Old-School Bumbling

This is a book reaction to Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling On Happiness. New York, A.A. Knopf, 2006 

Stumbling is a well-written read, but the topic of happiness is an old-school mindset trap.

The book is a highly entertaining depiction of the human condition. Sadly, the reason the human condition is in a position to be used as comical fodder is because traditional goal setting fathers the future when it forges an endgame.

Father-the-future mindsets use happiness as a reward for good behavior.

When happiness is held hostage to trend a dream, the present is manipulated to align with the end in mind. The book blurb talks about "the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrows and misestimate our satisfactions." This writer climbs atop her soapbox and shouts that the "illusions of foresight" that the book details are not insight but the product of shooting fish in a barrel.

When earthlings create an endgame to purpose and motivate their movements, they are prisoners to the path they have chosen. Why is it news that "foibles of imagination" produce odd or, even, self-defeating behavior? Stumbling should be a call to action that warns folks not to recklessly eyeball the future.

This writer gave two stars because given the limitations of the subject matter (old-school happiness) it is a witty tome. Sadly, it should be a cautionary tale about the downside to living for the weekend. In a remix, when the present is regifted to serve an imaginary, foresighted version of yourself - the habit of you is sacrificed to birth the pregnant expectations of regifted reality. When the usual you is broken to feed a fathered future, your break with lockstep should never be comical fodder.