Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert

This has got to be one the most entertaining pysch books I’ve ever read. Think Douglas Adam writing about Nassim Taleb’s findings. Its smart, clever, and wickedly funny. It challenges the notions you’ve held your
entire life. It makes you think about your past decisions and then tells you what a delusional fool you are. It turns your brain into mush.
In short, the exact kind of book I’d wana read!

In fact this book will start blurring the lines between reality and perceptions. The further you go into this book, the more you start thinking of the story of the blind men describing the elephant. What is reality if not the world we build looking at it through the filters of our personal minds?
If anything this book has strengthened my view of the world as different shades of greys, instead of stark black and white.

The name of the book is slightly misleading though. This isn’t a self help book. This isn’t a manual on teaching you how to be happy. [Even if it WILL end up making you happy coz you will be laughing out loud so often!] The only thing it does is help you answer the very important question:
Why do we so often fail to know what will make us happy in the future?

We try and answer this question based on our limited past experience, use imagination to fill in details, and are far too accepting of its conclusions.
All errors.

I won’t ruin it for you, as I’d like you to read this yourself. In fact, highly recommend it as one of that rare breed of books that entertains you and yet makes you think about things differently. I promise you it will help you loosen up a little, question yourself a little more and make you a lot happier as you realise
some big errors you’ve been making.

Here are some gems strewn throughout the book. Spend a couple of minutes on each of the below thoughts and it will start giving you an idea of what to expect

• The general inability to think about absences is a potent source of error in our everyday lives.
[We think about all the joys of babysitting our nieces, but forget their
small annoyances, when asked to help out.]

• Stimulus can be interpreted by our brains based on preference.
[You might be confusing the thrill of going to a new restaurant, for attraction on your first date.]

• We regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions.

• We find positive experiences only when the psychological shock is intense enough. Intense suffering triggers the very process that eradicates it while mild suffering does not.
[Probably why we stick in really bad relationships but are unwilling to compromise a little in otherwise good partners.]

• We are happier when we don’t have a choice or cant escape a situation.
[As a Libran who has been tortured since 5 about things like which shoe to wear first – right or left, this was a significant find, may I add!]

• Imagination fills in (some details) and leaves out (others) without telling us coz we cannot forsee ever single detail. Imagination projects present into future. Hence, it fails to realise that things look different when they
happen.
[Which is why the best way to predict future is to look at somebody else’s present. We are all alike.]


And based on the last point, as you're clearly in no position to predict your future if you'd enjoy this book or not, you should look at someone else's present. [Me!] As I enjoyed it, I can pretty much guarantee you would too!

WALK IN HER SHOES

A couple of weeks back, on a whim (as I generally do) I decided to take up CARE's Walk In Her Shoes challenge and walk 10,000 steps (a little over 7kms) everyday for a week. This is the average women and girls walk every single day of their lives to get themselves enough water, food or firewood, to get through the day. 

Now, seeing that it was slightly more than the 10 steps I walk to the kitchen everyday (and complain if the zip tap on our floor is not working and I have to take the elevator up) I decided this was probably a good idea. 

Of course, I'm neither 14 nor 52 like some other women who do this are, nor was asked to do this with a child at my hip or a pot of water on my head, this supposed to be easier for me. Not to mention I was doing this was for a mere 7 days. 

Keeping all this in mind, here's what I thought. "Dear Shaheen, you run about 2-3 times a day, averaging 5-6kms, and walk quite a bit around. Of course, you can do the 7kms. But hmm.. lets see if you will last seven days. And walk Every.Single.Day."

You see, the challenge I expected to face was discipline. The only thing I have in common with these kids other than my gender, is.. well, the age of my attention span. 

Let's just cut the story short, and say I was proved wrong. 

Day 1, I was loving it. I walked to work and back, hit about 11,000 steps and was feeling pumped. Day 2, I could feel my thighs and glutes, as I lay down in bed. Day 3, I went to bed early. And by day 4, I was sleeping in 10 mins extra.

By day 7, I was wondering if I could do this for another week. 

OK, so Shaheen is not as tough as she sounds. 

Point being - It's hard work being these women. 

You know, I grew up watching women labourers carrying heavy loads on their heads working under the brutal Indian sun in construction sites.

And unfortunately, moving to a more developed country, I had forgotten what that was like.

I remember now. 

The least I can do now is to encourage you to donate to my page. My friends have generously donated $275 already, but with another $70, Care will be able to create a veggie patch in a village. 

Together, hopefully, we can stop some more women from walking 7kms everyday.

https://walkinhershoes2013.everydayhero.com/au/hajira-shaheen

Understanding comics. - by Scott McCloud

Comics. We all love them. In the same way that we love singing in the shower. Or the goofy class comedian.
Adore them, but never respect them. And that’s what this book aims to change. Scott McCloud challenges the notion that comics are juvenile with ‘bad art and guys in tights.’ And boy, does he do it well! 

Scott begins off with the history of ‘comics’ or ‘illustrated arts’ drawing it back to the cave paintings and Egypt’s papyrus scrolls. One of the first ‘aha’ moments you will have during the course of this 200 page book.

And then, throughout the book, using the medium of illustrations himself, he subtly explains the tactics used by illustrators to send across their messages. 

Very deftly, throughout the book, he guides us in understanding the games these illustrators play on our minds to evoke emotions, set moods and storytell better. 

Changing lines, colour, size and shape of panels, mixing up words and drawing, these illustrators play with your mind. As you read the book you cannot help but feel that a forgotten painting is being restored to its glory. 


And you suddenly have new found respect for these ‘cartoonists.’

                                                

One that will force you to change the way you see them.
Comics are a 2D representation of life. As an art, they have more than a few challenges. And the only tools at the disposal of the illustrators are a pencil and paper. And to think they use just those to set the stage, tell their story, keep us engaged, express complex emotions and master concepts like time, motion and feelings.

I know I stopped a few times when reading the book, and went, “Hunh, funny I never thought of it that way.” It’s a fascinating book, to say the least... I have three words for you - Go read it. 

After all, there is only one thing he asks of you.