Stumbling on Happiness (2006) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Lori: Add a description of this character.
• Osten
• Perot
• Ms. Dash
• Phineas
• Ms. Solid
• George Bush
• Dukakis
• Dorothy

Quotes edit see section history

• “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.”

• “Perceptions are portraits, not photographs, and their form reveals the artist's hand every bit as much as it reflects the things portrayed.”

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• Apparently, gaining control can have a positive impact on one’s health and well-being, but losing control can be worse than never having had any at all.

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• We insist on steering our boats because we think we have a pretty good idea of where we should go, but the truth is that much of our steering is in vain—not because the boat won’t respond, and not because we can’t find our destination, but because the future is fundamentally different than it appears through the prospectiscope.

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• The greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability that allows us to think about the future.

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• when episodes are sufficiently separated in time, variety is not only unnecessary—it can actually be costly.

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• The word happiness is used to indicate at least three related things, which we might roughly call emotional happiness, moral happiness, and judgmental happiness.

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• We cannot feel good about an imaginary future when we are busy feeling bad about an actual present. But rather than recognizing that this is the inevitable result of the Reality First policy, we mistakenly assume that the future event is the cause of the unhappiness we feel when we think about it.

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• The brain and the eye may have a contractual relationship in which the brain has agreed to believe what the eye sees, but in return the eye has agreed to look for what the brain wants.

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• Because we tend to remember the best of times and the worst of times instead of the most likely of times, the wealth of experience that young people admire does not always pay clear dividends.

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• Knowledge is power, and the most important reason why our brains insist on simulating the future even when we’d rather be here now, enjoying a goldfish moment, is that our brains want to control the experiences we are about to have.

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• Studies such as these suggest that people are quite adept at finding a positive way to view things once those things become their own.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• California
• Reba

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Daniel Todd Gilbert (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books (2007: General Prize, #1)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 158

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Professional & Technical › Professional Science › Behavioral Sciences › Cognitive Science
• Books › Professional & Technical › Professional Science › Behavioral Sciences › Cognitive Psychology
• Books › Science › Behavioral Sciences › Cognitive Psychology
• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Self-Help › Happiness
• Books › Business & Investing › Marketing & Sales › Consumer Behavior
• Books › Nonfiction › Education

More Books Like This edit see section history