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A review by tudlio
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
5.0
[author: Daniel Gilbert] has written pretty close to the perfect popular science book. It's a fascinating topic, articulately written and structured, told in an approachable and humorous style.
Gilbert's topic is happiness: how we achieve it, or more often don't. He illuminates the psychological processes by which we remember past emotional experiences, how we experience present emotions, and how we predict how we will feel in the future. As you might expect given the title of the book, we don't do a great job. When we want to predict how a decision will make us feel, we imagine ourselves after that decision is made. But imagination is influenced by our present circumstances, and by our imperfect memory of the past, so in the end how we think we'll feel is rarely accurate.
Don't read this book thinking it will tell you how to be happy. But do read it to be informed and entertained, and to gain a little insight into the ways in which you don't know you think.
Gilbert's topic is happiness: how we achieve it, or more often don't. He illuminates the psychological processes by which we remember past emotional experiences, how we experience present emotions, and how we predict how we will feel in the future. As you might expect given the title of the book, we don't do a great job. When we want to predict how a decision will make us feel, we imagine ourselves after that decision is made. But imagination is influenced by our present circumstances, and by our imperfect memory of the past, so in the end how we think we'll feel is rarely accurate.
Don't read this book thinking it will tell you how to be happy. But do read it to be informed and entertained, and to gain a little insight into the ways in which you don't know you think.