Book Review: Stumbling on Happiness
June 5, 2006 by alex
Last week I finished Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness and neglected to produce a reviewlet so here goes… This book examines how we use what we’ve gone through in the past and what we expect the future to hold in order to determine what we should do in the present. It sounds a little convoluted when it’s written out but it can be boiled down to this: most of us go through life making decisions in an effort to achieve happiness. Gilbert explores where we get those beliefs from - from our past experiences, from others’ experiences, from pure speculation, etc… and he does so in a very accessible way.
The book probably is too light for the hardcore cognitive scientists in the house but provides a very entertaining and informative read on the subject of why we do what we do for those who want to get their feet wet.
Tags: books
Posted in Entertainment
June 5th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
sigh. is this one of those books where i’m going to read it and discover that my endless pursuit of unavailable women and borderline alcholism is not actually be best way to make me happy? cause if it is, i don’t want to be anywhere near it.