Stumbling on Happiness

It must be known but stumbling upon happiness seems to be it.

"Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert. Big insight - people generally have a way of rationalizing away things they did (new job, move, relationship) that turned out to be bad ideas - they focus on the positive parts, or say how they learned so much. But this doesn't work if you decided not to do something, and that inaction turned out to be a bad idea - you can't say you learned so much, because you didn't do anything. Implication is that we should be bolder in our decisions, to avoid regret.

"Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert is an excellent complement to "Thinking Fast and Slow". It explores how the mind works in regards to happiness, and the biases in that.

Two of the most interesting books I've read this year are: 1. Man's search for meaning, by Viktor Frankl. He was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded Logotherapy as a form of analysing one's life with the idea of finding meaning or living a purposeful life. According to Frankl, such a life would mean doing important/meaningful work, enjoying nature in all it's beauty, loving and taking care of another person and being courageous when going through hard times. These are things that I personally consider part of the common sense package I had built-in when I was born, so this book kind of talks to my soul. I would recommend it to anyone who is highly self-reflective. 2. Stumbling on happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. This was an interesting read and the different studies described in the book made me think how would I react in a similar situation and I realised funny things about how memory works and how does our brain imagine future events.

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. The why is because it's extremely enlightening.

The Extended Phenotype: Richard Dawkins. Applied Cryptography: Bruce Schiener. Linear Algebra: Friedberg, Insel and Spence. Steven Pinker: The Blank Slate I've recently finished Dan Gilbert's: Stumbling on Happiness and I highly recommend it. It's witty and gives you a very different way of looking at what you think makes you happy. I know these aren't start-up books, but unfortunately I haven't read any to recommend.

-Stumbling on Happiness -Free Software, Free Society -Masters of Doom (not finished, just started reading it, great so far)

See here: http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-... (http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-is/) for a list of influential books on me. I actually have a half-written post on books I wish I'd read when I was younger; here it is: 1. <em>Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience</em> by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 2. <em>The Guide to Getting It On</em> by Paul Johannides [sp?] 3. <em>The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature</em> by Geoffrey Miller 4. <em>Hackers & Painters</em> by Paul Graham 5. <em>Man's Search for Meaning</em> by Viktor Frankl 6. <em>Stumbling on Happiness</em> by Daniel Gilbert In all cases, I think these books profoundly shaped how not only I think, but I think others can learn to think too. All suddenly revealed new connections and ideas about the world I'd never experienced or expected to experience before.…

On a "what makes us tick" non-fiction bent: 1. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (http://tinyurl.com/33kv6te) - fascinating look at the author's theory of Flow, the state of total absorption that accompanies total concentration - so called "optimal experience". Anyone who programs knows this feeling. Really excellent book. 2. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (http://tinyurl.com/38lvdzc) - not the self-help book it sounds like, but an interesting look at why we're so bad at working out what will make us happy. 3. The Tiger that isn't by Andrew Dilnot (http://tinyurl.com/38hntqx) - interesting guide to our instinctive interpretation of statistics and how the media manipulates it. 4. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (http://tinyurl.com/3yk8woz) - at once amusing and horrifying look at various aspects of pseudoscience, especially as applied to healthcare. Fiction: 1. Anything by Iain Banks, especially the sci-fi. 2. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor (http://tinyurl.com/3496d34) - worth reading just for the language he uses. 3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (http://tinyurl.com/3xyr65w) - great fantasy with a darkly humorous side.

Hell yeah: Stumbling on Happiness is one of my favorite books I've ever read in my life. It profoundly changed the way I look at the world, and how I make decisions about what to do. I really like your essay about it! As you say: it "ought to be required reading for those who are alive" http://jseliger.com/2009/04/23/stumbling-on-happiness-—-dani... (http://jseliger.com/2009/04/23/stumbling-on-happiness-—-daniel-gilbert/)