Stumbling About Happiness (BOOK)

The main idea of ​​the book is that people in general have a poor idea of ​​the future and, in particular, what exactly will make them happy. Imagination as a tool of foresight is defeated in three directions ^[3] :

• Imagination acts too quickly, imperceptibly and effectively, so people are not critical of the results of his activities. It tends to quietly fill in the gaps and miss the details. People do not consider part of the possible important consequences, because simply no one is able to imagine all the possibilities and consequences of any event.
• Imagination tends to project the present into the future, making the imaginary future often look so much like the real present.
• It is more difficult than to predict the future, to predict how we will react to it when it becomes the present. Memory edits memories. Predicting future experiences is difficult because often the least likely experience becomes the most likely memory.

The only way to predict our future emotions, according to Gilbert, is to find out what other people felt in a similar situation: “Perhaps we should stop remembering and imagining at all and start using other people as substitutes for our future“ I ”.” However, the use of this method is hindered by the realization of one's own uniqueness, the author believes ^[4] .

Part I. Foresight

Chapter 1. Traveling Someday

Convenience assumptions. Monkey looking into the future. Twists of fate

Part II Subjectivity

This part talks about the scientific studies of happiness.

Chapter 2. A look from here

Dancing about architecture. Another preacher. Discussion of happiness

Chapter 3. Look inside out.

Confused and confused. Convenient numbness. Happiness meter

Part III. Realism

In this part, the author talks about the first lack of imagination: it acts too quickly, quietly and efficiently, so people are not critical of the results of his work. Chapter 4. In the blind spot the eyes of the mind

Little big head. The substantial head of Oz. Difficulties with tomorrow

Chapter 5. The silence of the dog.

Missing sailors. On the horizon of events.

Part IV Presentism

This part reveals the essence of the second lack of imagination, due to which the imaginary future often looks so similar to the existing present.

Chapter 6. The future is today

The fifth part is devoted to the third lack of imagination: it is harder than predicting the future to predict how we will react to it when it becomes the present.

More of the same. Secret foreboding

Chapter 7. Time Bombs

Spatial thinking. Countdown from now. Almost nothing

Part V. Rationalization

In this part, the author tells why personal experience and the experience of ancestors do not help get rid of the illusions of foresight, and offers his own solution.

Chapter 8. The Deceptive Paradise

Stop annoying people. Matching the facts

Chapter 9. Immunity to reality

Look forward to look back. Little threats. Explanation

Part VI. Acceptability

Chapter 10. Worth Burning

The least likely cases. All right. That which was not

Chapter 11. Live reports of tomorrow

Superreplicators. The Fingerprint Myth

Afterword

Royal Society of the British National Academy of Sciences - as the best non-fiction book of 2007 ^[2] .

Based on the book, the television series This Emotional Life was shot, shown in January 2010 on the PBS channel. The series was watched by more than 10 million viewers ^[5] .

• Positive psychology

• Daniel Gilbert. Stumbling About Happiness = Stumbling On Happiness. - M .: Alpina Publisher , 2015 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 978-5-9614-4925-9 .
• Fiske, Susan T. Handbook of social psychology / Susan T. Fiske, Daniel T. Gilbert, Gardner Lindzey. - 5th. - Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010 .-- ISBN 9780470137482 .
• Gilbert, Daniel (2006), Stumbling on Happiness , Knopf, ISBN 1-4000-4266-6  

• Stumbling on Happiness web site. - The site of the book, including the blog
• Comprehensive interview on the book
• Video Gilbert speaks at the TED Conference , July 2005, Oxford, UK