Quote
“The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future.”— Daniel Gilbert, in Stumbling on Happiness (2006) · Stumbling on Happiness →
Why it was said
Daniel Gilbert opens Stumbling on Happiness with this claim and spends the book on its consequence: we imagine our futures constantly and we imagine them badly, in ways that are systematic and predictable.
What it actually means
The ability to simulate tomorrow is what lets us plan, save and hope, and it is also the source of a specific kind of error. We fill in the future with the present, forget how quickly we adapt to both good and bad, and trust the vividness of an imagined scene as if it were a forecast. Gilbert's sentence names the gift so that the rest of the book can catalogue its failures.
How to use it
- 1Before a big decision, ask someone who is already living the outcome how it actually feels, rather than imagining it.
- 2When a future looks unbearable or perfect, remember that you will adapt to it faster than the picture suggests.