our wants are relative to what other people have, not to some absolute measure.
This doesn't surprise me in the least, it's part of the instruction to "count your blessings" in order to be happy I think. Ie. If there are people worse off than you somewhere, then this fact is likely to cheer you up - after all, things could be worse.
because the pursuit of pleasure lands us on a never-ending hedonic treadmill that paradoxically leads to misery
Yes I have found this to be true. This is so self evident I would remove the word paradoxically from that statement. It's empirically the case.
satisfaction can arise only by the conscious decision to do something.
This one I find most interesting. If "true", and it probably is, then maybe it accounts for all of the "bad" decisions we see in the world. Statistically there must be far fewer decsions that are "good" than those that are "bad". In the same way that most inventions (ideas) are rubbish and the few good ones we come up with stick (like the wheel). But, if we have some instrinsic need to make a decision, and if this decision is probably going to be sub-optimal (or bad) then this need in us will account for a lot of the misery in this world.
This is something to work on, let's consciously try to be more indecisive perhaps? I'm serious, perhaps that is an answer to our condition?
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It's been a fine Easter here, K and I went to visit my sister and went to a wild animal park.
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