A psychological journey into your brain. Review on Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Gilbert

While we all no doubt want to be happy forever and then some, can we make such a wish to come true? I don't claim to know the answer really(even though I wish I did). But I was initially amused and surprised to know that psychologists have been researching this question rigorously. [No wonder, no one takes them seriously.] At the end though, it turned out to be a fascinating book well worthy of its high acclaim and praise.

"Stumbling on Happiness" is an incisive look into the modus operandi of our brain while it brilliantly conjures up future scenarios with seemingly little effort. The author Daniel Gilbert, an academic psychologist, first begins by persuading us that imagining future is a distinctly human trait. But before we get all too excited about our new claim to distinction in the animal kingdom, he goes on to convince us that we are horrendously bad at it. This he argues is the best our brain can do, and supports his claims with entertaining snippets from the vast research on the topic. The fact that we so often call upon this faulty imagination faculty to help plan for a very happy future(for ourselves, of course) is why, the author reasons, we invariably find such plans to be either insufficient or unnecessary. Incidentally, that also explains the title of the book.

As for as genres go, this is more a psychology book than a self-help book. It explains current psychological understanding of the functioning of our brain without any mention of easy steps towards planning a future of complete bliss. "Doesn't matter, I share equal disdain for both kinds, " you might say. While you may rightly hold any opinion you wish [But tell me, do you always talk like that?], you may then also miss out on one of the best light-hearted popular expositions of scientific ideas there has ever been on print.

The book is full of hilarious stories(some real and some hypothetical) that the author uses to buttress his various claims on memory and imagination. I must stress that while the stories are light-hearted, none of them are superfluous. And for the rigorous minded, there are ample references to the many research publications that support or question many of these claims. Another engaging aspect of the book is the inclusion of a few neat little memory and visual tricks that the reader is invited to try. While moving a book very close to your eyes and then slowly farther away, to catch our brain in action as it tries to fool us about our visual blind spot, may invite curious onlookers in public places(and possibly other consequences in the present days of widepsread public suspicion), the resulting epiphany(and detention time) may all be worth it.

Now and then you come across a non-fiction book you just can't put down. Sometimes it's simply because you are afraid the creep next to you may start talking otherwise. [I'm sorry about that day, but trust me, I am no creep. I just happen to play one most times.] Hopefully more often, it's because the topic is exciting, the writing is lucid, the chapters are thought-provoking, and the humor is juvenile. I mean, delightful. "Stumbling on Happiness" is one such book you just can't put down. Even when I am not anywhere in your vicinity.