I spent way too much time thinking about whether to suggest reading “Stumbling on Happiness
The subtitle is “Why do we fail so often to know what will make us happy in the future?”
Now I think it might be worth a look after acting on a suggestion he makes: Project how you will feel if you make a certain decision or action. (I may be saying this wrong but that’s what I took from it.)
Just now I was considering walking to an outdoor cafe to do some writing. Secretly, I don’t like their coffee much and knew I could make better at home. However I like people watching. But I also wanted to send out a newsletter, which I could only do at home. I tried to ponder why I like being at that cafe and imagined being there; and, I admitted it usually isn’t as fulfilling as I think it will be when I’m on my way there.
In the end I decided sending the newsletter would make me happier and free me from having to think about it more. (Procrastinating would only stress me out!)
So I decided to send the newsletter, have coffee, then if I feel like it walk to the cafe and maybe have something to eat.
This is a long winded way of saying if you like thought-provoking books and self-analysis, Daniel Gilbert has written a well researched and documented book that will make you think.
One review sums it up well: “This is a book that describes what science has to tell us about how and how well the human brain can imagine its own future, and about how and how well it can predict which of those futures it will most enjoy.”
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