dora the Explorer. It’s Hannah Montana. Playsets come complete with a camera, makeup and a mirror for Hannah to admire herself in.

The girls play with that when they’re eight, and by 16 they’re on MySpace, pouting at the camera in their underwear and watching the friend requests pour in. In a recent survey of high school kids, 51 percent said their ultimate goal was to become famous.

This is brand new to humanity; for thousands of years, material goods and security dominated. Now, fame is at the top. Obviously part of the reason is the perception that anybody can get famous these days–reality TV and YouTube have proven that you can become a celebrity for doing not a goddamned thing. But there’s another, less obvious factor. And it explains why so many famous people are miserable.

So What’s the Problem?

Experts say where you find kids who desperately want to be famous, you find a history of neglect at home.

Continue reading.