Another incredibly interesting concept there is that almost all emotions anchored in present moment are happy. A switch to audio books has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. Having discussed this with a range of people in different roles (from IT and InfoSec to innovation managers and end users), we came up with the equation below. And since we’re not even considering those, why would we think of events that have a much more subtle impact on our lives?

Your happiness equals or is greater than the difference between the events of your life and your expectation of how life should behave) Translated: If the event surpasses expectations you will be happy, if it misses expectations then you won’t. The most important thing when it comes to defining time is to understand that you are moving though time, time is not moving. Princeton Professor and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman refers to this as the “availability heuristic. Mo Gawdat is a remarkable thinker and the Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], an elite team of engineers that comprise Google’s futuristic “dream factory.When engineers are presented with a set of raw data, the first thing we do is to plot it and attempt to find a trend line. However, we often don’t know our deepest fears because core fears—like rejection—are masked by layers of derivative fears—like a fear of first dates.

So if the reality of life mostly meets realistic expectations, why should we bother with the Happiness Equation at all?You mention that while you were on the “hedonistic treadmill” you bought two Rolls-Royces online on a whim. Applying his superior skills of logic and problem solving to the issue of happiness, he proposes an algorithm based on an understanding of how the brain takes in and processes joy and sadness. Your brain will continue to expand on this story, and as a result you will act as though your friend will betray you, taking any action as a sign that you’re right. Looking for reasons to be happy is not the answer, but looking for reasons that make us unhappy and removing them is.

Even when we know something accurately, we know such a small portion of all there is to know about that thing. At its core, "Solve for Happy" advances a simple thesis: happiness is a thought, and its origins lie in how a person perceives the world around him.Simply purchase an individual course or an All Courses pass and get access to easy-to-follow video lessons. You feel an overwhelming emotion of panic, which floods your body with adrenaline to prepare you for the fight. Somehow the probability of an accident increases [in your mind] after you see a car turned over on the side of the road,” says Kahneman.

The list can be nothing more than a string of short, declarative sentences that get right to the point and complete the phrase “I feel happy when ________________________. Because we mistakenly feel in control, our expectations are overinflated, preventing us from solving the happiness formula. None of the twists and turns will matter anymore, because you expect them and know how to deal with them.I would go to them with what I understood as an engineer, and they would give me the heart side of it. One of the most interesting things for me is that top performers, like Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), the CEO of Nike (John Donahoe) and so many more make time to meditate. Disclaimer: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Scientists have found historical evidence, for example fossil records, and then built theories to explain them. Because we’re immaterial, Gawdat argues that the death of our bodies does not end our lives; death is impermanent.