Paul Dolan (2)

We are promised that many things have the possibility of making us happy, more money, children, friends, experiences and so on, and they have been countless books written claiming to have the secret of happiness wrapped within the covers. But in this book Dolan has looked at the things that make us happy from a scientific and behavioural economics perspective. It has been proven many times that material possessions up to a certain point have very little effect on you happiness state.

He defines happiness as ' experiences of pleasure and purpose over time'; with his primary idea being that purpose is itself a feeling. To get a higher level of happiness, you would need to get the balance pleasure and purpose just right. Most people take little pleasure in work, but do find it has a purpose, whereas TV can be pleasurable, but is rarely purposeful. The activities that people considered made them most happy were time spent with others and and working as a volunteer.

It did make for interesting reading, and he does expand his (and Daniel Kahneman's) ideas into a readable book. But overall it does feel a little two dimensional, and doesn't seem to have a huge amount of depth. Shame really, because i think that the principles he outlines are along the right lines.… (altro)

This was an interesting read. He asks questions at the beginning of every chapter like: 'Would you rather be highly educated but miserable most of the time, or have little education but be happy most of the time?' The problem is, life is never so simple, and one aspect of life never guarantees happiness itself. That is the major problem of this book. You can have a look at the common myths about happiness for fun, but what really determines whether someone is happy or not is the sum of all of life's parts.… (altro)