Stumbling on Happiness

In this fascinating and often hilarious work, 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. 'What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes? Would you race upstairs and light that Marlboro you've been hiding in your sock drawer? Would you waltz into your boss's office and present him with a detailed description of his personal defects? Hard to say of course, but of all the things you might do in your final ten minutes, it's a pretty safe bet that few of them are things you actually did today.' As humans in search of happiness, we are continually deferring present pleasure for future gain - but, in cosseting our future selves, we regularly come up against the limitations of foresight and an inbuilt tendency to misjudge what it is we truly want. In this delightful romp through the interrelated fields of psychology, philosophy and the psychological equivalent of music-hall illusionism, Daniel Gilbert draws on examples that play with the reader's perception, combining lively fresh analysis, fascinating research and considerable wit to illustrate how our fundamental drive to satisfy our desires is not only often misguided, but also intrinsically linked to the most long-standing and contentious questions about human nature. At once whimsical and scholarly, 'Stumbling on Happiness' is an engaging and engrossing look at what it means to be a human being on a perennial quest for happiness.

About the Author :
Daniel Gilbert was born in 1957, attained his Ph.D. in 1985 from Princeton University, and since 1996 has served as Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. In 2002, he was listed by Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin as one of the fifty most influential social psychologists of the decade, and is now considered the world's foremost authority on the psychological concepts of 'fundamental attribution error' and 'affective forecasting'.

Review :
'Stumbling on Happiness is an absolutely fantastic book that will shatter your most deeply held convictions about how your own mind works. Ceaselessly entertaining, Gilbert is the perfect guide to some of the most interesting psychological research ever performed. Think you know what makes you happy? You won't know for sure until you have read this book.' Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics 'In Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert shares his brilliant insights into our quirks of mind, and steers us toward happiness in the most delightful, engaging ways. If you stumble on this book, you're guaranteed many doses of joy.' Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence 'This is a brilliant book, a useful book, and a book that could quite possibly change the way you look at just about everything. And as a bonus, Gilbert writes like a cross between Malcolm Gladwell and David Sedaris.' Seth Godin, author All Marketers Are Liars 'Everyone will enjoy reading this book, and some of us will wish we could have written it. You will rarely have a chance to learn so much about so important a topic while having so much fun.' Professor Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University, Winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics 'In a book that is as deep as it is delightful, Daniel Gilbert reveals the powerful and often surprising connections between our experience of happiness and how we think about the future. Drawing on cutting edge psychological research and his own sharp insights into everyday events, Gilbert manages to have considerable fun while expertly illuminating some of the most profound mysteries of the human mind. I confidently predict that your future will be happier if you read this pathbreaking volume.' Daniel L. Schacter, Harvard University, author of Searching for Memory and The Seven Sins of Memory