Why More Will Never Make You Happy with Arthur Brooks (#59)

The Kevin Rose Show

Kevin Rose

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2024

⏱️ 104 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Stop chasing happiness, start cultivating it, and here is how! Kevin sits down with Arthur Brooks, a renowned social scientist and Harvard professor to talk about the science of happiness. Arthur discusses the elusive nature of happiness, explaining how evolutionary biology and societal expectations shape our pursuit of joy. They cover the concept of the hedonic treadmill, practical strategies to achieve lasting fulfillment, and the four principles of happiness. They also discuss five things you can do with money to increase happiness. Lastly, Arthur emphasizes that true happiness comes from a balance of enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning, all of which require embracing both positive and negative experiences. Guest Bio and Links: Arthur C. Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness. Brooks is the author of 13 books, including the 2023 #1 New York Times bestseller Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with co-author Oprah Winfrey. Listeners can learn more about Arthur Brooks at his website, on IG @arthurcbrooks, and X @arthurbrooks Partners: NordVPN: Huge discount + 4 mo. free of Kevin’s favorite VPN LMNT: Electrolyte drink mix. Grab a free sample pack Manscaped: 20% off precision-engineered grooming tools Notion: Try Notion AI for free Resources: Kevin's Newsletter: Join 100,000+ subscribers The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke Show Notes: (0:00) Introduction (1:00) NordVPN: discount + 4mo. free (2:05) LMNT: Electrolyte drink mix. Grab a free sample pack. (6:36) The hedonic treadmill explained (8:30) Hacks to satisfaction (10:24) The concept of the reverse bucket list (13:27) Arthur on religion and his relationship with Dalai Lama (16:55) Transcendence and the four core practices of happiness (20:05) Forms of transcendence - one hour walk before dawn (27:40) Manscaped: 20% off precision-engineered grooming tools (28:50) Notion: Try Notion AI for free (29:54) Fitness and its impact on health and happiness (33:00) Four types of emotional intensity profiles (43:15) “Happiness. It requires and contains unhappiness.” -A. Brooks (47:40) Causes of a downward path of happiness worldwide (51:30) Ways to find happiness in jobs and career paths that are not ‘socially accepted’ (58:00) Three downdrafts of happiness in the last 25 years (58:10) The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (1:01:20) Things to complement real-life experiences (1:05:40) Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (1:06:45) Question: What’s your opinion on doing psychedelics to increase happiness? (1:12:14) Concept of human time travel (1:14:45) The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (1:17:30) Question: How does an atheist build on the religious practice of happiness? (1:18:57) The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller (1:20:06) Kevin’s story on bankruptcy & the ultimate question: can money buy happiness? (1:21:00) Chasing behavior explained (1:24:40) Five things you can do with money to increase happiness (1:28:29) How To Not Be Bored When You Have To Wait (1:30:10) Mindfulness by Ellen Langer (1:30:30) How boredom plays on your dopamine (1:35:44) Arthur touches on his book in the works: All Things New (1:37:13) Recommendations on how to raise conscious kids (1:38:49) The #1 thing to do to take the edge off the “sh*tty day feeling” (1:41:32) Build the Life You Want by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Connect with Kevin: Website: kevinrose.com Instagram: @KevinRose X: @KevinRose YouTube: @KevinRose

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I realized that every time I was buying a watch somehow got into this arena of like this is going to give me some
0:06.1	satisfaction for a short amount of time. It'll look good and people comment on it and say like, oh, he must be doing really well.
0:11.5	Only 25% of them, you're very happy.
0:13.6	Professor of a feeling.
0:14.9	The happiest people who have the happiness practices in abundance,
0:18.6	really are enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning.
0:21.2	Those are the three things we need in balance and abundance.
0:23.4	The way that we get them is through practices.
0:26.1	Humans are the only species that we know of that has time travel capabilities.
0:30.4	It was so unbelievably powerful that most people spend most of their time not in the present and that's a problem
0:37.3	I'm confused by the reverse bucket list because a bucket list is typically I want to do these 50 things before I die
0:42.4	right across amount one of the time as they get done the reverse bucket is typically I want to do these 50 things before I die.
0:42.8	Cross amount one of the time as they get done.
0:44.3	The reverse bucket list is to write down your cravings and desires.
0:47.2	You write them down and you cross them out now, even though you don't have them,
0:51.2	you say to yourself, I will manage this attachment. I'm having a really shitty day. Is there
0:56.0	any go-tos that you have knock myself loose a little bit here? I recommend.
1:06.0	Today's sponsor is Nord-VP. Stay secure and anonymous online with Nord-VP-N,
1:09.0	which has been my trusted VPN for years now.
1:12.0	I like it because you can access to you a lot content from anywhere. So I'm in Japan or Mexico at least a couple times a year and I want to watch my favorite shows and this comes in really handy to bypass all that geo fencing and it needs to be fast.
1:26.0	This is another essential thing for a VPN and Nord is lightning fast because they have thousands
1:31.3	of servers so if you want to stream and game without lag,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -228 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kevin Rose, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kevin Rose and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.