Stumbling on Happiness

Author: Daniel Gilbert

Non-fiction always reads more slowly than fiction for me - probably because it makes me stop and think. There's a lot to digest in this book, but it is very readable and the author interjects a quirky sense of humour that helps. The lies we tell ourselves (without knowing it) are quite amazing.

The book is broken down into sections on:

• prospection(looking forward in time or considering the future)
• subjectivity(experience unobservable to all but the person experiencing it)
• realism(believing that things are as they seem in the mind)
  
• presentism(current experience influences views of the past and future)
  
• rationalization(causing something to be or seem reasonable)
  
• corrigibility(capable of being corrected, reformed or improved)

Lots of scientific studies are cited, showing how we react/behave differently than we think we will. Blind spots in our brain, the way we fill in blanks, how concrete things are easier to imagine than abstract, it's pretty fascinating stuff.