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So the holidays are over (almost) and the impending doom of the recession (gasp, I used the “r” word?), and looming gloom of a depression (both in the financial and emotional sense), one has to wonder what the new year brings … right?
Well, if you believe happiness expert Dan Gilbert then the answer to a happy and worry-free new year is not that far off from where you already are. The question is “Do you know what makes you happy?”
Daniel Gilbert would bet that you think you do, but you are most likely wrong. In his engaging book Stumbling On Happiness, Harvard professor Gilbert reveals his take on how our minds work, and how the limitations of our imaginations may be getting in the way of our ability to know what happiness is. In making his case, Gilbert walks us through a series of fascinating–and in some ways troubling–facts about the way our minds work. In particular, Gilbert is interested in delineating the shortcomings of imagination.
We’re far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations. Our imaginations aren’t particularly imaginative. Our imaginations are really bad at telling us how we will think when the future finally comes. And our personal experiences aren’t nearly as good at correcting these errors as we might think. I suppose that I really should go on at this point, and talk in more detail about what Gilbert means by that–and how his argument unfolds. But I feel like that might ruin the experience of reading Stumbling on Happiness.
This is a psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me.
As a bonus, here is Dan Gilbert’s talk about happiness from TED, hosted by YouTube. Enjoy!
* video courtesy of YouTube
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