Stumbling on Happiness

This is my second reading. Again, I found the book informative and well written. Again, I felt disappointed by Gilbert's failure to differentiate between kinds of happiness.

Gilbert is a terrific writer: engaging, entertaining, even laugh-out-loud funny at times. The book is well organized, rich with examples of the latest knowledge in psychology, neuroscience, and economics (but don't worry – he makes it readable without dumbing it down). Without actually labeling them as such, he describes many of our cognitive biases: the tricks our brains play on us, how and why they happen, and why they're so hard for us to see.

The conclusion of the book is simple: if you want to know how happy or unhappy something will make you, don't trust your imagination. Instead, look to and trust the experiences of others who have been there. Getting to that conclusion, convincing the reader of it, really does take the entire book, and it's worth it. I'm disappointed at his lack of discussion of internal vs external rewards, of deep fulfilling happiness vs the shallow potato-chip-yum kind ... but that's another book. Despite that lack, I fervently recommend this book to anyone who wants to know and understand a little bit about ourselves.

Great book that explores the psychology and science behind how our minds work in relation to happiness. With our imperfect memories, inability to predict our emotional reactions to events in the future and the psychological tricks that we play on ourselves, it becomes obvious that our thoughts and opinions about “the world” are highly subjective. All the more reason for having an open mind and heart.

Can you become more happy? How would you do it? What does that even mean?

From Aristotle to Disney, culture low brow and high has put happiness at the top of the tree when it comes to life's prizes. For many, it is the ur-good, from which all other goods derive their instrumental worth. But often, too, the pursuit of happiness is dismissed as a mere frippery.

Bringing together what psychologists have to say on the subject, Gilbert tackles these big questions through engaging and entertaining prose. The book has plenty of practical techniques and insights that you could apply to try to become happier, but it is by no means your typical self-help nonsense. The author is a properly credentialed scientist and expert in the field, his statements are backed up by studies which are clearly explained and the book takes the time to explain. I have no background in the subject, so I can't speak to the accuracy of his presentation of the science, but I have heard the book praised by a number of different people who know more than I do, so I take that it is at least generally accurate.

A really interesting and easy read. I would definitely recommend this to anyone over pretty much any and all of the self-help shelves in your local bookstore.