Stumbling on happiness

I just finished Harvard psychology professor, Daniel Gilbert's, new book "Stumbling on Happiness." Happiness is the core reason for why we do anything as human beings. While I disagree with the hedonistic notion that happiness is the purpose for living, I do believe that happiness is the measurement we use to determine how well we are living. Therefore a better understanding of what makes us happy is really a better understanding of what makes a better life.

Ironically, this is book will not make you any happier. The book basically delves into all of the scientific reasons and evidence for why, if happiness is our fundamental drive as human beings, we are so bad at finding it. Gilbert stops just shy of really explaining how we can correct the problems he identifies in the book and leaves the reader to make sense of the rest. The book identifies some various interesting problems we encounter when trying to find happiness, some that I was completely unaware of.

Gilbert is witty and interesting to read. At the very least the book is interesting and entertaining. I wouldn't dare spoil the book by giving away everything from it. I strongly suggest you pick up a copy for yourself. Not only will you learn a few things that you might never have been exposed to before, but you can appreciate Gilbert's many witticisms and humorous anecdotes.

The major take home point from the books is simple. Our imaginations and memories are far worse then we believe them to be. Gilbert goes to incredible lengths to explain how the marvelous abilities of memory and imagination are ultimately lacking in helping us decide what will make us happy. Because of these flaws, we are actually very bad at imagining what will actually make us happy. Worse, these flaws mean that our memory of past happiness is obscured and biased so that it too isn't always a reliable indicator.

Our imaginations, it seems, betray us by oversimplifying the future and missing critical details. In imagining what it would be like to live in Los Angeles, California, we think of the sunny climate but forget the smog and traffic. Although Gilbert blames this on the failings of the imagination I blame it on the sheer complexity of the universe. Imagination is incredibly powerful, but so much of the future cannot be predicted or visualized that our futures are constantly changing. Unfortunately in order to fill these gaps of variability we simply insert pieces of the present into the future. Our current skills, feelings, emotions and desires fill the gaps we see in our future. The problem lies when we believe that this picture is accurate and not just an guess.

The idea that our memories are also far less than perfect is also an interesting thought. Most of us believe our memories are like photographs of moments back in time. As Gilbert argues, these photographs are more like portraits with a great deal of artistic interpretation. Instead of preserving each moment, our memories preserve key details, or the essence, of an experience.

Source: www.scotthyoung.com