Stumbling on Happiness

Just finished reading this book last night. The author spoke at work last year and he was really interesting. It took me a little bit to get into this book, but I found it fascinating.

It spends a lot of time talking about our brains and how they fool us. For example, what we perceive will make us happy, doesn't usually make us happy. He quotes studies that show that folks who have enough money for their needs (food, home, etc.) do not experience any long term happiness when they get/make/come into a lot of money. The only folks whose happiness levels change when they come into money are people who don't have enough money for basic needs.

The books wraps up talking about how you can accurately predict what will make you happy, because just imagining/thinking about it doesn't work. You need to talk to someone who is currently experiencing the thing that you are considering. If you ask someone about their past experience, they won't be able to give you an accurate description, because your brain doesn't store all the information - it stores bits & pieces - it can't keep everything and the bits & pieces it remembers are the ones that make you either feel really good or really bad - and that is often based on the last thing that happened. (He talks about recalling that he hated Schindler's List & his wife said he loved it. They re-watched it and it turns out he loved all of the movie except for the last scene - his memory was that he hated it.)

The only time you can be objective about an experience is when you are actually experiencing it. Once it becomes a memory, it is no longer "accurate". So, if you want to know how you'll feel during childbirth, ask someone while they are in childbirth. If you ask them afterwards, you won't get the truth - not because they're trying to manipulate you - because their brain is manipulating them!

Fascinating stuff.