Stumbling On Happiness

I listened to this book after listening to Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, which in hindsight was a good fit. This book addresses more of things that our brain does without us realizing it. In this case Daniel Gilbert dissects some of the ways our brain may deceive us and specifically why it can be so difficult to understand what decisions will bring us the most happiness in the future.

The analogy that Gilbert uses is the optical illusion. An optical illusion is the corruption or confusion of our vision. Our past vision (memories) also becomes corrupted in a way similar to optical illusions. In the same way our future vision is also imperfect, seen through bias of the present. This means that our decisions are tainted by the present moment. Our thoughts and feelings now are poor predictors to how we will feel in future situations that we have not yet experienced.

Daniel Gilbert leaves the reader with an antidote to overcome our inability to accurately predict future happiness, and it is surprisingly simple. He makes the point however that it is also tremendously difficult. His recommendation is to ask someone else who has gone through a similar situation how they felt and how the experience went. It has been found that even if we feel our situations are unique they are not nearly as unique as we think. The best projection of how we will feel in a situation we have not experienced can be found in the experiences of someone who has gone through a similar situation.

I have my own reluctance in counseling with others, but I can also see the power in turning to others to help guide our decisions. We are not as different as we may think. Part of the difficulty in following this advice is knowing the best person to ask. This is a good argument to be socially active, as those with a wider circle of friends and acquaintances will probably have an easier time than the recluse.