Happiness by Design by Paul Dolan | Review

This book is very good and actually deserves more than 4 stars - maybe 4.25 or so.

Happiness by Design tells the story of research done by the author and several collaborators on happiness, as well as aligned research. It talks about how to design, decide and do happiness and it does that well. 

The best part of this book? It’s exquisite definition of happiness - it’s that glorious mix between pleasure and purpose. Happiness is determined by experienced and evaluated activities that engage feelings of purpose and pleasure.

It is a bit academic some times, and has transitions between paragraphs that are, at times, stilted. 

I very much like how the book starts, in talking about the author’s stammering problems, it’s authentic, vulnerable and real. 

If you know a lot about how the mind works - like the primacy and recency effect, then this book might be a bit repetitive. 

If you are interested in being happy and like economics, philosophy and psychology with good story telling - so far - this book is just wonderful.