Stumbling on Happiness (Vintage) - Softcover

Gilbert, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400077427 ISBN 13: 9781400077427

Publisher: Vintage, 2007

Synopsis

- Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink?- Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? - Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? - Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can'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?In 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.

About this title

Review:

"Think you know what makes you happy? This absolutely fantastic book that will shatter your most deeply held convictions about how your own mind works." --Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics

"A psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives . . . You ought to read it. Trust me." --Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink

"A fascinating new book that explores our sometimes misguided attempts to find happiness." --Time

"A witty, insightful and superbly entertaining trek through the foibles of human imagination." --New Scientist

"Gilbert's book has no subtitle, allowing you to invent your own. I'd call it 'The Only Truly Useful Book on Psychology I've Ever Read.'" --James Pressley, Bloomberg News

From the Author:

Q and A with Professor Gilbert

What makes you happy?
This is another question that people have trouble answering for themselves.
When you are truly happy you aren't noticing how happy you are, which makes
it difficult to recall later. With that said, I have the sense that I am
happiest when I am writing without interruption. I can wake up at 5 a.m.,
walk directly to my desk, and write for 10 hours without ever remembering
to eat or brush my teeth. My normal day is an endless series of
interruptions - email, telephone, family, students - so the occasional
uninterrupted day is (I think) my greatest pleasure.

What makes you unhappy?
I get snippy and sarcastic when people use language incorrectly. I
shouldn't, but I do. When a clerk at a store says, `That will be three
dollars', I say, `Really, when?' I know, I know. I should be shot.

You say that research shows that having children doesn't make us happier.
Do you think becoming a dad made you happier?
Intuitions and data often collide. The data say the earth is round, but it
looks flat to me. My intuition is that fatherhood increases my average
daily happiness, but the data say that unless I'm different from most
people, this probably isn't so. Of course, I'm not exactly like other
people inasmuch as I am 48 and my son is 30, so perhaps I'm free to believe
my intuitions - in which case, I believe that he makes me happy and that my
granddaughter makes me even happier.

Does what you know about the way the human brain works in any way help you
to be happy?
Knowing that people overestimate the impact of almost every life event
makes me a bit braver and a bit more relaxed because I know that whatever
I'm worrying about now probably won't matter as much as I think it will.

Do you intend for your book to help people to think differently?
My book isn't meant to make people happy. It is meant to make them smart
about happiness by telling them what science has discovered. I hope to give
people information that they can use (or not use) as they wish. I'm not in
the business of telling people what's right. I'm in the business of helping
them see what's true and then letting them decide for themselves what to do
about it.

What do you hope to accomplish with your research?
I'd like to say that I am trying to understand errors in affective
forecasting so that we can learn how best to overcome them. The trouble is
that forecasting errors are not clearly a `disease' that requires a `cure'.
Indeed, some people have suggested that inaccurate forecasts may play an
important role in our lives. Having said that, I'm willing to bet that on
balance we are best served by accurate estimates of the emotional
consequences of pains, tragedies and embarrassments. However, at heart I'm
just a guy who is curious about human nature, and what I really want from
my research is a deeper understanding of who we are and what we are doing
here. If my research has a practical benefit, I'm happy about that. If it
doesn't, I'm not even slightly worried. What is the practical benefit of
knowing how the universe began, or of understanding the evolution of the
mealworm?

You say that we regret not doing something more than something we did. What
do you regret not doing - and doing?
I regret not looking after my health a bit better back when it was easy to
do. The guy who had my body before me wasn't all that nice to it. I don't
have any Great Regrets of Action, though I suppose I would take back every
instance in which I made someone I love feel bad if that were possible.

You say it's the frequency not the intensity of positive events in your
life which makes you happy. What positive events reoccur in your life
regularly and therefore contribute to your happiness?
Three good things I do regularly: (1) drink freshly ground double-strength
coffee made in a French press every morning, (2) walk to and from my office
every day, and (3) listen to Miles or Jimi at least once a week (and if you
have to ask their last names then you are even less cool than I am).

Do you think that too much choice in modern life is making us miserable?
Well, we surely have too many stupid choices. A year or two ago I bought a
dozen pairs of identical cargo pants and identical black T-shirts and now
when I wake up in the morning I never think about what to wear. Why should
we waste our lives deciding whether to have Coke or Pepsi, with or without
caffeine, with or without sugar, with or without lemon, in a can or a
bottle or a litre or a cup, with or without ice, and a straw thank you?

Do you think we have lost some primal ignorance that would have kept up
happy?
No, no, no. Did I mention no? Every generation has the illusion that things
were easier and better in a simpler past. Dead wrong. Things are better
today than at any time in human history. Our primal ignorance is what keeps
us whacking each other over the head with sticks, and not what allows us to
paint a Mona Lisa or design a space shuttle. The `primal ignorance that
keeps us happy' gives rise to obesity and global warming, not antibiotics
or the Magna Carta. If human kind flourishes rather than flounders over the
next thousand years, it will be because we fully embraced learning and
reason, and not because we surrendered to some fantasy about returning to a
world that never really was.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1400077427
• ISBN 13: 9781400077427
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336