Stumbling on Happiness
In this fascinating and often hilarious work - winner of the Royal Society of Science Prize 2007 - pre-eminent psychologist Daniel Gilbert shows how - and why - the majority of us have no idea how to make ourselves happy. We all want to be happy, but do we know how? When it comes to improving...
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In this fascinating and often hilarious work - winner of the Royal Society of Science Prize 2007 - pre-eminent psychologist Daniel Gilbert shows how - and why - the majority of us have no idea how to make ourselves happy. We all want to be happy, but do we know how? When it comes to improving tomorrow at the expense of today, we're terrible at predicting how to please our future selves. In 'Stumbling on Happiness' Professor Daniel Gilbert combines psychology, neuroscience, economics and philosophy with irrepressible wit to describe how the human brain imagines its future - and how well (or badly) it predicts what it will enjoy. Revealing some of the amazing secrets of human motivation, he also answers thought-provoking questions - why do dining companions order different meals instead of getting what they want? Why are shoppers happier when they can't get refunds? And why are couples less satisfied after having children while insisting that their kids are a source of joy?
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780007183135 (0007183135)
Publish date: February 1st 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pages no: 298
Edition language: English
Essentially, humans are bad at knowing what will make them happy in the future, and bad at remembering what made them happy in the past. We have 'flawed' memories and 'flawed' imaginations. The only real advice he gave was to only ask for advice from people currently in the situation you are consid...
Well that ended abruptly. This book took me forever to get through. There were some interesting concepts, a lot of scientific stuff, and he leaves it that happiness is pretty elusive because people won't do what they should to be happy.What'd I get from this? It's most beneficial to ask someone in a...
Best thing: Not a self-help book :) It doesn't try to preach, because there aren't many things to preach anyway, only to point out what's wrong with us. And the author does it with charming wit. In some places, the experiments that he cites to substantiate his points seem inadequate, but that is mor...