Narrated by Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert has a runtime of 7 hrs 26 mins on Audible.
Publisher’s Summary
A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it.
Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely turns out as we had expected. Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward.
Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert shakes, cajoles, persuades, tricks and jokes us into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Among the unexpected questions he poses: Why are conjoined twins no less happy than the general population? When you go out to eat, is it better to order your favourite dish every time, or to try something new? If Ingrid Bergman hadn’t gotten on the plane at the end of Casablanca, would she and Bogey have been better off?
Smart, witty, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny, Stumbling on Happiness brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Daniel Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs 26 mins
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Release year: 2006
- Audible category: Health & Wellness / Psychology & Mental Health / Psychology
Listener Ratings
Stumbling on Happiness holds an average listener rating of 4.1/5 from 4518 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.4/5
- Story: 4.2/5
- 5-star ratings: 47% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
4/5 stars — “Not a self help book”
I really enjoyed Stumbling on Happiness. It reminded me a great deal of Freakonomics. It is a highly entertaining piece psychology writing designed for mass-consumption (rather than a scholarly journal). It’s title makes it sound like a self-help book. It is not. It is a science book (though a fun one).— Jeffrey A. Sherman, Audible listener
4/5 stars — “We are terrible predictors of what we want”
Having been annoyed for so many years by people who were convinced they knew what they wanted, and thought I should know what I wanted as well, I was delighted to find a book that showed how lousy we are at predicting what will make us happy. I also finally understood why I owned so many things that were of so little interest to me now. An excellent book on some of the most intriguing current research on human psychology as it relates to happiness.— Barry, Audible listener
4/5 stars — “a nice read, left me wondering”
This was a nice book full of great little tools to figure out your needs, your environment, and your habits… not necessarily in that order. At the end, though, I found myself a bit confused about whether the net result of the book really advanced me any useful way. Still pondering that one.— Sam, Audible listener
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