What a Happy Stumbling 睿智幽默的幸福法则

首先，这不是一本温情脉脉救世主式的Self-help Book，Gilbert在前言里很明确地表示: This is not an instruction manual that will tell you anything useful about how to be happy. Those books are located in the self help section and once you've bought one, done everything it says to do, and found yourself miserable anyway, you can always come back here to understand why. 如果你跟我一样厌烦了那些空洞浮华的励志书，不妨打开这本换个口味。

积极心理学是近年相当热门的一个课题，心理学至今虽然已有130多年的历史，然而大多数研究都在关注人性的消极面：暴力、犯罪、抑郁、疾病、拖延、压力......对于人类美德善行的研究却远未得到应有的重视：消极心理学研究与积极心理学研究的论文数量比例竟高达21:1。

研究一万个罪犯的心理历程，也许可以告诉我们应该怎样预防犯罪，但却无法教我们怎样塑造下一个甘地。换句话说，对于消极心理的认知可以把负值冲零，去无法将零上升为正值。而积极心理学，往往可以一石二鸟地作用于这两者。

自Martin Seligman和Ellen Langer开创了积极心理学后，Gilbert这代学者对于该领域的最大贡献，可能是将这一学科介绍给了普通大众，这本全球畅销书是迄今读到最欢乐的一本认知心理学普及读物，全书以一种自嘲式的睿智幽默贯穿始终，把专业学术深入浅出地化为大众感兴趣的内容，这种才能在学术界一直处于稀缺状态。

这本书的主要内容Affective Forecasting是积极心理学的一个重要前提。人类对于未来自己情感预期往往存在偏差：人们倾向于过度预期事件结果对自己情绪影响的强度和长度，却不知，我们的快乐水平一直起起落落地围绕着一个均值上下波动，生活中的成败，只是造成暂时的波动，却难形成根本的改变。



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最后，一起分享欢乐的Quotes, 遵守认知心理学的基本理论之一，把最好的留到最后，因为: We often judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending~~

What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes?
Some people might tell you that you should live every minute of your life as though it were your last, which only goes to show that some people would spend their final ten minutes giving other people dumb advice.
＃Brilliant !!! 我就说我总觉得“把每天过得就像是生命中的最后一天”这句话有点问题，人类作为唯一有未来预期的动物，预计自己还能活几十年，和预计自己还有一天能活，必然导致不同的处事原则和轻重缓急

We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy.
＃动物只是活在当下，人类却常有着长远眼光，人们的行为也往往受到对于未来预期的驱使：我们努力考取名牌大学，是为了将来能找到更好的工作；我们留学打拼，是为了将来能过上更好地日子；我们拼命工作，是为了以后能够成功快乐......然而，那些我们以为会带给“将来的自己”快乐的东西，真的会如我们所料吗？

The eye and brain are conspirators, and, like most conspiracies, theirs is negotiated behind closed doors, in the back room, outside of our awareness.
To ensure that our views are credible, our brain accepts what our eye sees. To ensure that our views are positive, our eye looks for what our brain wants. The conspiracy between these two servants allows us to live at the fulcrum of stark reality and comforting illusion.
＃My first instinct was to have a peek at their contractual agreement, on a second thought however, I realized doing that will probably drive me crazy.

Arthritic toothless people who love orgasms are more likely to reproduce than are limber, toothy people who do not.
＃如果对各国文化中倡导生育的内容稍加了解，尤其是对比一下各国的神话，你就会悲哀地意识到：上面这句话是真理，如今的地球人都是句中前者的后代

If you are like most people, then, like most people, you don't know you're like most people.
＃那些文艺青年都应该把这句话贴在墙上

My friends tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it.
＃LOL!