Happiness: Lessons from a New Science

This is politics and policy presented as management good practice, rather than ideology. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The book is well thought out: a good balance of serious science and breezy writing. There are lots of good arguments that it's hard to disagree with. But I also read an essay arguing that melancholy has an important motivating force in our lives, and I kind of agree with that too.

Unlike "Stumbing towards Happiness" this book is actually about happiness and real studies about what makes people happy and what doesn't ($$$). I read the two together - in a sense this book defines what makes most people happy and the other book describes the why people don't do what doesn't makes them happy. I disagreed with his legislating happiness conclusions...

This is an interesting way to study happiness through the lense of economics; especially socialism. It asks us to reconsider the meaning of "enough" in terms of wealth.
Some people who are very much into capitalism may not totally disagree with the author.
The book is easy to read, but it feels quite dry.

Has some inspiring and fascinating insights into the nature of happiness..really got me thinking about my life. A few chapters were less interesting, so it misses four stars.

In life, it is important to always refocus, reconsider the motivation, the options and especially the goals. The suggestion in "Happiness" is the obvious one - rethink the reasons behind the decisions we make. A great deal of our personal decisions are reflected as economics, on a society level. These choices influence not only our lives, but the lives of others. It is therefore a very good idea to suggest looking at them very carefully. And perhaps ask twice: do I feel truly happy, making this decision, or do I just feel I ought to be doing this for some reason...?