Stumbling on Happiness

Oh wowie. Look at this. I am reviewing this book before it even comes out. I am such a cool book reviewer. I am so hep to the literary scene.

Okay so now that THAT's out of the way, I got this book for free at SXSW from some very nice publicists. I did not get to hear the author speak, but his talk was attractively titled "How to Do Precisely the Right Thing at All Possible Times." A recording is available here. Basically it boiled down to:

happiness you can expect in the future= (odds event will make you happy) x (how happy it will make you)

And that you can't predict what you'll like in the future, so the best way to understand how you will feel in the future is to ask someone who is in the situation you are considering.

I read this book piecemeal, which was a bad way to do so. It's not overly academic and is pretty funny. I liked it, but the lack of a real conclusion to help was a bit of a letdown. I did think I would be much happier after reading this book, but sadly, since no one has read it yet, I had no one to ask. Help me help you learn from this book: you will not be as happy as you think you will be when finishing this book.

Instead just listen to the podcast! The studies it summarised were interesting, but as the book explains, I won't really remember them. :)