The book is witty, interesting, and an overall fun read. It takes a more-or-less scientific approach towards how the brain perceives its current reality, how and of what it constructs memories, and how it attempts to construct possible futures. Throughout the book, Gilbert references scientific studies that appear to support his hypotheses.

The book gave many opportunities for introspection, was easy to make relevant to my own life, and gave me some useful ideas for dealing with other people. It's less prescriptive, as other reviewers note, but it does a good job of being descriptive: why is a person happy or unhappy? Just knowing the answer to that question opens a lot of good doors when dealing with a spouse, child, parent, colleague, or friend. Know why they are sad, why they are happy, with different events.

You see? It's not my fault I can't remember our first dance...I just remember that I LIKED it!

I'd recommend the book. Best if you can share the anecdotes with someone!

I was not very impressed.
I had to force myself to read the second part since I lost much of interest.
Author's inclination to try to be funny and insert lame jokes everywhere became a turn-off.
This book is overrated.

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert opens a view of happiness that is not in the normal range. Anticipation, imagination and rationalization are each responsible for much of our happiness. Mr. Gilbert disects the reasons we are happy, the times we are happy, and how we visualize our happiness. Great book - makes a person think about what they really have, want to have or don't really need.
Prudent Pam

Of the many books that I have on my shelves, this one is in heavy rotation. I have read it twice in the past 18 months and referred to it countless times in between. Dan Gilbert's writing style keeps you engaged with humor and relevant stories without skimping on too much substance. Put it this way, you'll laugh but still will respect yourself when you're done!

Gave it a 3 as it seems to have good ideas. Can't get through it though. Every damn sentence has a joke or parenthetical cute remark. Blech.

Although peppered with a few interesting points, the author never draws a conclusion or tells us anything truly useful. He seems more interesting in demonstrating his wit to the reader than writing a useful book.

I bought the book after glancing through a few random pages. Any given part of the book makes for an interesting read, but the book in its entirety leaves an empty feeling.

It is with great pleasure that I offer my highest recommendation for Stumbling on Happiness. I was impressed with the engaging style and humor with which Dan Gilbert explores the topic of happiness. Though most people spend their lives in blind pursuit of it, very few ever come to fully understand what happiness truly is and even fewer are fortunate enough to recognize and appreciate the experience of happiness as it occurs.

This book will not make you very happy. As a matter of fact, it will systematically challenge beliefs about the concept of happiness that you may not have ever known you even had in the first place.

What this book may do for you is what it did for me, which was to provide me with an opportunity to look at happiness through a more enlightened set of eyes. It was this very process that allowed me to gain a better idea of what happiness isn't and in turn, to develop a more solid understanding of what happiness means to me.

I particularly enjoyed Daniel Gilbert's use of hypothetical scenarios to illustrate his points. There were many of these theoretical situations that I could easily relate to and which helped to shed light on things I had never really understood, like why I always seem to feel more enthusiastic about going to a social event when I make the commitment to attend than I do when the time to fulfill that commitment actually arrives.

Readers who approach Stumbling on Happiness with an open mind will likely stumble upon a more realistic understanding of what it means to be truly happy but will ultimately have to define happiness on their own terms.

This is an awesome book written with no little wit and incredible insight. It's like Blink but with humor.

If you want to know why you make bad decisions, why you think like you do and why having kids isn't what it's cracked up to be, you need to check this out.

I have to admit I've really struggled to finish this book...in fact after many attempts, I've barely made it through half. The book is a bit trite and was not intriguing enough to hold my attention!

When you're deciding about what will make you happy in the future, do you think about things you enjoyed in the past? Do you imagine yourself in the future to imagine how you would feel? If you answer yes to these types of questions, Gilbert's book presents some interesting perspectives that will probably make you think twice about doing it again. For example, he discusses how (from a very scientific point of view) our imaginations fool us by doing things like imposing how we feel today on how we think we'll feel in the future. While he makes great points about how the way people predict what will make them happy is inherently flawed, I thought he fell a bit short in suggesting alternative ways to make predictions. While it's helpful to know that people who take risks are happier in the long run, I'm still not willing to risk jumping off a cliff in the hope I can actually fly.

Are you a tremulous bride on your wedding day? You have been looking forward to this day as the 'best day of your life' but are now a nervous wreck.

Have you just gotten the long-awaited promotion and are now overwhelmed with stress and maybe even regret?

Are you a new parent, stressed out by the burden of responsibility and lack of sleep and feeling guilty for not being ecstatically happy all the time?

Then, Daniel Gilbert's book is for you. In finely crafted and precise prose, the author describes the pitfals of 'Great Expectations'. Things that we most look forward to are often not quite as attractive when we get to experience them first-hand.

So, is there a way to predict our satisfaction with something that is touted as end-all and be-all? Yes, carefully watch the ones already there.

Maybe death is so scary to us because the first hand 'experiencers' are a bit hard to get a hold of...

The author is very straightforward ". . . this is not an instruction manual that will tell you anything useful about how to be happy." Rather, he attempts to explain how our minds function. He shows us how we could do a better job of predicting future happiness and explains why we don't use that ability. All in all it is an excellent work, well written and easy to read, and will leave you with a better understanding of yourself and the people around you. If this subject interests you I strongly recommendThe Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom and best of all Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious

I was expecting a Malcolmn Gladwell type of book where interesting ideas are backed with solid evidence but more importantly narrated in an engaging way. Unfortunately, this book did not have anything I didn't know and the author's style was repetitive and boring, definitely not like Gladwell's. If you want an easy read with somewhat interesting topics, go for it but otherwise it's quite forgettable.

I loved Dan Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness. With a great sense of humor, Gilbert presents interesting studies and tests to explain why humans have difficulty determining what will make them happy. Gilbert's writing style kept me engaged throughout the entire book. His work brought clarity to my prior views on happiness, and provided me with keen insight into the function of the human mind. I especially enjoyed Gilbert confronting the reader with seemingly impossible scenarios, which challenge preconceived notions on happiness. For example, how can lottery winners and paraplegics have the same level of happiness one year after winning the lottery, or one year after the loss of one's legs?

While reading Stumbling on Happiness, I was reminded of two of my favorite books by Ariel and Shya Kane: Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment and Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: A Book About Instantaneous Transformation. In Working on Yourself Doesn't Work, the Kanes assert that satisfaction, or well-being, is not dependent on the circumstances of one's life. Gilbert, in Stumbling on Happiness, lends support for the Kanes's view, by demonstrating that people are often very inaccurate when predicting their levels of happiness if certain circumstances were to occur. I recommend Stumbling on Happiness, Being Here, and Working on Yourself Doesn't Work, to anyone who is interested in discovering the human condition and how it relates to happiness, satisfaction and well-being.

I listened to this audiobook during my daily commute. Daniel Gilbert's main idea in Stumbling on Happiness is that we're very bad at predicting what will make us happy. This meshed very well with the ideas in The Black Swan, which postulates that we're bad at predicting everything.

Gilbert makes a good and thorough argument for his idea, and he manages to be fairly funny in the process. I particularly liked a section in the beginning of the book where he compares our future selves to our children looking back and resenting the old-fashioned choices we're making for them for their own good.

The book fizzles toward the end, as many books built around a single, interesting idea tend to do. I very much liked that this was not a self-help book. Gilbert explores what happiness really means and why we fail to find it, but leaves it up to us to figure out how to be happier.

Recommended, especially as an audiobook.

My psych degree condensed into the interesting parts.

Must read for all.

you will not be disappointed

It's rare that I have time to read non-text books and I'm glad I prioritized this one. It "dumbs" down years of science and makes it easy for laypeople to understand but gives a lot of insight into human behavior. Very entertaining and well-written-- a great "plane" book. I highly recommend Stumbling on Happiness.

What a delightful read! The title didn't endear much but on glancing into the book in the bookshop it seemed a) readable and b) well-informed. The investment paid off and this is one I'll be offering to others to read. This Harvard professor of psychology writes well and has written about the nature of the human mind and social practices that flows easily for the non-expert. There were laugh out loud moments on several occasions - it isn't dry and dusty academic-speak by any stretch.

Imagination (with regard to retrospection and future estimation) certainly plays some funny tricks on the mind, as does comparative decision-making. Near the end the discussion finishes on how humans are best positioned to adjudge their futures (and discern how to make themselves happy). Gilbert concludes with these observations:

"Most of us make at least three important decisions in our lives: where to live, what to do and with who to do it. We choose our towns and our neighbourhoods, we choose our jobs and our hobbies, we choose our spouses and our friends. Making these decisions is such a natural part of adulthood that it is easy to forget that we are among the first human beings to make them. For most of recorded history, people lived where they were born, did what their parents had done and associated with those who were doing the same. Millers milled, Smiths smithed, and little Smiths and little Millers married whom and when they were told. Social structures (such as religions and castes) and physical structures (such as mountains and oceans) were the great dictators that determined how, where and with whom people would spend their lives, which left most people with little to decide for themselves. But the agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions changed all that, and the resulting explosion of personal liberty has created a bewildering array of options, alternatives, choices and decisions that our ancestors never faced. For the very first time, our happiness is in our hands." (p235)

It would be interesting to have Gilbert extend this discussion past where the book ends and learn more about how these seemingly counter-intuitive means to guide lives in satisfying directions can be demonstrated. He makes references to evolutionary, economic and social theories. It would be interesting if he reached further into these subject areas to permit reflection upon about what is happening with all this choice. Are people really that bewildered with choice? Do people now expect choice? What happens when choices (previously enjoyed) are taken away? Is there a difference in the way different generations approach all this choice?

I absolutely LOVED this book and intend read it a second and perhaps even a third time.

I literally stumbled on this book since a friend had received it as a gift but was turned off by the title and passed it on to me without giving it a chance. That was her loss and my gain. I found reading this book to be a real treat. My hectic schedule was the only thing that kept me from finishing it in one sitting.

Having read some of the reviews, I must disagree with the nay sayers. I enjoyed the references to psychological experiments and found that they supported the author's position well. Also, I found his humor to be very entertaining. It kept me giggling if not laughing out loud throughout the book.

If you are looking for a self-help book that will lead you right to happiness and provide you with all of the answers to life's most mysterious questions then this is NOT the book for you.

But if you are looking for an extremely well-written, engaging, humorous and thought-provoking compilation of insights about how our minds work then this book should be at the top of your wish list.

Had I known that the author would make vague presumptions about topics that I have experience with, I really wouldn't have bothered. Malcolm Gladwell must have received a nice sized check for his promotion of this book because it doesn't rise to his level of understanding. Poorly written which makes for a difficult read. The author probably thought we could read his thoughts and figure out what he was trying to say. This book needed a full-blown revision before it went to print, an editor who checked his facts, and real research. The author takes his research from others and makes it his own. [..] So, here we go.... The human being is the only animal that thinks it can write a book without an editor, with the research of others, and can scam the public with a high profile review. If you absolutely have to waste your time, buy a used one and read it only at night. It'll help you fall asleep.

Psychology experiments have a problem with the general public. The choices thrust upon the subjects are oddly specific and usually sealed from what passes as "normal life". Nevertheless, psychologists' great ambition are to draw conclusions about the mental operations of species. But, by the time you've plowed through those sterile explanations of how people have been lied to and endlessly polled, you wonder how many of the experimenters require body guards to get home.

I read Daniel Gilbert's book because of the blurb by Malcolm Gladwell on the cover. Gladwell has a knack for writing about human motivation in a compelling fashion. (The Tipping Point is a master work.) I wish I could say Stumbling on Happiness was in the same vein. Daniel Gilbert deconstructs humanity with considerable wit and grace. I enjoyed reading the narrative, but was pretty much underwhelmed by its significance. It's not that I expected a self-help book, but I hoped for more than the modest collection of proclivities and ill-advised assumptions that inhabit our condition. Psych majors will relish it. I was hoping for a little more.

This is my first review, motivated by my disappointment and irritation with the reviewers who led me to waste my time and money on this book! The other Amazon "one star" reviewers have covered the problems.

First off, as has been stated, this is not a self help book, or a book that will show you how to be happy, or become happier with your life. Rather, it looks at how we predict we will be happy, and how bad we are at it. Mr. Gilbert does a great job of making his points, and helps to show how bad the human mind is in predicting what will make us happy. In doing this, he also speaks of imagination, memory, and how both of those work. This is a great book, full of info not only about the main subject of predicting the future, but memory and imagination as well.

This book was engagingly and wittily written and presented a thesis on how bad we are at predicting how happy we will be and remembering how happy we once were. The author presents lots of studies (and anecdotes, too) to back up this thesis, providing lots of food for thought. I learned a lot about how our brain processes things, from perception to memory to imagination. I was also amazed at how much research is done in this area!

As others have pointed out, this is not a self-help book, but I do think it is helpful. I'm not sure I agree fully with the one piece of advice given (namely, that the only way to predict how happy you'll be in a given situation is to ask someone else how he feels as he's going through the situation). It does make sense (and as another reviewer pointed out, that's what you're doing right now in reading my review), but doesn't it also make sense that if you know how your brain misrepresents your future and past emotions, you can reason your way past some of the mistakes your brain makes? Also, if we remember past things as being nicer than they were and imagine the future as rosier than it will be, what's wrong with that? Doesn't that still contribute to present happiness? And what about trying to experience the present moment more fully? I've found my happiness grow when I am able to savor a pleasant experience as it's happening, rather than get distracted by future and past experiences.

These are all questions that this book caused me to raise in my own little faulty imagination machine, so even though this book wasn't quite what I thought, I did enjoy reading it and did get a lot out of it (though maybe not what the author intended).

Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert provides us with a witty and engaging new book, which, in its way, is a self-help book. Anything that is witty and engaging and humorous IS of help. Add that this book illustrates how the innate tendencies or our mind (to postulate continuity and order, among others, plus to exaggerate "to our liking") and this book provides insight on why the limitations of our imaginations may be getting in the way of our ability to know what happiness is.

This book is about human imagination: according to the author, that is the one thing that separates humans from other animals. Our power to imagine makes it possible for us to come up with all these possibilities and futures. And perhaps some happiness, too? Yet so very often we make bad decisions, misestimate, choose the wrong option. Why?

It turns out our marvelous brains are a shoddy tool. According to research - and Gilbert quotes plenty of that - humans are really bad at knowing how we feel: we might know how we feel now, but both estimating how we will feel in the future and remembering how we felt about something in the past are surprisingly hard tasks. Our brains come up with all these details - all fake, because we can't remember everything. Yet our brains are so good at what they do that we don't even realize we're remembering stuff our brains just made up. No wonder we make bad decisions.

Stumbling upon happiness isn't as inspiring as the best popular science books are, but nevertheless, it's a fine look at what modern psychology has to offer. It gives some rather delicious anecdotes, has some rather good insight and is certainly entertaining enough. Stumbling on happiness is worth reading, if you're interested in figuring out how you think the way you do.

The author makes some interesting observations, but mostly he demonstrates that scientists are little help with solving the big questions. For example, he claims that more options and choices lead to less happiness because most happiness involves rationalizing what you have as good. He calls this "synthetic" happiness and asserts that it is as real as "natural" happiness--"getting what you want." He makes some other simplistic claims that he also treats as if they are fixed laws of human nature. But, in the end, there is little here that one can apply to improve the happiness of one's life. Real happiness is certainly an inside job--but not likely to stem from rationalization and "sour grapes" (the grapes are out of reach so they must be sour) as the author asserts.

The book really points to the failure of "technocratic" science to be of much help in the area of human happiness. A big part of the problem is spurious measurement of the phenomenon under investigation: the self-reported "data" on happiness are not real data in an objective sense. Surveying average people on their happiness is misleading--lots of people claim to be happy, but it is pretty obvious when you look at their lives they are not.

So in the end you don't learn much here of practical utility. If you want to be happy, find someone who models real joy and find out how they produce their happiness. (I think the first step involves becoming your own best friend: self acceptance.) But don't go looking to the apathetic masses who "lead lives of quiet desperation" for the secrets to happiness.

This is a terrific book. An interesting study of a topic that should be important to all of us -- our happiness -- taught by a funny and engaging teacher. A compelling and often surprising look at why we do what we do.

I read this book because someone whose opinions I respect was going wild over it. It is worth reading, but I also found it really irritating at times. The style is glib, and while this polishes the rough edges and makes for an easier read, I couldn't help wondering if I was being sold a tub of snake oil. Essentially Gilbert points out that we have problems imagining the future because we can't fill in all the details, that our brains make up a lot of the stuff that is going on, and miss a lot of the things that are really happening, and because we underestimate the number of cruddy things we will likely end up doing when we reach Nirvana (like forgetting the unremitting grimness of the camping site on last years family holiday but remembering the wow factor of the fabulous landscape we saw on day one). Many of the examples are dubious. Gilbert takes up the old chestnut that we always imagine we are in the slowest line at the checkout and extrapolates some kind of conclusion from this. Well yes, everyone has said that at some point, but no, I don't think many really believe there is a cosmic conspiracy to make us stand in line for ever. And the book is full of similar `folksy' examples that don't really wash and undercut the strength of the arguments. At the end of it all, Gilbert concludes that the only way to really know how we will feel if we do something is to ask someone who is currently doing the same thing, (because we are all basically the same). An example he uses is, "what would it feel like to move to Cincinnati?" If you want to know, just ask someone who is currently moving to Cincinnati. Is this true? There are hundreds of reasons to move to Cincinnati and each will have a different emotional content. Moving for a fantastic new job, moving to be close to a dieing parent, moving to go to College, moving to escape the long arm of Law, moving because you are broke and it's cheaper than living in Malibu, etc. etc. The main source reference he uses to support this claim is a study involving ice cream and potato chips that (to my eyes) is very poorly designed, and hadn't at the time of his writing his book even been published. That is kind of weak.

DG has some great lines and on the whole this is an enjoyable read punctuated with comments contemporaries should enjoy. I feel certain I would like him if we met! He explains why. He gives mostly anecdotal evidence to support his conclusion that we select the evidence that best supports our desired conclusions and ignore what does not. His use of such evidence that describes how our brains work in ways we are blind to seem to make good use of a plethora of current studies each of which are interestingly explained and used to make their point.

One great metaphor he suggests is that we have "a psychological immune system similar to our immune system. It defends the mind against unhappiness in much the same way that the physical immune system defends the body against illness." (p. 162) Another interesting point he makes is that while people prefer certainty over uncertainty, uncertainty tends to prolong happiness. (p. 190) So the movies liked best are the ones that do not explain everything. Here is a great quote: "My friends tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it." (p. 223) But the idea that we can do studies based on peoples' memories of emotional feelings to determine just how poorly their memories and imagination work and then use other peoples' memories of how they felt emotionally as a better guide to our own future happiness reminds me of something, but I don't know what. Another delicious quote is his description of a fact: "Although the word fact seems to suggest a sort of unquestionable irrefutability, facts are actually nothing more than conjectures that have met a certain standard of proof. If we set that standard high enough, then nothing can ever be proved, including the "fact" of our own existence. If we set the standard low enough, then all things are true and equally so. Because nihilism and postmodernism are both such unsatisfying philosophies, we tend to set our standard of proof somewhere in the middle." (p. 168)
This was a fun book. I also love oxygen.

DG has some great lines and on the whole this is an enjoyable read punctuated with comments contemporaries should enjoy. I feel certain I would like him if we met! He explains why. He gives mostly anecdotal evidence to support his conclusion that we select the evidence that best supports our desired conclusions and ignore what does not. His use of such evidence that describes how our brains work in ways we are blind to seem to make good use of a plethora of current studies each of which are interestingly explained and used to make their point.

One great metaphor he suggests is that we have "a psychological immune system similar to our immune system. It defends the mind against unhappiness in much the same way that the physical immune system defends the body against illness." (p. 162) Another interesting point he makes is that while people prefer certainty over uncertainty, uncertainty tends to prolong happiness. (p. 190) So the movies liked best are the ones that do not explain everything. Here is a great quote: "My friends tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it." (p. 223) But the idea that we can do studies based on peoples' memories of emotional feelings to determine just how poorly their memories and imagination work and then use other peoples' memories of how they felt emotionally as a better guide to our own future happiness reminds me of something, but I don't know what. This was a fun book. I also love oxygen.

Daniel, I read your book with avid interest.
If I were to summarize (as you so eloquently pointed our brains compartmentalize all information) this book, I would do so in a following sentence
"Listen to what the other person states in a given moment about a particular question and his/ her emotional state when asked and don't think his or her opinion will be more off then your own imagination."

I did have an issue with us humans being the same...sure we all have arms, legs, breathe oxygen, BUT when it comes to morality, (some are more likely to help an old lady cross the street, and some over come by greed would strip an old lady of her last cent. How does that equate us humans on a large scale? Why some people are more prone to do random acts of kindness and some are more prone to violence? Where is the equality there if we are all just grapes on a vine?

Thank you for your research and ideas!

I am not sure what is more impressive: Daniel's ability to distill mountains of clinical studies on the brain into such clear and entertaining prose, or our brain's ability to distill life's complexities into such (deceivingly) clear and (unintentionally) entertaining conclusions. Through a thoughtful mix of humorous anecdotes, digestible data, and real-time demonstrations, Daniel exposes the magic behind how the brain manipulates reality in its clumsy attempt to stumble on happiness.

Somewhere in the book the author fears that people won't take his advice, regardless of how well he presents his material. Well, the reason is simple...

We tend to give advice that a) we already know works for us, but only because it is tailored to our perceptions b) we already know isn't painful for us to perform c) or else, we won't have to be held accountable in a way that impedes what we refer to as "our sense of well being", and d) makes us feel better, not the listener.

In other words, the main reason it is so hard to follow others' advice, at the expense of our own, is that there is already a built in conflict of interest.

I can give you the advice that before you marry, you should see if you get along with your future in-laws, and then get married. I could give the advice that if you don't get along with your in-laws, you should get married if you really care about each other. I could give you all sorts of advice. What I really should be telling you is: follow you're own advice(gut). You're the one marrying this person, not me.

But, to be afraid you won't take my advice is really just, rather, selfish, and self-importance posing as newfound humility.

Having said that, the book does a good job of listing the things we do to trip ourselves up. There's a lot of inside/outside the looking glass case studies and factoids that are amusing and possibly useful if one is wondering about the utility of something that makes one happy or unhappy over time. Otherwise, the book could be cut in half and I'd still be happy.

I listened to the audiobook version read by the author, who does an excellent job narrating. This book is very well written and witty. I've taken several psych classes in college and I had only heard of a few of the interesting research studies mentioned here. It is also very relevant to everyone, because we all make bad decisions with good intentions, and understanding why this happens is what this book is all about. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in psychology (which should be everyone).

In Gilbert's view, our hike to happiness is ungainly because we use our powers of imagination as our compass - we imagine what will make us happy. Problem is, imagination lets us down in three important ways:

1. Imagination is a kind of simplification - it fills some bits in and leaves others out - and the omissions can be crucial to how we'll feel. As a result, we're poor at gauging how happy something will make us.

2. Imagination leads us to project the present, including feelings and current levels of satisfaction or longing, onto the future. We can't estimate how much we'll enjoy a food tomorrow if we're stuffed full now.

3. Imagination leads us to discount how different things will seem when they actually happen. A bad thing, like losing a job, will appear worse when pictured in the future than when experienced during the present, because in the present we tend to rationalize the loss.

According to Gilbert, his friends say he points out problems without suggesting solutions - but they never tell him what to do about it (boom-tish).

He does have a solution to the imagination problem, he says, it's just not one that people like. He says we'd do well to rely less on our own imagined futures and more on others' actual experiences in choosing what will make us happy. `It doesn't always make sense to heed what people tell us when they communicate their beliefs about happiness, but it does make sense to observe how happy they are in different circumstances' (page 233).

In short:
Gilbert's book describes itself as `not an instruction manual for how to be happy'. Instead, it surveys recent scientific findings about how people imagine their futures and how effective they are in predicting what will be most enjoyable.

Gilbert takes a long route to do this, with pretensions (chapter titles include Journey to Elsewhen and Paradise Glossed) that may frustrate get-to-the-point readers. And his ultimate recommendation to be guided more by what brings happiness to others than by our own imagined outcomes, may feel inadequate to justify the whole book.

But if you're happy to ramble long the research path, then this is a pleasant journey.

Great little book in the spirit of Blink and others. Intelligent comment from the scientific POV along with witty writing.

This would better be titled "Dissecting Happiness." Gilbert spends a lot of time and effort giving us scientific data to give us evidence of basic principals most of us already know. It is a tedious read trying to follow the details of one ridiculous study or experiment of human behavior after the next! I never realized the time and money psychologists and socioligists are spending (and wasting) to dissect human behovior! While there were some interesting findings to explain why we have a hard time finding happiness, this book lacks a grand perspective, as well as any magic or inspiration. I was disappointed.

The book actually lives up to the reviews printed in the few pages. Daniel Gilbert explains how the brain works in such an entertaining way that you feel good about being smarter or more informed for finishing the book. It isn't even that long, so it's definitely something you could re-read if you like and gain a better understanding and appreciation for how and why you and other people act and think the way they do. And you'll get to learn about stuff you may not have even known you are curious about.

This is a very enjoyable book and is well written. It has little to do with happiness. Perhaps a more appropiate title would have something to do with imagination. I think that virtually any reader would find parts of this book objectionable. Nevertheless the author brings up lots of interesting ideas for the reader to contemplate even if the reader disagrees with him. This is a psychology book which is a "softer" science than chemistry, biology or physics. Therefore it is natural that any author may have more trouble proving his theories. The author gives numerous examples and cites many studies to prove his points, butleaves out studies that contadict his point. The book also lacks a central point but still flows well because it is so enjoyable to read and the ideas are each interesting on their own.

Gilbert states that "we" fail to seek other people's advice who have had a particular experience (surrogates) and instead use our imagination which is has many flaws. I don't disagree that people's imagination fails them frequently. But anyone who is reading this review (or any other review) is proving the author wrong. You are not imagining how you will feel after reading this book (at this moment) - you are seeking other people's advice and trying to understand how they felt after reading his book. This is precisely what the author prescribes but states that people in general fail to use this technique to predict their future happiness.

Consider two real life stories...one lives in misery, is unfairly accused of crime, and is hanged to death. The other is a wealth creator, builds a huge empire, generates huge economic output, and creates many jobs. Which life would you rather live? If you think you know, think again...and read this book!

It is about the psychology, biology, science, and art of happiness and the author has done an wonderful job developing his framework for understanding human happiness and assembling together the details in a style that is very easy to read, but does not trivialize the subject.

This is definitely one of the best books I have read this year (in this genre, anyway). Gilbert does a wonderful job of exploring the complexities of the human mind/brain, especially as it relates to imagination and decision-making. He points out a variety of `flaws' that affect our decision-making processes and offers his solution to our problem in the final chapter of the book. The book definitely got me thinking and made me laugh quite a lot - the author infuses quite a bit of humor into the book, which kept it from being too `preachy' or overly intellectual. I think the writing style - accessible, funny, and engaging - makes the book much more appealing. He uses a lot of real-world examples to make his points, and even manages to trick the reader a few times as well. I found myself really engaged by the material in the book, and looked forward to reading it each time. I wouldn't call this book or his ideas `pop psychology,' but the book will definitely appeal to those who are not looking for anything too challenging; Stumbling on Happiness illuminates a lot of errors in reasoning and is just a really interesting read. There were some points that I felt were flawed, or needed further explanation, so I'm hoping to join in an Amazon discussion about the book. A definite must-read if this genre is of interest to you.

"Stumbling on happiness" is not as much about happiness, or how to acquire it, but about our cognitive processes that construct the expectation of happiness. Daniel Gilbert exposes a number of flaws in our reasoning: we tend to overestimate the positive impact, we rationalize bad outcomes, we err in our imaginations, and many more. The book is unlikely to change your life, but it is chock-full of interesting studies and trivia - becoming aware of common mistakes in our perception of happiness may well be half the battle towards achieving it.

This is an average book but with a good editor it could have been better. As has been pointed out by other reviewers, Gilbert beats simple to understand (and usually obvious and well known) concepts to death with recitation of the results of study after study. His humor, while initially refreshing, rapidly becomes grating.

While spending too much time on examples of the difficulty of predicting future happiness and remembering past happiness accurately, he gives short shrift to the broader, more philosophical, topics such as the degree that happiness is chemical/biological versus intellectual, why people generally revert to a standard level of happiness and, while the pursuit of happiness is frequently fruitless, what are the consequences of not engaging in that pursuit.

I also found the overreliance on studies of undergraduates to weaken the force of his arguments. While I understand why undergraduates are used so often in studies, they clearly represent a non-representative sample of the population. The tendency of people to act differently when they know they are being studied in situations that don't have the usual real world consequences (the Hawthorne Effect) and the contrived trivial nature of the rewards and punishments (some pizza, a certificate for ice cream, an electric shock) makes it harder to confidently draw broadly applicable conclusions.

The descriptions of the studies are very brief and so it's hard to know if his conclusions are valid or if different interpretations are possible. As an example, on page 118 he refers to a study where students would rather get $19 today than wait a day and get $20 tomorrow whereas they would rather take $20 365 days from now rather than $19 364 days from now. Gilbert says that is because tomorrow seems like a big difference from today whereas 365 days from now is not that different from 364 days and is an example of our inability to imagine the future well. A more rational explanation is that people want the $19 today rather than $20 tomorrow because (a) there's a default risk (perhaps you'll be sick tomorrow and I won't get the $20 at all) and (b) there's a transaction cost (is it worth the additional $1 for me to make the effort to come back tomorrow versus just getting my $19 now). Whereas in the 364 v. 365 day decision the default risk and transaction cost are essentially identical.

Probably worth reading if you've never been exposed to the topic but otherwise not worth it. Read the cognitive bias section of Wikipedia instead.

This is indeed an academic review of the evidence that shows us how we can and cannot predict happiness. There are a lot of studies used as supporting evidence, but the writing is so fabulously witty that you don't get lost in the academia of it.

The book approaches underlying assumptions, but reveals new insights into how we humans operate. Like "Left Brain, Right Brain" it provides us understanding into how our minds work. It's not a let's-all-get-happy-and-here's-how manual. It's a look at how our minds trick us into believing things that may or may not lead us to happiness. The author does fairly show the most (statistically) accurate way to make such predictions - but nothing is 100 per cent.

I loved reading this book, even the subtle quips made the details enjoyable. I loved the insights provided and feel I won't rely so much on seeking absolute happiness, but rather relative happiness - because in the end that's all we can really know.

As the author states:

"As you will learn, the shortcoming that causes us to misremember the past and mispercieve the present is the very same shortcoming that causes us to mismanage the future."

Imagining future happiness is necessarily faulty, because imagination has three shortcomings:

1. Tendency to fill in and leave out without telling us.

2. Tendency to project the present onto the future.

3. Failure to recognize that things will look different once they happen - in particular, that bad things will look a whole lot better.

In a culture of overindulgence, Daniel Gilbert's message is much needed - happiness is about satiation, overindulgence is not at all about that.

"Wealth may be measured by counting dollars, but utility must be measured by counting how much goodness those dollars buy. Wealth doesn't matter, utility does. ...we care about the goodness or pleasure that these forms of weath may (or may not) induce. Wise choices are those that maximize our pleasure, not our dollars, and if we are to have any hope of choosing wisely, then we must correctly anticipate how much pleasure those dollars will buy us."

This is why we stumble. Mr. Gilbert helps us understand why we stumble. And in the process of writing about it, he distributes a fair share of happiness in turn through a very comforting writing style.

I'm not one of those people that casually throws the B-word around, using it to describe anyone who's got a few more insights and talents than I have. But Daniel Gilbert [DG] deserves to be called at least quasi-brilliant for his dazzling performance in Stumbling on Happiness. The book is interesting, entertaining, and damn funny.

Yes, occasionally--as some other reviewers have pointed out--Gilbert gets a tad bit repetitive and yes, occasionally his barrage of jokes seems a little manic. But come on people (yes, said with fists on hips)! It's no small feat to turn a bunch of scientific research projects into something with life, structure and depth. Gilbert writes with a joie de vivre and focus on the not-so-obvious that is engaging and draws readers in so we happily absorb what is largely counter-intuitive material. With other hands at the keyboard, this could so easily be dry stuff.

It also seems some readers were disappointed that Gilbert doesn't tell us, "here's how to be happy." But, a quick reading of the introduction tell us he's not going to do that. And it's worth noting that the title is Stumbling ON Happiness, not Stumbling TO or TOWARD... As DG shows, to a large degree, it's our misguided efforts to create happiness that does indeed cause us to stumble and be less happy.

For those who are interested in Stumbling TOWARD Happiness and have a scientific bent, may I immodestly suggest a book I wrote: Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Full-Body Vipassana Meditation (Tuttle Publishing). Please do not even consider it, if you're not open to Buddhism and meditation, as then it will bring you greater UNhappiness and me bad karma. But if you'd like to know more about an ancient, but still completely relevant path to find greater well-being, Beyond the Breath will likely be of interest. In a simple, yet sophisticated (and one hopes engaging) way Beyond the Breath explains the why and how of a particularly effective method of meditation (and I've spent many years trying different types of meditation). It also explains the important role moral discipline plays in our own happiness. The book often cites scientific research to help bring greater clarity to aspects of meditation or Buddhism that may be counter-intuitive or difficult to understand.

For example, In Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert touches on how we get tripped up by the pleasure/pain principle which drives so much of our actions and thoughts. In Beyond the Breath, a closer look at our body's endogenous chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins, helps explain why we so often act like addicts--and what we can do to skillfully work with those counterproductive impulses.

Another recommendation that compliments Stumbling on Happiness is Timothy Wilson's Strangers to Ourselves, which explains why it's so difficult for us to have accurate self insight. I read Strangers to Ourselves a couple years ago and noticed Daniel Gilbert, gives a warm nod to Wilson in his acknowledgments. While the book is not as entertaining as Gilbert's, I'm sure anyone who liked Stumbling on Happiness will find it worthwhile. Like Gilbert, Wilson gives little in the way of recommendations for finding greater happiness (these guys are scientists, not spiritual seekers), so--conveniently--you'd still want to read Beyond the Breath.

If you do try Beyond the Breath on my recommendation and don't agree that it was worth your time, please e-mail me at marshall[at]greenlivingbooks[dot]net for a full refund. Even, though I'm not the publisher, I'd hate to have someone read it, especially on my recommendation, and not like and benefit from it. So I'd happily reimburse you if that were the case--really.

This is indeed an academic review of the evidence that shows us how we can and cannot predict happiness. There are a lot of studies used as supporting evidence, but the writing is so fabulously witty that you don't get lost in the academia of it.

The book approaches underlying assumptions, but reveals new insights into how we humans operate. Like "Left Brain, Right Brain" it provides us understanding into how our minds work. It's not a let's-all-get-happy-and-here's-how manual. It's a look at how our minds trick us into believing things that may or may not lead us to happiness. The author does fairly show the most (statistically) accurate way to make such predictions - but nothing is 100 per cent.

I loved reading this book, even the subtle quips made the details enjoyable. I loved the insights provided and feel I won't rely so much on seeking absolute happiness, but rather relative happiness - because in the end that's all we can really know.

As the author states:

"As you will learn, the shortcoming that causes us to misremember the past and mispercieve the present is the very same shortcoming that causes us to mismanage the future."

Imagining future happiness is necessarily faulty, because imagination has three shortcomings:

1. Tendency to fill in and leave out without telling us.

2. Tendency to project the present onto the future.

3. Failure to recognize that things will look different once they happen - in particular, that bad things will look a whole lot better.

In a culture of overindulgence, Daniel Gilbert's message is much needed - happiness is about satiation, overindulgence is not at all about that.

"Wealth may be measured by counting dollars, but utility must be measured by counting how much goodness those dollars buy. Wealth doesn't matter, utility does. ...we care about the goodness or pleasure that these forms of weath may (or may not) induce. Wise choices are those that maximize our pleasure, not our dollars, and if we are to have any hope of choosing wisely, then we must correctly anticipate how much pleasure those dollars will buy us."

This is why we stumble. Mr. Gilbert helps us understand why we stumble. And in the process of writing about it, he distributes a fair share of happiness in turn through a very comforting writing style.

I'm not one of those people that casually throws the B-word around, using it to describe anyone who's got a few more insights and talents than I have. But Daniel Gilbert [DG] deserves to be called at least quasi-brilliant for his dazzling performance in Stumbling on Happiness. The book is interesting, entertaining, and damn funny.

Yes, occasionally--as some other reviewers have pointed out--Gilbert gets a tad bit repetitive and yes, occasionally his barrage of jokes seems a little manic. But come on people (yes, said with fists on hips)! It's no small feat to turn a bunch of scientific research projects into something with life, structure and depth. Gilbert writes with a joie de vivre and focus on the not-so-obvious that is engaging and draws readers in so we happily absorb what is largely counter-intuitive material. With other hands at the keyboard, this could so easily be dry stuff.

It also seems some readers were disappointed that Gilbert doesn't tell us, "here's how to be happy." But, a quick reading of the introduction tell us he's not going to do that. And it's worth noting that the title is Stumbling ON Happiness, not Stumbling TO or TOWARD... As DG shows, to a large degree, it's our misguided efforts to create happiness that does indeed cause us to stumble and be less happy.

For those who are interested in Stumbling TOWARD Happiness and have a scientific bent, may I immodestly suggest a book I wrote: Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Full-Body Vipassana Meditation (Tuttle Publishing). Please do not even consider it, if you're not open to Buddhism and meditation, as then it will bring you greater UNhappiness and me bad karma. But if you'd like to know more about an ancient, but still completely relevant path to find greater well-being, Beyond the Breath will likely be of interest. In a simple, yet sophisticated (and one hopes engaging) way Beyond the Breath explains the why and how of a particularly effective method of meditation (and I've spent many years trying different types of meditation). It also explains the important role moral discipline plays in our own happiness. The book often cites scientific research to help bring greater clarity to aspects of meditation or Buddhism that may be counter-intuitive or difficult to understand.

For example, In Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert touches on how we get tripped up by the pleasure/pain principle which drives so much of our actions and thoughts. In Beyond the Breath, a closer look at our body's endogenous chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins, helps explain why we so often act like addicts--and what we can do to skillfully work with those counterproductive impulses.

Another recommendation that compliments Stumbling on Happiness is Timothy Wilson's Strangers to Ourselves, which explains why it's so difficult for us to have accurate self insight. I read Strangers to Ourselves a couple years ago and noticed Daniel Gilbert, gives a warm nod to Wilson in his acknowledgments. While the book is not as entertaining as Gilbert's, I'm sure anyone who liked Stumbling on Happiness will find it worthwhile. Like Gilbert, Wilson gives little in the way of recommendations for finding greater happiness (these guys are scientists, not spiritual seekers), so--conveniently--you'd still want to read Beyond the Breath.

If you do try Beyond the Breath on my recommendation and don't agree that it was worth your time, please e-mail me at marshall[at]greenlivingbooks[dot]net for a full refund. Even, though I'm not the publisher, I'd hate to have someone read it, especially on my recommendation, and not like and benefit from it. So I'd happily reimburse you if that were the case--really.

This is a great book on decision-making and judgment and very accurate (I am a recent neuroscience graduate). But it is the most depressing book on happiness I have ever read. Gilbert's tone struck me as incredibly pessimistic and he leaves out all the wonderful studies in positive psychology that tell us exactly how to be happy.

This is a wonderful book that brings together numerous psychological studies to create a coherent story about happiness. Gilbert shows us how we tend to mis-predict future emotions, mis-remember past emotions, and inaccurately encode current emotions. This is better than a self-help book. Reading it will help you appreciate your deceptive mind.