So I was watching ted.com and I stumbled onto a design talk titled: Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off.  The talk focused on how every seven years he closes his design studio and forces everyone to take a year-long sabbatical. The talk was very interesting (I won’t get into it, just go watch the video.  His other talk on what he’s learned is good too. :) 

Briefly, during the talk, Stefan mentions finally getting a chance to read Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert.  Stefan noted that this book was written while the author was on sabbatical.  So I googled the author and found that he too had two ted.com talks about why are we happy and our mistaken expectations. After watching the videos, I decided to pick it up.

If you haven’t already watch the videos above, this book’s look at "happiness" based on a scientific approach.  Its definitely not a touchy-feely book about finding some secret to happiness but rather a vast array of results and conclusions based on control groups and studies.  It’s pretty eye opening in many ways.  It amazing to see how humans poorly predict what will lead to happiness and how our psychological defenses deal with things we can not change.

 I think the best way to detect whether or not *you* would like the book would be to watch Daniel Gilbert’s ted talks.  However *I* personally enjoyed it enough to buy it, read it, and find all those links above so I could post about it.  :)

…and I plan on reading it again :)

enjoy,
~Danny

I just got this quote at the top of my GMail:

Blaise Pascal – “Two things control men’s nature, instinct and experience.”

Shouldn’t that be two things that start with T and A?

~Danny