In the past, each time after I have ordered the Thai Kitchen Cashew (w/o tofu) and my husband has ordered the veggie fried rice with eggs, we launch into this discussion on how we don't experiment with our food and how
"next time, we should try something else". This then degenerates quickly into a discussion on how vegetarian food options are so limited and stops as soon as the food arrives. That is, until now....

After I read this book, I determined that we would not have that conversation any more and that we would order exactly the same thing at the Thai restaurant every time and be perfectly happy about it. If you want to learn why, check out Chapter 7 "Time Bombs" in the book "Stumbling on Happiness" or I guess, you could just as easily continue reading :)

As Daniel Gilbert expertly explains, if offered a choice, people usually prefer their favorite food interspersed with their less favorite foods spread over a year rather than have their favorite once a month every year. But we forget time as a factor in our prediction of our happiness. If we accounted for it, we would know that each month that first morsel of our favorite would always taste better than our second favorite ever would! We make the fundamental mistake of assuming that since we wouldn't want to eat the same food over and over again in the same session we would not want to do it spread over a year either!

The brain is a remarkable piece of evolution and its ability to imagine as he rightly puts it,  differentiates the human race from all other on the planet but thats where it can be wrong. While I did hone in on the food examples, Daniel has some great examples spread out through out the book and I couldn't help smiling at them as I identified with some of them. How people often value things more than after they own them, often imagine that the pain of losing somthing is greater than the pleasure of getting it, often hurt more by small losses than large ones and many more - that kept me thinking long after I finished the book.

 Have you read the book and did you arrive at your own insights? If so, share them!

P.S-  Thanks to Ned Friend, my team lead for pointing me to this book and for the enjoyable hours of reading! Now, on to the next...