A great discussion, a "meh" book

We met Wednesday night to share our thoughts on Daniel Gilbert's book. We agreed that we liked the author's conversational style and his little jokes. We also agreed that this seems to be a basic Psychology 101 introduction that doesn't tell you how to be happy. But then, if the author had a fool-proof method for finding happiness, he'd be busy spending his trillions, not writing books. This isn't a self-help book, though many libraries categorize it as such. What the author does do...rather pedantically, is show us how studies have mapped our brains and how they work. He explains those things that we as humans do that other mammals and animals do not do. None of us were surprised or astounded by the findings, and realize that while happiness is subjective, measuring it isn't really possible (on a grand scale). Humans are imaginative creatures, and we use imagination to forecast the future. But the future can be disappointing, or not as desirable as expected, which bums us out. Everyone has experienced that party they were looking forward to all week actually being a dud, where none of your friends showed up. We anticipated too greatly!  Conversely... being pleasantly surprised about a dreaded time sucking event that you’d hoped to avoid is also universal. The big question we all asked ourselves: where is the author going with this book? Is imagination our downfall? Can we ever be happy? Is happiness overrated? We just don't know, and this book didn't get us any closer to answers.