I was surprised to learn that many common health recommendations are actually ill-advised or even wrong, and that many peoples’ beliefs about health and longevity come from biased sources. People who participated in the study did not live such long lives because they ate healthy and exercised regularly. Instead, they lived long lives due to their specific personalities. I also learned that personalities can actually change slightly throughout the course of ones’ lifetime. I was under the impression that you were born with a certain personality and it remains the same as you grow older. Another thing that surprised me was that thinking happy thoughts does not reduce stress and lead to long life, and that worrying is not very bad for your health. I am not sure if I believe these statements because I feel as though thinking happy thoughts and being positive must reduce stress. One thing that I noticed was how hard working, dedicated, and diligent the researchers had to be. I think it is amazing that people can dedicate 20 years of their lives to one specific study. I am left wondering how accurate the study is. Yes, the researchers were extremely detail oriented but there are so many factors that must have impacted findings, and the authors mentioned this in the chapters.