My real feelings about this book
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This book is mainly about the mistakes we make in predicting how we will feel when we do something in the future and the mistakes we make when trying to remember how we felt in the past - we can only really trust how we feel now.
It is for this reason that my review on this book, which I have read cover-to-cover in two days (during my commute to and from work) and finished just a few minutes ago, might be the most accurate review you will ever find. And the reason you should listen to me is because this is precisely what the author recommends at the end of the book: you should base your predictions on how something will feel by asking someone else how something made them feel as soon as possible after they have felt it (or during).
Without further ado, here is how I really feel:
This book was enjoyable and interesting and the content is worthy of five stars. It made me think a lot, it helped me understand my own behaviour better, and it provided me with scientific research to back up my own theories. I'm not sure the 238 pages I read could have been any better. I feel very glad that I read this book and I recommend it to others.
"Well how come you only gave it three stars then?" I hear you ask. Well, it's because the strongest feeling I have after finishing this book is that it only feels like half a book. As Gilbert confesses in the P.S. section at the end, it focuses almost entirely on problems and presents no solutions apart from the one I have already mentioned (asking other people about how they felt). I also think the title is misleading, as it suggests someone trying out ideas and sometimes getting lucky and being happy, but it is more of an observational piece, aimed mostly at intellectual stimulation.
In light of the above, I highly recommend two other books instead of this one, both of which are also grounded in research and are written in a similar easy-to-read style, but they also provide more solutions and hope! These two books are Happiness by Richard Layard and The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. If I had the time to write reviews of these, I would give them both five stars.
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Really interest approach to the Happiness Question
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Not a 'how to be' book at all, but a popular treatment of issues in cognitive psychology which uses happiness as something of a test bed. And despite its lack of aspiration to tell us how to be happy, it still has some very useful insights into how to avoid regrets and disappointments.
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Witty and engaging but unlikely to bring you happiness.
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This is a well researched book that is both witty and engaging and makes the rather dry subject of psychology fun to dip into.
Unfortunately, if you're currently feeling depressed or in search of meaning in your life or in your quest for happiness then you're very unlikely to find it within the pages of this book.
The authors compulsion to be continually amusing becomes tiresome after reading only a few chapters of the book so by the time I reached the Q & A section at the end of the book where the interviwer asks Gilbert if he is an optimist and is told " No sorry, I don't know the first thing about making eyeglasses", I realised that I had wasted my time reading this book.
Instead of reading 'Stumbling on Happiness' I should have picked up my copy of 'Learned Optimism' by Martin Seligman and re-read that instead - a book by an eminent psychologist that knows how to write with warmth and humour and really does teach a thing or two about happiness in the process.
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no solutions just a little more self awareness
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Gilbert mentions more than once that his friends are frustrated by his continual identifying of problems without providing solutions. Stumbling on Happiness is definitely not a self-help book but it may make you look askance at some of your most engrained truths about what you want from life.
The section on the personal satisfactions of parenthood(p220-2 in my copy) is particularly unnerving. The graph showing how parents' happiness changes with the age of their children is brutal and more than a little bit scary if you don't have children yet.
The plea for us to base more of our decisions about the future based on evidence from people experiencing the consequences of those decisions right now is likely to fall on deaf ears. We all like to believe that we are beautiful unique snowflakes.
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Convincing... but then... you might have different preferences
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The book puts forward a very convincing and persuading argument. The problem is though, I don't think it applies to everyone. And since it speaks about what you would want for your future and how you'll really feel about it - the generalizations are a bit harsh. For me, it was an eye-opener. I feel like I might actually fit into the group of people who the book touches upon, but I doubt everyone - from every culture would follow this schema. If you take that into account, and do not gulp down every persuasive argument therein, it does hold alot of useful information that will help you make the right choices. It reminds me of the tipping point and the paradox of choice in writing style.
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