Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, says that we are terrible at predicting what makes us happy. In Stumbling on Happiness
he explains how we are terrible at predicting what will make our future selves happy. For example, we think we want to be skinny and then we are surprised when the future self isn’t happy even though they are skinny. There’s a good brief summary of the book in the Washington Post article, C’mon, Get Happy? It’s Easier Said Than Done. If you enjoy the article, I recommend the whole book, Stumbling on Happiness.