The Art of the Good Life: 52 Surprising Shortcuts to Happiness, Wealth, and Success

Front Cover
Hachette Books, Nov 7, 2017 - Self-Help - 256 pages
Since antiquity, people have been asking themselves what it means to live a good life. How should I live? What constitutes a good life? What's the role of fate? What's the role of money? Is leading a good life a question of mindset, or is it more about reaching your goals? Is it better to actively seek happiness or to avoid unhappiness?

Each generation poses these questions anew, and somehow the answers are always fundamentally disappointing. Why? Because we're constantly searching for a single principle, a single tenet, a single rule. Yet this holy grail--a single, simple path to happiness--doesn't exist. Rolf Dobelli -- successful businessman, founder of the TED-style ideas conference Zurich Minds, bestselling author, and all-around seeker of big ideas--has made finding a shortcut to happiness his life's mission. He's synthesized the leading thinkers and the latest science in happiness to find the best shortcuts to satisfaction in The Art of the Good Life, his follow up to the international bestseller The Art of Thinking Clearly (which has sold more than 2.5 million copies in 40 languages all around the globe).

The Art of the Good Life is a toolkit designed for practical living. Here you'll find fifty-two happiness hacks -- from guilt-free shunning of technology to gleefully paying your parking tickets -- that are certain to optimize your happiness. These tips may not guarantee you a good life, but they'll give you a better chance (and that's all any of us can ask for).
 

Contents

Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Foreword
Mental Accounting
The Fine Art of Correction
The Pledge
Black Box Thinking
Counterproductivity
The Negative Art of the Good Life
The Ovarian Lottery
The Spiral of SelfPity
Hedonism and Eudemonia
The Circle of DignityPart I
The Circle of DignityPart II
The Circle of DignityPart III
The Book of Worries
The Opinion Volcano
Your Mental Fortress

The Introspection Illusion
The Authenticity Trap
The FiveSecond
The Focusing Illusion
The Things You Buy Leave No Real Trace
FuckYou Money
The Circle of Competence
The Secret of Persistence
The Tyranny of a Calling
The Prison of a Good Reputation
The End of History Illusion
The Smaller Meaning of Life
Your Two Selves
The Memory Bank
Life Stories Are Lies
The Good Death Fallacy
Envy
Prevention
Mental Relief Work
The Focus Trap
Read Less But Twiceon Principle
The Dogma Trap
Mental Subtraction
The Point of Maximum Deliberation
Other Peoples Shoes
The Illusion of Changing the WorldPart I
The Illusion of Changing the WorldPart II
The Just World Fallacy
Cargo Cults
If You Run Your Own Race You Cant Lose
Managing Expectations
Afterword

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About the author (2017)

Rolf Dobelli is a bestselling writer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Zurich Minds, a community of some of the world's most famed and distinguished thinkers, scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs, and a cofounder of getAbstract, the world's largest publisher of compressed knowledge. A novelist, sailor, and pilot, he lives in Lucerne, Switzerland.

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