Happiness by Design: Change What You Do, Not How You Think

I agree with moat of the reviews already written about this book, the good ones and the less good ones. Like someone else said, this is both a 5 star and a 3 star book at the same time. I found at times brilliant and at times quite boring. But (yes there is a "but"), I learn 1 or 2 things that I never though about before. This, complemented by the fact that it is well written, makes reading this book a good return-on-investment (ROT), including in terms of happiness. Hence a recommended reading.

I took the title of my review from the first sentence of the Amazon book description because it captures what is different about this book. I've ready many of the "Happiness" popular books and this one is different. I got tired of reading basically the same thing over and over so I haven't been too interested them any longer. For that reason I give this book 5 stars.This book by Paul Dolan is not scintillating reading. It is fairly short (around 200 pages of text) and gets to the points fairly succinctly. He has a nice combination of scientific studies, his own theory, and intuitive common sense in his book. Dolan has a somewhat different idea about what makes us happy and he has less value for the mindfulness / change your thoughts type happiness ideas and instead suggests we get happier by changing what we DO instead of what we THINK.He proposes a pleasure-pain / purpose-pointlessness two-factor theory of happiness. He also emphasizes what we pay attention to which is not the same thing as changing your thoughts but it is related. This is basically a 4 star book that gets a big bump to 5 stars because it dares to be different.Recommended.

Let's get the criticism out of the way. Dolan can go on a bit and, as a book intended to be a practical guide, the book could benefit from a checklist like summary at the end of each chapter.But even that critique suggests that the content is worth reducing to a daily action list and check list.The content is, to my humble mind, nothing less than paradigm shifting. I had two books that I recommend we add to our cannon as "21st century secular Bibles". Behave by Sapolsky & How Emotions are Made by Barrett. I now have three.

El libro tiene dos partes muy claramente definidas.En la primera parte se introduce el concepto de Felicidad; de una forma diferente y valiosa.Me parece que es la aportación más importante de la primera parte del libro; así mismo se sustenta en temas del comportamiento que ya han sido tratados por otros autores como: Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely y Richard H. Thaler; con un mayor nivel de profundidad. Sin embargo para alguien que no haya leído los libros de esos autores sirve como una buena base.La segunda creo que es la que verdaderamente le da el valor a libro, buscando aprovechar la base de temas de comportamiento en mecanismos para la felicidad.En que general me parece un muy buen libro, muy bien fundamentado y [email protected]

This book tells you the science of happiness: what is more likely to make you happy and what surely will not make you happy.Profesor Dolan has made a great job putting so much science in the area together, with the Pleasure, Purpose Principle, with makes a lot of sense to simplify the understanding of human behavior.What I liked a lot when I study this topic is to see the systematic cognitive errors, things that we think are good for us, but are not even close to our expectations. As great masters says: To find the truth, you may see whats false.Thank you Paul for sharing this!Best wishes for you and your family! big Muscles, long and happy life.Greetings from Ecuador.

The author has a very high opinion of himself and clearly wishes to express that in his writing (personal anecdotes, humble brags). It's hard for me to take seriously someone's opinion on happiness (and more broadly life) when that person is showboating and seeking so much external validation. Makes me wary of taking their advice on anything. Also, there are many good studies cited, but not much in the way of actionable insights.

An easy to read publication that is based on common sense and the real world (nothing fanciful, spiritual or mysterious). It is based on sound research and analysis and is evidenced based, so it would appeal to those with a respect for scientific logic. It gives good practical advice on establishing an environment to increase the likelihood of living a happy life rather than focussing on things that "force" you to be happy. Overall, I found it a good book to assist in life style decisions. Not recommended for those seeking a quick fix to eternal bliss.

The book strikes a good balance between advice and facts, as well as complexity and conciseness. It translates rich research into clear concepts and implications. It is very well-written with good flow, structure and clarity. Overall, it is one of the better popular reads on happiness I have come across thus far.

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Excellent book. Reading it has given me some insight into many things and how they impact me. Or how I think they would impact me. A main point that hit home for me is to not think too much about outcomes, because you have no way of really knowing how things will impact your happiness. Flows fairly well. And an excellent and candid effort on tackling the topic the topic.

Interesting approach to the topic but not captivating as "Thinking fast and slow" by D. Kahneman although these two author do not deal with exactly the same topic.

Excellent, thoughtful easy-to-read book.

not my cup of tea