BookshelfJacob deGroot-Maggetti

Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert

Thoughts: It was several years between when I read this book and when I finished converting highlights to notes, so I can’t say much about the experience of reading it, other than a vague recollection about enjoying it. The central idea is that we have a hard time remembering how we felt in the past or imagining how we will feel in the future, and our imagination steps in to fill in the blanks. It fills in details that are similar to our current circumstances, leading to systematic errors when making predictions about whether a given course of action will make us happier in the future. Stumbling on Happiness is pop psychology, but it contains some worthwhile insights.

(The notes below are not a summary of the book, but rather raw notes - whatever I thought, at the time, might be worth remembering. I read this as an e-book, so page numbers are as they appeared in the app I used, Libby.)

Gilbert, Daniel. 2006. Stumbling on Happiness. Random House.

Part I - Prospection

Chapter 1: Journey to Elsewhen

Part II - Subjectivity

Chapter 2: The View from in Here

Chapter 3: Outside Looking In

Part III - Realism

Chapter 4: In the Blind Spot of the Mind’s Eye

Chapter 5: The Hounds of Silence

Part IV - Presentism

Chapter 6: The Future Is Now

Chapter 7: Time Bombs

Part V - Rationalization

Chapter 8: Paradise Glossed

Chapter 9: Immune to Reality

Part IV - Corrigibility

Chapter 10: Once Bitten

Posted: Jan 06, 2025. Last updated: Jan 06, 2025.