The human being is the only animal that.. Review on Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Gilbert

Stumbling on Happiness

My sister gifted me a book recently, Stumbling on Happiness, written by Daniel Gilbert.

What triggered my interest was Malcom Gladwell's glowing and unqualified endorsement: "If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it.

Although the reviews say this is an amazingly accessible book, I would offer that it is surprisingly readable and entertaining articulation of what is actually some pretty scientific research from this Harvard professor about how humans imagine and conjure up the future. Daniel opens with his articulation of what he calls, the sentence that every psychologist vows to answer some time in their professional future: The human being is the only animal that...

Stumbling on Happiness is an analysis of Daniel's Sentence - The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future.

Daniel guides us through the findings of how information gathered after an occurrence changes your memory of the event. We humans simply fill in details that were not stored, but make sense given the context of the event. He says that, perceptions are portraits, not photographs, and their form reveals the artist's hand every bit as much as it reflects the things portrayed. So, how we look back and see something in our past is simply shaped by how we see things today.

Imagination has difficulties in seeing things that are not there - both in terms of depicting or analyzing past events as well as looking towards the future. When we humans look forward and think about the future, a whole lot goes missing in terms of what we can project. Humans tend to focus on what they know, right now, even when they look out.

An example which Daniel gives is what study participants think their future would look like in two years if a child of theirs dies. In summary, respondents could not envision a future that was not filled with heartbreaking loss; they could not see that there would be many moments, for most, that would be filled with the normal everyday pleasures. So, people envision a future that is most like what they are seeing and experiencing now - as opposed to being something completely different, new or even modified.

These findings turn upside down our perceptions of our own powers to see, plan and imagine our futures - business and personal. It certainly explains why we humans are so in awe of those who seem to break through these barriers and come up with a "vision" for the future that is new, upredictable and yet ultimately compelling and satisfying.