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Stumbling on Happiness

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Author: Daniel Gilbert
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$14.95~~
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Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8

ISBN: 1400077427
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9781400077427
ASIN: 1400077427

Publication Date: March 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Condition: Paperback with light edgewear, unmarked text.

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Do you know what makes you happy? Daniel Gilbert would bet that you ithink/i you do, but you are most likely wrong. In his witty and engaging new book, Harvard professor Gilbert reveals his take on how our minds work, and how the limitations of our imaginations may be getting in the way of our ability to know what happiness is. Sound quirky and interesting? It is! But just to be sure, we asked bestselling author (and master of the quirky and interesting) Malcolm Gladwell to read iStumbling on Happiness/i, and give us his take. Check out his review below. i--Daphne Durham/ibrp hr size="1"span class="h1"strongGuest Reviewer: Malcolm Gladwell/strong/spanbrbrimg src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0316172324.01.SWATCHXX.jpg" size="THUMB" border="0" align="left"span class="small"bMalcolm Gladwell is the author of bestselling books iBlink/i and iThe Tipping Point/i, and is a staff writer for iThe New Yorker/i./b/spanbrbr Several years ago, on a flight from New York to California, I had the good fortune to sit next to a psychologist named Dan Gilbert. He had a shiny bald head, an irrepressible good humor, and we talked (or, more accurately, he talked) from at least the Hudson to the Rockies--and I was completely charmed. He had the wonderful quality many academics have--which is that he was interested in the kinds of questions that all of us care about but never have the time or opportunity to explore. He had also had a quality that is rare among academics. He had the ability to translate his work for people who were outside his world.p Now Gilbert has written a book about his psychological research. It is called iStumbling on Happiness/i, and reading it reminded me of that plane ride long ago. It is a delight to read. Gilbert is charming and ifunny/i and has a rare gift for making very complicated ideas come alive.p iStumbling on Happiness/i is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important?p In making his case, Gilbert walks us through a series of fascinating--and in some ways troubling--facts about the way our minds work. In particular, Gilbert is interested in delineating the shortcomings of imagination. We're far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations. Our imaginations aren't particularly imaginative. Our imaginations are really bad at telling us how we will think when the future finally comes. And our personal experiences aren't nearly as good at correcting these errors as we might think.p I suppose that I really should go on at this point, and talk in more detail about what Gilbert means by that--and how his argument unfolds. But I feel like that might ruin the experience of reading iStumbling on Happiness/i. This is a psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me. i--Malcolm Gladwell/i hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider" /br

Product Description
#8226; Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink?brbr#8226; Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? brbr#8226; Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? brbr#8226; Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can#8217;t we remember one song while listening to another; and why does the line at the grocery store always slow down the moment we join it?brbrIn this brilliant, witty, and accessible book, renowned Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrows and misestimate our satisfactions. Vividly bringing to life the latest scientific research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert reveals what scientists have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, and about our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there. With penetrating insight and sparkling prose, Gilbert explains why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become.

Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Happiness Is Reading This Amusing Book December 30, 2008
It's obvious that Mr. Gilbert had a blast writing about some of the quirky aspects of the brain's memory mechanics. I found the book's upbeat, child-like wonder to be quite infectious. As the author clearly states in the introduction, this is most certainly not a self-help book. But it does explain many of the brain's counterintuitive aspects and how our actions typically have the opposite results in our pursuit of happiness. Mr. Gilbert's argument is a wildly entertaining, comical and informative read. If his lectures at Harvard are anything like this book, they must be very popular.

1 out of 5 stars

Stumbling on a Title December 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I should have been warned off by the title of this book: Stumbling On Happiness. Not "Stumbling Upon Happiness" but "on" -- huh? Sounds like a bad thing -- like I'll fall down if I stumble on it. br /br /Without adequately first defining "happiness", the author stumbles headlong (literally) into an endless research-laden dissection of the human condition.br /br /In the end (p. 263), he finally admits: "There is no simple formula for finding happiness. But if our great big brains do not allow us to go surefootedly into our futures, they at least allow us to understand what makes us stumble." br /br /In describing the human quest for happiness, the author myopically focuses on happiness as defined by either the objects we collect or imagine collecting, or the quest for controlling our future -- and eschews any quest for happiness in the spiritual realm (and I'm not talking about answers found in religious dogma). br /br /Save yourself the effort of reading this book and instead read Shalom Freedman's succinct review of the book on Amazon:br /br /"Here are some of the most important points of this book:br /1) We often exaggerate in imagining the long- term emotional effects certain events will have on us.br /2) Most of us tend to have a basic level of happiness which we revert to eventually.br /3) People generally err in imagining what will make them happy.br /4) People tend to find ways of rationalizing unhappy outcomes so as to make them more acceptable to themselves.br /5) People tend to repeat the same errors in imagining what will make them happy.br /6) Events and outcomes which we dread may when they come about turn into new opportunities for happiness.br /7) Many of the most productive and creative people are those who are continually unhappy with the world- and thus strive to change it.br /8) Happiness is rarely as good as we imagine it to be, and rarely lasts as long as we think it will. The same mistaken expectations apply to unhappiness."br /

4 out of 5 stars

Interesting read December 25, 2008
Very insightful interpretations into the human mind and its tendencies. I recommend this book for anybody with a curiosity of how we go about remembering and forecasting our lives.

4 out of 5 stars

happiness is like this December 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Pop quiz: You have the choice between two futures, in one you win a three million dollar lotto, in the other you become a parapalegic. Which do you choose? Which will bring you more happiness after one year? If you are like everyone else (yes, everyone) then you picked the former alternative future and the data shows that you were correct in your pick. Just kidding. Actually, the data (and there are many studies) show that the future level of happiness between people who have suffered these two fates is not statistically different. Wow! I mean, really think about that. br /Daniel Gilbert's excellently written gem of a book explains why this is the case. As you plow quickly through Gilbert's book, you will be exposed to many such instances where people completely error in predicting what will and will not make them happy and how happy or sad a future event will make them. Technically, this is called affective forecasting because it deals with how well you can predict your future emotions. Many of the studies seem unreal. However, there are few biases that we all share that conspire to set these errors in motion. br /br /To name a few:br /br /Imapact bias) humans systematically overestimate the impact an event will have on them--whether good or bad.br /Durability bias) humans systematically overestimate the duration of the impact an event will have on them--whether good or bad.br /Presentism) humans use their present emotions as a calibration device to decide how a future event will impact them. If your feeling blue and somebody asks you to go to the movies, you might decline because, using your current affective state, you think the movies will not be fun at all. br /Focalism) Humans pay attention to a very small slice of information when weighing how future events will effect their happiness. For example, if you think of winning a million dollars, you only think of the great things you will be able to purchase with that windfall. You ignore the problems it will cause with family and friends, the fact that you will quickly adapt to the income, etc.br /br /br /Gilbert writes well and explains all of our cognitive flaws with gusto. A great book. If you read it closely you might just stumble upon a little joy of your own.

4 out of 5 stars

Find youself December 7, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

Good self-help book for those who have lost themselves, or feel they have lost touch with what makes them happy.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
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