Over at the NY Sun, Nick Gillespie reviews two recent books about happiness and has these quotes and comments for Daniel Nettle’s Happiness: The Science Behind your Smile. Separating the desire sytem and the happiness system seems like good common sense.

The Happiness Scam – July 6, 2005 – The New York Sun

"Evolution has given us a strong implicit theory of happiness," writes Mr. Nettle. "We come to the world believing that there is such a thing as achievable happiness, that it is desirable and important, and that the things that we desire will bring it about." Alas, he notes, "It is not self-evident that any of these are true." Indeed, that’s an understatement. It turns out that our "pleasure system" and our "system of desire" often work at cross-purposes, either leading us to pursue the wrong things or leaving us unsatisfied if we attain them.