Psychology and the Good Life Talk by Laurie Santos

Link to Psychology and the Good Life Talk

For Human Day, we were instructed to watch a video by Laurie Santos, a popular professor at Yale who talks about what we need to do in life and how to achieve it.

Vocabulary from the Video

  • Stress: A State of Mental or Emotional Strain caused by situations
  • Anxiety: The Mind and Body’s reaction to stressful or unfamiliar situations
  • Gratitude: Being Thankful and being ready to show appreciation and to be kind again
  • Affluence: Having a great deal of wealth
  • Intuitive: Using what one feels to be true without having reasoning
  • GI Joe Fallacy: A Cartoon with a PSA at the end teaching kids meaning once you think you know something, you will automatically start doing it, but you have to put in the work
  • Time Famine: Not having a lot of time to do things and being more busy
  • Time Affluence: When you have a lot of time

Notes from the Actual Video

  • As a professor at Yale, Laurie Santos saw that the Yale Students had a lot of stress and because of that they could not really make use of opportunities
  • 40% of College Students report more than the average level of stress
  • 1/3 of Students were so depressed that they could not do much
  • Around 60% of students experience anxiety
  • Over 50% of them feel lonely a lot of the time
  • Over 80% of them feel overwhelmed with all they have to do
  • About 1 out of 4 students at Yale took the class, and they were people who had a lot of stress and anxiety
  • Whatever state you are in, you can improve it and control your emotions
  • What people think are going to make them happy, they might not be happy
  • Becoming happier takes a lot of work and requires a lot of work everyday
  • People think things like Salary are important to happiness, but as you earn more money, you think you need more to enjoy
  • Helping other people can really help to improve your happiness
  • If you share what you are grateful for everyday, it can make your life much more happier
  • Getting distracted can make you less happy, and people do not really pay much attention in what they are doing

My Gratitude List

  • My Church and the community because they are all very nice and they are all supportive
  • I am grateful for attending Del Norte High School, which offers many courses and the staff present at the school are all very supportive and care about your success
  • My Family and Friends who really push me to do my best and work hard as much as I can

Goals for my AP Computer Science Principles Class

I have learned that stress is a real problem and if you want to be truly happy, you have to put in a lot of work. I want to be happy in this class because right now, I feel it is a lot of work and I don’t know how to do it, and that everyone else knows what they are doing, and in order to be more happy in this class, I need to work more.

  • Make assignments fun and try to code cool programs
  • I can try to collaborate with my group more so I don’t have so much to do
  • I can manage my time more
  • Study the information and review it for the AP Exam
  • Share tips with people and get ideas from them

Plan to Succeed in AP Computer Science Principles

It has been established that the skills you learn in AP Computer Science Principles can be really useful towards many different careers. I really hope to learn as much as I can from this class so that in my future, I can continue developing these skills and use them for various actions.

One big thing that would be really helpful would be to update my Timebox each week so that way when it is time for the AP Exam, I can look at it and remember any important topics I need to study from that.

I also hope to do really well on the College Board Quizzes and try on them to see what I really need to go back and review. Another really helpful tool could be my team and I should communicate with them as much as I can so that way, if I have any questions I can ask them and get any help I need with understanding a concept