Random Thoughts
- Things for iPhone and iPod Touch
  Jul 21, 2008
  To help you get organized.
- The Art of the Title Sequence
  Jul 11, 2008
  A blog and gallery of titles sequences...
- 70 Amazing...
  Jul 01, 2008
  business cards. Look!
- Cool Typography!
  Jun 24, 2008
  Typographic posters and Photoshop effects.
- Web Color Visualizer
  Jun 17, 2008
  From IDEO

Stumbling on Happiness

Posted on April 30, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture, Process

Bookshops are littered with ‘how to’ books: how to get rich quick, how to loose weight now, how to succeed in business without really trying (Yeah, I went there). But ‘why’ books? That’s another story. Perhaps it’s because most people have ready-made opinions on how to do something, but being able to answer why things are? Not so easy.

Daniel Gilbert is a Harvard psychology professor, and his new book, Stumbling on Happiness, is an often hilarious look at, not how to be happy, but rather why happiness is so elusive. It shouldn’t be surprising that Gilbert’s conclusions put the blame squarely on us and our own faulty misconceptions about what happiness means. Happiness is perhaps one of the most fundamental human needs—Aristotle even reckoned it to be the purpose of life. And since I think it’s pretty safe to say that’s something we’re all searching for, maybe it wouldn’t hurt us to give Gilbert’s book a go.