Best Business Books of 2006: #2 – Stumbling on Happiness

The #2 business book of last year wasn’t exactly a business book, but it still fits well for the category: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

It started slow, but this fairly intuitive,
quirky, dry read picked up momentum and turned into a brilliant thought
piece. It also effectively does what the author says it doesn’t:
provide a roadmap to greater happiness. By understanding what really
leads to happiness for both yourself and others – such as by finding
out how happy one is in a situation you’re considering going through –
you can in fact better the odds of happiness.

Some notes from the book:

P.97: We tend to fail to notice what’s missing –
can’t comprehend all the times something doesn’t happen, can’t see the
abstract.

p. 179: “Our psychological immune systems can
rationalize an excess of courage more easily than an excess of
cowardice.” We can’t learn from an experience that didn’t happen.

p. 183: On inescapability: “It is only when we
cannot change the experience that we look for ways to change our views
of the experience.”

p.191: “We are more likely to generate a positive
and credible view of an action than an inaction, of a painful
experience than of an annoying experience, of an unpleasant situation
that we cannot escape than one we can…”