Stumbling on Happiness

The book is nothing special. I can't hate it, I can't love it, I am sort of indifferent about it. I did not like the presentation and I often found myself wondering why is the author taking so long to move on. The information wasn't very enlightening, but it also wasn't very disagreeable.
I am displeased with the term "happiness" being used in any relation to this book. It is more of a study of the mind's extraordinary ability to construct narratives and how that ability is much stronger with things we already have experiences of rather than with things of which we do not. One of the reasons why it is easier to rationalize any action taken as compared to inaction.
I simply take issue with the whole "study of happiness". Why we believe that happiness is the ultimate goal is beyond me. Our range of emotions as human beings is as vast as the universe, yet we center on this on which, I would argue, is largely overrated. This is also one of the reasons why I do not like how sometimes supposed lack of freedom to choose will lead to "better feelings". It might lead to less pondering over, but, for the love of me, why this is a good thing, I do not know.
But, even as someone who remains largely skeptical of happiness, I must admit that just by simply being aware of biases and processes of our mind, you are going to be much better off.

Despite the title, this book is neither about how to achieve happiness nor really about happiness at all.

In fact it is a fascinating look into the way that our minds warp both our perceptions and memories at a sub-conscious level.

If one believes the argument presented, our minds work hard to support our beliefs regardless of their accuracy. We all think we are less average than other people. We all think that our judgement is somehow better than the average. And we are all convinced, probably even after reading this book, that we are able to counter-balance the biases that our own brains work so hard to enforce.

This does all relate to happiness of course but there are bigger implications too I think. After all these protective mechanisms that adjust our perceptions of reality both during and after are affecting every decision we make. Humans like to think of themselves as the ultimate in intelligent, logical creatures. That we have choice and freedom. And maybe we are. But it turns out we're really not very logical at all and our choices are being manipulated without our realizing it.

Our whole worldview (which is primarily seen in the form of memories) is shaped and altered by all sorts of factors we aren't even really aware of.