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Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Few books change one's life; in 48 hours this has improved mine' Jenni Russell, Sunday TimesHow can we make it easier to be happy? Using the latest cutting-edge research, Professor Paul Dolan reveals that wellbeing isn't about how we think - it's about what we do. By making deliberate choices that bring us both pleasure and meaning, we can redesign our lives for maximum happiness - without thinking too hard about it.'Outstanding, cutting-edge, and profound. If you're going to read one book on happiness, this is the one' Nassim Nicholas Taleb'Bold and original ... what I wish for my a life that is rich in activities both pleasurable and meaningful' Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow
- GenresNonfiction
ebook
Published August 28, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 1, 2024
A love letter to small sample randomised control trials
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The insight on happiness being a balance of pleasure and purpose was really interesting and has definitely made me evaluate things in my life and future plans with a better lens about what they offer me.
Maybe not interesting enough to sustain 200 pages. There were some smaller insights but these were all very common sense and reeked of what our Strategic Management teacher called ‘Airport Books’, where economists repackage basic insight into alliterative lists or business school poster shapes (e.g. The Three Ls of Vertical Integration, The Rhombus of B2B IT Marketing) which apparently is the best way to make money as an academic.
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Remaking the film ‘Triangle of Sadness’ but its about an academic who is bitter about his colleague’s $20k speaking fee off the back of writing a shitty pop-psychology book. Harris Dickinson and Woody Harrelson are attached at this stage of pre-production.
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The insight on happiness being a balance of pleasure and purpose was really interesting and has definitely made me evaluate things in my life and future plans with a better lens about what they offer me.
Maybe not interesting enough to sustain 200 pages. There were some smaller insights but these were all very common sense and reeked of what our Strategic Management teacher called ‘Airport Books’, where economists repackage basic insight into alliterative lists or business school poster shapes (e.g. The Three Ls of Vertical Integration, The Rhombus of B2B IT Marketing) which apparently is the best way to make money as an academic.
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Remaking the film ‘Triangle of Sadness’ but its about an academic who is bitter about his colleague’s $20k speaking fee off the back of writing a shitty pop-psychology book. Harris Dickinson and Woody Harrelson are attached at this stage of pre-production.
August 21, 2024
Duidelijk, wetenschappelijk, en nuttig. Dit boek vertelt veel inzichten uit de positieve psychologie. Dit zijn levenswijsheden die je diep van binnen weet, maar moeilijk te verwoorden zijn.
De auteur gebruikt zijn eigen leven om het narratief van menselijk geluk goed in kaart te brengen. Verder besteedt het boek vooral aandacht aan de cognitieve vooroordelen die onze dagelijkse en langetermijnkeuzes zowel negatief als positief beïnvloeden. Door het gebruik van voorbeelden en (onderzoeks)opdrachten worden deze inzichten meteen tastbaar en toepasbaar. Uiteindelijk, door dit boek te lezen word je een net iets gelukkiger mens. Zeker een aanrader voor iemand die nu bezig is met grote levensveranderingen #breakupseason
Mijn favoriete quote:
"Too often, I think, we treat happiness as if it is fungible—as if, like money, it can be moved around relatively easily. But while saving money for a rainy day that never comes, giving up on happiness now for later happiness is truly tragic'
De auteur gebruikt zijn eigen leven om het narratief van menselijk geluk goed in kaart te brengen. Verder besteedt het boek vooral aandacht aan de cognitieve vooroordelen die onze dagelijkse en langetermijnkeuzes zowel negatief als positief beïnvloeden. Door het gebruik van voorbeelden en (onderzoeks)opdrachten worden deze inzichten meteen tastbaar en toepasbaar. Uiteindelijk, door dit boek te lezen word je een net iets gelukkiger mens. Zeker een aanrader voor iemand die nu bezig is met grote levensveranderingen #breakupseason
Mijn favoriete quote:
"Too often, I think, we treat happiness as if it is fungible—as if, like money, it can be moved around relatively easily. But while saving money for a rainy day that never comes, giving up on happiness now for later happiness is truly tragic'
September 6, 2025
picked this up from the happiness museum in Copenhagen and started buddy-reading it with a dear friend. this had so many cool ways to think about happiness.
key takeaways for me:
- future happiness cannot compensate for current misery; lost happiness is lost forever
- attention is key -- what we pay attention to is what drives our behaviour and it determines your happiness. pay more attention to what brings us happiness and less to what doesn't
- pleasure-purpose principle: a "good" life requires both!
- 3 main reasons why we aren't happier are: mistaken desires, mistaken projections, mistaken beliefs.
- we can organise our lives in ways to make us happier
key takeaways for me:
- future happiness cannot compensate for current misery; lost happiness is lost forever
- attention is key -- what we pay attention to is what drives our behaviour and it determines your happiness. pay more attention to what brings us happiness and less to what doesn't
- pleasure-purpose principle: a "good" life requires both!
- 3 main reasons why we aren't happier are: mistaken desires, mistaken projections, mistaken beliefs.
- we can organise our lives in ways to make us happier
November 6, 2024
I was disappointed once more from the books with this context, alrhough this one specifically got a lot of stars and good reviews. Except for chapter 5, I could not get any actual useful advice on happiness. My theory is that all these books and surveys they write these books based on are originally from wealthy American/European privilaged people whose happiness could be improved by the minor changes in mentality or habbits or friend circles. So many book readers around the world are not as privilaged and their happiness could not be improved by some simple advices.
September 8, 2025
O livro é interessante e construi contigo alguns conceitos sobre o que de fato é felicidade. Depois, ele tenta lhe ajudar a desenhar alguns detalhes na tua rotina e na tua vida para que você tenha mais felicidade. O livro é bastante fundamentado em evidências científicas trazendo bastante credibilidade para os conceitos e argumentos.
November 26, 2025
Practical and simple, providing insight into long lasting feelings of fulfillment
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews