Today, when I was visiting potential apartments to move into in Barcelona, I thought about which one I should choose and tried to figure out what properties of an apartment are valuable over time, and what gimmicks will do I overestimate the value of and normalize quickly. The extended thought is whether it is possible to increase happiness and life satisfaction by manipulating your expectations. I know from economic research that expectations are crucial in understanding the utility we achieve from certain things. Perhaps it is more effective to reduce expectations than to focus solely on increasing well-being through a greater standard of living. It is obviously not easy to manipulate your own expectations, but being able to manage that could probably bring happiness and life satisfaction.