Stumbling on Happiness

De: Daniel Gilbert

Narrado por: Daniel Gilbert

A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it.

Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely turns out as we had expected. Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward.

Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert shakes, cajoles, persuades, tricks and jokes us into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Among the unexpected questions he poses: Why are conjoined twins no less happy than the general population? When you go out to eat, is it better to order your favourite dish every time, or to try something new? If Ingrid Bergman hadn’t gotten on the plane at the end of Casablanca, would she and Bogey have been better off?

Smart, witty, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny, Stumbling on Happiness brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Stumbling on Happiness is an absolutely fantastic book that will shatter your most deeply held convictions about how your own mind works. Ceaselessly entertaining, Gilbert is the perfect guide to some of the most interesting psychological research ever performed. Think you know what makes you happy? You won’t know for sure until you have read this book.”
–Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics

“Everyone will enjoy reading this book, and some of us will wish we could have written it. You will rarely have a chance to learn so much about so important a topic while having so much fun.”
–Professor Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University, Winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics

“This is a brilliant book, a useful book, and a book that could quite possibly change the way you look at just about everything. And as a bonus, Gilbert writes like a cross between Malcolm Gladwell and David Sedaris.”
–Seth Godin, author All Marketers Are Liars

No self help guide

By serendipity you sometimes collide with something that is both funny and scientifique not to mention thought-provoking ideas. In the 1980's the professors in my university didn't have that wittiness and eloquence of professor Daniel Gilbert.

good book. content is very interesting. narrator ir clear and easy to follow. brings up a lot of questions

Wowzers

Wow, what a book… I need to listen to that again, there was such a wealth of information. I always thought this book was going to be a lot more woowoo self-helpy, but was super science and studies and hella interesting. Amazing amount of nuggets you can think about and then work into your life.

Author reading the book was great and very entertaining. Overall with it being a lot more science-y, it was also never boring and delightfully funny.

Recommending to myself for a second (and third and forth and fifth…cont’d) listen

And to all y’all that are definitely in the self-help arena, but maybe need a little more science to help piece together some weirdness we all do (even when we know better)

Dry but worth reading

Honest assessment of human's shortcomings of imagination. He tells us how to overcome them but that we probably will not.

Pleasantly disappointed

I kept waiting for it to be more about happiness, perhaps it was a bit to a highbrow for me!