For me, the greatest insight is when Epicurus speaks how we should not fear death, since the fear of death is a greater pain than death itself. Since he only deals with pain and pleasure, his approach is almost cognitive: don't fear unnecessarily or desire frivolous things. The problem with a cognitive approach for happiness, at least for me, is we have so little control of our moods and environment. It would be nice to be able to go to the country side, and live as a farmer, but that's not always a feasible option. It would be nice to change our perspectives on a whim, but most can't. In the lecture, Dr.Surprenant speaks of "the swerve," which seems similar to the uncertainty principle, in that it prevents a perfect determinism but is meant to preserve personal responsibility. However, I would argue that even "the swerve" does not preserve free will, since whether or not the universe is certain is not the true question. The question is whether the mind is the principle cause of certain actions, and "the swerve," seems to say otherwise. Random movements of atoms, although unpredictable, are just as outside our control as fate, so I don't see how "the swerve" can save free will. Another thing I like about Epicurus is that he speaks of pleasure as "sober reasoning." I understand this as meaning that pleasure isn't an end in itself, but it is how we measure what is good, a ruler almost. This means that things that unfairly affect pleasure, e.g. wine or drugs, aren't good either. This in mind, I would define happiness as a pleasurable life. But by this definition, actions aren't centered around happiness but pleasure. Many people think in the short term, and that is why they have so much pain in their lives. Instead, they should pursue happiness, pleasure in the long term, by being non-materialistic and adopting a sort of ce'st la vie attitude toward death ( since fear of the inevitable is worse than useless).