The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz.
Summary:
What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and healthier lives. In fact, the Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life.
The invaluable insights in this book emerge from the revealing personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard Study as they were followed year after year for their entire adult lives, and this wisdom was bolstered by research findings from many other studies. Relationships in all their forms—friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups—all contribute to a happier, healthier life. And as The Good Life shows us, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you already have, and never too late to build new ones. The Good Life provides examples of how to do this.
Dr. Waldinger’s TED Talk about the Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed more than 42 million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever. The Good Life has been praised by bestselling authors Jay Shetty “an empowering quest towards our greatest need: meaningful human connection”), Angela Duckworth (“In a crowded field of life advice...Schulz and Waldinger stand apart”), and happiness expert Laurie Santos (“Waldinger and Schulz are world experts on the counterintuitive things that make life meaningful”).
With “insightful [and] interesting” (Daniel Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness) life stories, The Good Life shows us how we can make our lives happier and more meaningful through our connections to others.
My mini-review:
Discussions about what makes for a good human life have been going on at least since Socrates. Now finally psychological science has gotten around to address it using modern quantitative methods! The authors, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, currently head the famous multigenerational Harvard Study on the causes of happiness and unhappiness, and this is a must read for anyone interested in the topic. Waldinger and Schulz pay occasional homage to the many philosophers who preceded them, especially the Stoics, and put together a compelling narrative for the modern reader. Although this isn't a self-help book (thank Zeus!), the authors do provide occasional prompts for practical exercises and actionable advice about what makes life meaningful. That said, I got to the end of the book with two lingering issues. First off, there is far too much chit chat and anecdotal evidence and far too little quantitative science here. I get it, this is a book for the general public. But I never really got to sink my teeth in the meat of what the Harvard study has uncovered in the span of many decades. Second, much of what one reads in the book, with all due respect both to the authors and to the many researchers involved in the study, feels a bit like the elucidation of the obvious. Spoiler alert, here is the big take home message: relationships matter, whether it is family, friends, or coworkers. In other words, the very same thing Socrates and the Stoics told us. Two and a half millennia ago.
As an interesting coincidence, when I lived in Boston I was a member of a Zen group that Bob Waldinger joined. In my time there Bob eventually became a Zen teacher and leader of the group after the founding teacher relocated to Rhode Island. I practiced with that group for about 12 years, before relocating to rural New Hampshire.
Massimo, your summary "What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships." initially seems to me to differ from the Stoics claim is that only virtue can do this. I am assuming fulfilling and meaningful are interchangeable with happiness/eudaemonia. Relationships would only be a preferred indifferent to the stoics. If so, then isn't this books claim contrary to the Stoics?