Solve For Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy
Mar 2017 · Pan Macmillan
4.3star
28 reviewsreport
Ebook
256
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About this ebook
'He explains how even in the face of the unthinkable, happiness is still possible' – Stylist
Solve for Happy is the equation for happiness. A startlingly original book about creating and maintaining happiness, written by a top Google executive with an engineer's training and fondness for thoroughly analyzing a problem.
Mo Gawdat, a remarkable thinker whose gifts had landed him top positions in half a dozen companies and who – in his spare time – had created significant wealth, realized that he was desperately unhappy. A lifelong learner, he attacked the problem as an engineer would, examining all the provable facts and scrupulously following logic. When he was finished, he had discovered the equation for enduring happiness.
Ten years later, that research saved him from despair when his college-aged son, Ali – also intellectually gifted – died during routine surgery. In dealing with the loss, Mo found his mission: he would pull off the type of 'moonshot' that he and his Google [X] colleagues were always aiming for: he would help ten million people become happier by pouring his happiness principles into a book and spreading its message around the world.
One of Solve for Happy's key premises is that happiness is a default state. If we shape expectations to acknowledge the full range of possible events, unhappiness is on its way to being defeated. To steer clear of unhappiness traps, we must dispel the six illusions that cloud our thinking (e.g., the illusion of time, of control, and of fear); overcome the brain's seven deadly defects (e.g., the tendency to exaggerate, label, and filter), and embrace five ultimate truths (e.g., change is real, now is real, unconditional love is real).
By means of several highly original thought experiments, Mo helps readers find enduring contentment by questioning some of the most fundamental aspects of their existence.
Solve for Happy is the equation for happiness. A startlingly original book about creating and maintaining happiness, written by a top Google executive with an engineer's training and fondness for thoroughly analyzing a problem.
Mo Gawdat, a remarkable thinker whose gifts had landed him top positions in half a dozen companies and who – in his spare time – had created significant wealth, realized that he was desperately unhappy. A lifelong learner, he attacked the problem as an engineer would, examining all the provable facts and scrupulously following logic. When he was finished, he had discovered the equation for enduring happiness.
Ten years later, that research saved him from despair when his college-aged son, Ali – also intellectually gifted – died during routine surgery. In dealing with the loss, Mo found his mission: he would pull off the type of 'moonshot' that he and his Google [X] colleagues were always aiming for: he would help ten million people become happier by pouring his happiness principles into a book and spreading its message around the world.
One of Solve for Happy's key premises is that happiness is a default state. If we shape expectations to acknowledge the full range of possible events, unhappiness is on its way to being defeated. To steer clear of unhappiness traps, we must dispel the six illusions that cloud our thinking (e.g., the illusion of time, of control, and of fear); overcome the brain's seven deadly defects (e.g., the tendency to exaggerate, label, and filter), and embrace five ultimate truths (e.g., change is real, now is real, unconditional love is real).
By means of several highly original thought experiments, Mo helps readers find enduring contentment by questioning some of the most fundamental aspects of their existence.
Ratings and reviews
4.3
28 reviews
Teh Yicai
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March 4, 2018
I prefer the audio book. I don't mind listening to it a few more times. But would be hard to sit down and read through. The volume is a bit low though; need to find a quiet place..
3 people found this review helpful
Rubani Streete-Hamilton
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December 31, 2019
Got the physical book and it helped me understand what happiness actually is and how to find out even in the most dire situations. Amazing!
1 person found this review helpful
Roberto
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June 20, 2022
I listened to an interview with the writer - i think this work is genius. If you really apply it to yourself....
About the author
Mo Gawdat is a serial entrepreneur and former chief business officer of Google [X]. Through his twelve-year research on the topic of happiness, he created an algorithm and a repeatable engineered model to reach a state of uninterrupted happiness, regardless of circumstance in life. Mo’s happiness model proved highly effective and, in 2014, was put to the ultimate test when Mo lost his son Ali to preventable medical error during a simple surgical procedure. Solve For Happy is the pillar for Mo's personal 'moonshot' mission, a mission to deliver his happiness message to one billion people around the world.
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